Creepy Nuts’ first North American tour including Coachella: Summary

Creepy Nuts, the duo of rapper R-Rated and turntablist DJ Matsunaga, cemented their place as Japan’s premier hip-hop act through their global smash hit “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” their smash hit “Otonoke,” and their groundbreaking headlining show at Tokyo Dome. Now, they’ve built on that momentum and brought the Creepy Nuts North America Tour 2026 to America, making their first ever trip across the continent.

The tour kicks off on April 10th in Indio, California with a headline closing slot at the Gobi Stage at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, followed by solo dates in New York City on the 13th and Chicago on the 15th. They returned to the Coachella desert on the 17th and crossed the border for a headlining concert in Mexico City on the 19th. They performed 5 times in 10 days and traveled approximately 10,000 kilometers. This report focuses on the New York stop.

Closing Coachella’s Gobi Stage with an unprecedented set featuring Japanese rap was a groundbreaking achievement in itself. This performance attracted attention beyond the venue, including the live stream, and the duo was featured in Billboard’s “Best Moments of Coachella 2026 Opening Day” under the headline “Creepy Nuts ‘Rap Really F-king Good’ at their first North American show.”

Riding that wave across the continent, the two arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center in New York on the 13th to find their names already being shouted. As DJ Matsunaga spins the turntable, an R-rated chant of “NEW YORK, Are you Ready!?” echoes. signaled the start of the show, and the show opened with “Billiken”.

The choice of “Billiken,” a reliable starting pitcher in their home country, effectively demonstrated to the North American audience the formula they had worked so hard to win. This choice also had a deeper resonance in that the song’s lyrics trace how the American-born character Billiken came to Japan and took root there as a god. In that sense, the New York performance was a kind of homecoming for Figure himself. And the similarities are hard to miss. Hip-hop, which was born in New York, spread to Japan and grew into Japanese rap, and Creepy Nuts, the inheritors of that lineage, are returning hip-hop to its origins. The song thus existed as a quiet symbol of cross-cultural continuity and the intersecting arcs of music history.

From there, the audience jumped all at once to “Yofukashi no Uta,” and the momentum increased even further with “Daten,” which started with the trademark call and response, and DJ Matsunaga added scratch work before the chorus and in the breakdown, increasing the energy with a tight R-rated performance.

R-rated: “What’s up NY! We are Creepy Nuts! I’m on fire! I’m R-rated, he’s DJ Matsunaga.” When he appeals to the audience with his characteristic line that mixes Japanese and English, someone in the audience calls out “Mr. Matsunaga.” He understood immediately and continued in his native language, “I heard you. Is your Japanese okay? We’re Creepy Nuts, we’re from Japan, nice to meet you all!” A voice of “Amazing!” rises from the floor. (“Awesome.”) “New York is awesome!” he retorted. Then, referring to the cue card, he said in English, “Yesterday at the pizzeria, someone said, “Are you a samurai?” I said, “No samurai, no ninja, no Shohei Otani,” and directly started playing “Japanese.” It was a kind of irony in itself to see a song that essentially satirized the gap between Japanese and Western culture go wild in New York.

R-rated songs closely tied to personal narratives, such as “LEGION” and “Chxxai,” also received a strong response, with the former in particular drawing fans dancing to its trap-influenced downbeat. “doppelgänger” combined DJ Matsunaga’s hard-edged production with dense, fast R-rated syllables to create a driving, pulse-heavy dance groove that sent sections of the audience into a mosh-like frenzy. The song ties in with Billboard’s Coachella article, which noted echoes of The Prodigy, Skrillex, and Korn in the performance, highlighting the new revelation that audiences were enjoying Creepy Nuts as high-energy dance music, a context that doesn’t exist in their home country. The same point was made at DJ Matsunaga’s turntable showcase. With beats that lean towards decidedly high-energy dance music and some sharp, confident scratch work, it’s a selection that suggests a genuine stylistic affinity rather than a happy coincidence. And when “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” hit, the venue erupted, the audience singing every word in near-perfect unison, and phones went off everywhere. It was a vivid and indescribable proof of how far this song had traveled.

“So hot! Amazing!” R-Rated shouted in English between songs. “DJ Matsunaga, your technique is amazing. I’m not good at English, but you’re really good at rapping!” He then switched to Japanese and continued, “We’re doing our first American tour. The crowd in New York was really enthusiastic and it’s awesome! Everyone is so fired up. SO GOOD.” “I would like to continue to have a great time with everyone. Let’s have fun together, be excited together, and dance together,” he said in a breathy mix of English and Japanese, attracting the audience and tightening the mood in the venue.

The second half of the set opened with “dawn.” DJ Matsunaga weaved melodic passages on the turntable over a four-on-the-four beat, while R-Rated went into a more relaxed flow, keeping the crowd swaying contentedly. It is strung together through three thematically connected tracks that explore creativity. “Mirage” is an oriental-flavored track featuring a mumble rap approach. “Nemure” is characterized by its clear sound. Next up was “To Us Who Were Geniuses ~To the Former Genius Boys~” and “Nidone.” These two songs, which I heard in an environment far away from Japan, struck me with shocking universality. The themes felt broadly human, and it was clear that the audience understood the song’s meaning, from waving their arms wildly in the former to clapping their hands in the latter.

At Coachella Weekend 2 and Mexico City, the duo premiered a new song called “Fright.” At first, the audience was listening more closely to the unfamiliar song than being impressed, but as the song progressed, hands began to rise and the audience gathered. Creepy Nuts reminded us that no matter the theme or language, performance alone can pull an audience forward.

“It’s a crazy time! It’s awesome!” Rated R- said. “I’m going to switch to Japanese now. If you don’t understand, listen with all your heart and soul. Creepy Nuts has spent years in Japan constantly honing their rapping, DJing skills, and music. And after everything they’ve been through, we’re really happy to be headlining New York.”

Returning to English, he continued, “Next time, I want to take it to the next level.” Continuing, he concluded the main set with a popular number, saying, “In English, it means “grow.” In Japanese, it’s “nobishiro!” He also pointed out that while he usually doesn’t do encores, tonight he would do “OKAWARI,” and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” rang out once more, and the audience cheered every syllable until the end of the show.

The crowds that never stopped cheering in every city on the tour were the most honest representation of what this tour was all about. And we are looking forward to further developments. The duo have been announced as part of The Weeknd’s worldwide stadium show “After Hours Till Dawn Tour,” with the Asian leg beginning September 19th at Saitama’s Belluna Dome. With this, Creepy Nuts opens a new chapter in its global expansion. It will be very interesting to see where all of this takes their music and how they bring it to the global stage.

—This article by Shinichiro “JET” Takagi was first published on Billboard Japan.