Hideki Naganuma is a Japanesecomposer, DJ, and remixer who primarily does work for video game soundtracks. Naganuma is best known for his score for the gameJet Set Radio and sequel Jet Set Radio Future. He was nominated for the Golden Joystick Award for Soundtrack of the Year for his work on the 2005 release Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS. He also composed "Love Sensation" and "Sky-2-High" for the anime Air Gear under the alias of skankfunk. In 2012, he contributed the track "LUV CAN SAVE U" for the of the arcade rhythm gameBeatmania IIDX, produced by Konami and part of the Bemani series.
Biography
Naganuma started his musical career by playing the electronic organ, aged five, under the influence of his older sister. When he was fourteen, he became interested in western music and composed his own songs. He then decided to have a job in the music business. During 1993 to 1997 he worked as both a DJ and bartender. He was also aiming to become a singer-songwriter in the J-pop industry, but later changed those plans and sent demo tapes to Sega in 1998. He was accepted, with voice editing for ' and composition for Hip Jog Jog being among his first works with the company. In 2000, he served as the lead composer for Jet Set Radio. He took inspiration from big beat music for the game. He would go on to compose for its sequel Jet Set Radio Future in 2002, along with Ollie King in 2003, also developed by Smilebit. In 2005, he would compose for Sonic Rush, working under Teruhiko Nakagawa's sound direction. The following year, he was responsible for music supervision and composing two tracks for the anime adaption of Air Gear, itself being influenced by Jet Set Radio. For contractual reasons, he used the "skankfunk" alias as he was still employed at Sega at the time. During his later years with Sega, Naganuma was part of Yakuza's team, where his role was mostly limited to voice editing and producing sound effects. The boss of its team did not allow him to work on the soundtrack of Sonic Rush Adventure. Following his work on Yakuza Kenzan in 2008, he left Sega to become a freelance composer. He has continued to work on Sega titles under the skankfunk alias, including ' and Super Monkey Ball 3D. He has also contributed various tracks to western indie games such as Hover: Revolt of Gamers and Lethal League Blaze, both of which take inspiration from Jet Set Radio. He has expressed a desire to create an original album. During the mid-to-late 2010s, he has developed popularity on the social network siteTwitter, where he frequently interacts with fans and posts memes related to Jet Set Radio and Family Guy. He was set to compose for Streets of Rage 4, but due to schedule complications he withdrew from the project in 2020.
