It's finally here, the great hip-hop enka crossover!  African-American singer Jero's debut single, "Umiyuki" (Ocean snow), has shipped 3.5 million copies, making it the fastest-selling enka debut single in history.  Jero was raised in Pittsburgh, the grandson of an enka-loving Japanese grandmother, and he moved to Japan several years ago to fulfill his promise to her that he would become an enka singer.  (For those of you unfamiliar with the enka genre, see this Wikipedia entry).

   You can watch the astonishing video for the song here.  Jero's record-label homepage (Japanese only) is here. 

   I gotta say, this completely made my day.  Now I really want to go out and eat some corn pizza -- or maybe a minestrone burger.