During the late ’90s and early ’00s, I was very much into the neo-soul scene. I was obsessed with artists featured on Okayplayer and beyond. I loved vibing to music from D’Angelo, Floetry, Les Nubians, Musiq Soulchild, The Roots, Jill Scott, Goapele, Bilal, Dwele, Lucy Pearl, Erykah – the list goes on and on. I discovered the Asian R&B artist Toshinobu “Toshi” Kubota. An established Japanese singer, Toshi began to make his way into the American music scene in the mid-90s.