Modal Soul

Jun Seba ran record shops in Shibuya and produced as Nujabes, his name reversed. His second album, from 2005, set the template an entire genre still copies: jazz samples, warm bass, hip hop drums with the aggression taken out. Half the tracks feature American rappers, the soul veteran Terry Callier appears, and the instrumentals stand on their own. He died five years later at thirty six, and the record's reputation has only grown. Anyone who has ever studied to a lo-fi beats stream has heard a hundred imitations of it.