Meet the disgraced "digital-age Beethoven" Mamoru Samuragochi who bullshited his entire 18 year music career.

Born in Hiroshima, Samuragochi claimed that he started playing the piano at the tender age of 4, but in high school he started to get severe migraines and by age 35 he was completely deaf. I like to think he blamed nuke radiation for his deafness. After graduating from high school he didn't go to music school because he didn't like modern music so he instead taught himself how to compose.

In March of 2013 a TV documentary was made about Samuragochi called "Melody of the Soul: The Composer Who Lost His Hearing" that was broadcasted on the Jap version of PBS. The documentary followed him as he met survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.

Samuragochi-sama, please soothe the suffering of these survivors by playing the piano!

Later in June of 2013 a reporter from the Area magazine went to Samuragochi's apartment to interview him and noticed that he might not be telling the truth about being deaf, such as answering the reporter's questions before the sign-language interpreter had finished, and getting up to answer the doorbell. But the interview wasn't published by the magazine due to them not wanting to slander the guy or something.

When Samuragochi's first symphony was performed on tour by a full orchestra, the composer Takeo Noguchi noticed that it was an adaptation of little-known works from earlier composers like Gustav Mahler, and doubted Samuragochi's story, which was sourced entirely to his record label. Noguchi's article was turned down by musical publications, as Samuragochi's record label was one of their advertising sponsors, and instead was published in the November 2013 issue of the newsweekly Shincho 45, as "The deaf genius composer" - Is Mamoru Samuragochi genuine?

Then the bombshell dropped: Samuragochi's ghostwriter came forward.

ENTER: Takashi Niigaki

On 5 February 2014, it was publicly revealed that music attributed to Samuragochi since 1996 had actually been ghostwritten by Takashi Niigaki, a musician, composer, and part-time lecturer at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. Niigaki also said Samuragochi was not deaf and states that Samuragochi has normal hearing and was posing as a deaf man to generate a mystique around his image as a composer. Niigaki also said that Samuragochi did not need to use his cane , and that most of his biography printed in album liner notes was fiction. Niigaki went to the press because one of Samuragochi's "compositions" would be used by Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. On 12 February 2014, Samuragochi released a handwritten statement in which he revealed that he had a Grade 2 physical disability certificate after losing his hearing and to have partially regained his hearing three years previously. He also added that he was "deeply ashamed of living a lie."

Following the revelation, the city of Hiroshima announced that it would be revoking the Hiroshima Citizens' Award it presented to Samuragochi in 2008. On 7 March 2014, he gave a press conference in Tokyo, appearing in public for the first time since the ghostwriting allegations arose. He admitted that while his hearing was impaired, it did not meet the legal requirements for deafness, and that he had returned his disability certificate.

Here's a New Yorker write up about all of this.

Well I know what you're thinking;

>these guys got away with it for 18 years so the music was atleast good, right?

So let's do a little a comparison using the reason why I and every other Westerner even know who these guys are: The Resident Evil Director's Cut soundtrack.

Here's the Mansion Basement theme from the original game that would later be replaced in the Director's Cut:

And here's Samuragochi/Niigaki's track from the Director's Cut:

Bonus: Kenji Yamamoto

Completely unrelated to Samuragochi or Niigaki, but when else am I going to get a chance to talk about disgraced Jap composers: Meet Kenji Yamamoto, he's best known for composing the soundtracks for the popular Dragon Ball Z Budokai games. But all of his music would be pulled from the games forever after he was accused of plagiarism. Now, how bad could it be you might ask? Surely it wasn't too bad or blatant, maybe he just made some riffs that sound familiar or at worst stole some riffs from a small band that's only known locally in Japan?

Here's a playlist with more comparisons. But for real if you ever decide to play the Budokai games hunt down the original release versions, Kenji has some good taste in music.

pic.twitter.com/1DVCvRrtxF

— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) February 14, 2024

Artist is SexyRed aka the face of stds:

Even black folks hate it lol:

Drake truly will do anything for clout:

My sister got me a ticket so we could have a girls trip lmao

!pnw I’m not a super fan of hers but it’ll be a fun time.

They're complaining about her dating a racist and cheating on a guy with depression

@carpathianflorist please pin. I didn’t make it but this video is so perfect for this site lol @Aevann

Kanye West admits that “Sway had the answer” 9 years later 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/LzGydO7oEP

— XXL Magazine (@XXL) September 22, 2022

Full interview

HHH thread

This is a song about being in total despair because your girlfriend is dead and you want to join her.

It was a big hit at the time, but is perhaps best known today for being featured in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, a movie about the Vietnam War.

It's been edited in a really clumsy way to sell some product related to football. They took out the sad parts and retained references to the color black.

Bonus: Jesus Jones' "Right Here Right Now" is selling phone service or something. It's a song about the joy that billions felt about the end of the Cold War.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That's how it goes

Everybody knows

Sexyy Red - Hood Hottest Princess ALBUM REVIEW

i never agreed with people who said fantano gave scores based on politics, but I think this changed my mind.

r/hhh sneeded incredibly hard over this review. the posts aren't that funny, its just fantano peepeeriders and white hip hop fans arguing

Here is the first Glastonbury Festival 2024 line-up poster. Many more acts and attractions still to be announced.

Tickets for this year's Festival are sold out, but our prize draw for 20 pairs is raising emergency funds to support people affected by conflict, at… pic.twitter.com/1NhUYmghuE

— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) March 14, 2024

!jidf !whites !verifiedwhites

Also here's a bunch of seething redditors:

https://old.reddit.com/submit?url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=5kGpohEpuTE

back to playing the field, neighbors

This MTV Article didnt age well:

So, Drake And Taylor Swift Are In The Illuminati, And We Have PROOF

https://www.mtv.com/news/goyjyg/drake-taylor-swift-illuminati

!nooticers