Nujabes (born Jun Seba), a Japanese hip-hop producer, was killed in a car accident in Tokyo. Nujabes crashed when leaving the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Nujabes was 36 years old when he died. The car crash that killed Nujabes took place on February 26, 2010, the same day a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. Nujabes' death was only publicly confirmed by Hydeout Productions and by his friend and collaborator, Shing02, today; he was buried by his family in a private ceremony. Nujabes was the founder of Hydeout Productions, as well as the owner of two Tokyo record stores, Guinness Records and T Records. Nujabes (who came by his artistic name by spelling his real name backwards) also contributed music to the anime "Samurai Champloo", an anachronistic tale mixing samurai lore and modern hip-hop culture. Nujabes was a private person, and so many, even those who worked closely with him, did not know he had died. The common Internet death rumors did not make it to the English-speaking web, and this is a rare case in which an artist's actual death notice preceded the rumors.
