Shō-Kaku

Hasegawa Isao (長谷川 勲), known professionally as Shō-Kaku (翔-核), is a Yamataian rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, film producer, and actor. He has been performing since 2008, and is often cited as a extremely influential in the emerging Yamataian rap culture. He is the third son and youngest child of Hasegawa Yūri, the famous Yamataian folk-pop singer. Shō-Kaku is signed to GREEN UP Promotion, a subsidiary of Shinomiya Entertainment.

Shō-Kaku started out by rapping as an opening act for his father's performances. In 2008, his debut album Dropping the Bomb achieved mainstream popularity, earning him his first Yamatai Cultural Award in 2009 for Best New Artist. His next two releases, 2009's The Great Successor and 2011's Follow Me (Only), were worldwide successes, with each being certified diamond in Escaric sales and both winning Shō-Kaku YCAs for Best Album, an unprecedented achievement considering Shō-Kaku's young age. They were followed by I'm a Yeongseonin in 2013, another critical and commercial success. Shō-Kaku went on a hiatus to film his first movie, Deadly Interview. He released Hwaseong '16 in 2016, which was the best-selling rap album worldwide in 2016. Shō-Kaku's sixth album, Train to Haiphong, was released in 2018. Despite being the best-selling album of Winter 2018, the latest album was not well-received by critics and marked the first time a Shō-Kaku album did not win any awards.

As an ethnic Yeongseoni, Shō-Kaku is active in the fight to end discrimination against ethnic Yeongseoni immigrants in Yamatai, and regularly appears at Chongnyeon activities. Shō-Kaku donated 30% of the proceeds from album sales from I'm a Yeongseonin to Chongnyeon. In 2017, Shō-Kaku donated 円2 million to Chongnyeon.

Early life
Shō-Kaku was born in Niihama. He lived in his father's upscale apartment in the Tsuruhashi neighbourhood of Niihama, keeping close to his roots as a Yeongseonin-Yamataian. As a child, Shō-Kaku took interest in the arts as well as traditional Yeongseonin martial arts. Being pampered as a child as well as self-esteem issues stemming from his father's status as a national idol caused Shō-Kaku to suffer from obesity-related health issues well into adulthood.

Film
Shō-Kaku was involved in the production of the movie Deadly Interview. In the film, he acted as himself, and was also an executive producer and produced the official soundtrack. The plot of the film involved an assassination attempt on Shō-Kaku himself by Arshavati agents during a tour in West Kuiju, which was thwarted by a Yamataian reporter and the ISA. The film was widely panned by critics, with criticism levelled at the poor quality of acting, poor attempts at humour, confusion over the genre of the film, and questionable portrayal of modern West Kuiju. The film was subsequently banned in Arshavat, East Kuiju, and surprisingly, West Kuiju.