Do you know the song “Rock in My Pocket” by ECD? Frankly, it’s not likely. ECD is by no means a household name and the song was never a hit. That said, it did strike a chord with quite a few people and even changed their lives.

“Rock in My Pocket” appears on the rapper’s album Thrill Of It All, released more than a quarter of a century ago in June 2000 by the major record label Avex. While the Japanese economy stagnated after the asset price bubble burst in 1991, it took about a decade for this to impact the music market, with the 1990s actually marking its peak. Avex was a veritable hit factory in this period, churning out million sellers one after the other. At the same time, the label also supported the Japanese-language rap scene, then still a niche. In that sense, the development of rap in Japan was undeniably driven, at least in part, by the trickle-down effects of the bubble economy.

ECD was signed to Cutting Edge, a label under the Avex umbrella, as both an artist and producer. While earning a stable income from producing releases by younger artists and holding events with budgets allocated from the enormous revenue of a major label, he gradually began to suffer from mental health issues. A factor in that may have been the contradiction inherent in these activities for ECD, whose roots lay in punk rock and the independent Japanese culture that influenced.

In the summer of 1999, ECD was rushed to the hospital after suffering a seizure linked to alcoholism. He was subsequently admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Thrill Of It All entered production during the final stages of his addiction, and was completed after his discharge. Years later, a teetotal ECD would look back with a wry smile, noting that “the effects of the addiction are clearly evident” in the album, and indeed, its druggy sound and surreal songs are a world apart from the pop and rap music of the time, evoking an image of an outlaw on the fringes of society.

To wit, while grappling with its own contradictions, Thrill Of It All sought to somehow resist late-1990s Japan, a society that, despite having already entered a period of economic decline, remained blinded by quick profits. And the song that truly encapsulates this is “Rock in My Pocket.”

Over an incredibly simple beat, ECD raps: “Rock in my pocket / Rock, a pebble / With this alone, I can do anything.” He sounds raw, lifelike, as if he’s rapping right there in front of you, yet might equally sound like a drunk middle-aged man or a teenager newly obsessed with rock music.

At the very origins of an artist lies an expression acquired from another, something heard or seen by chance, much like a young child will casually pick up a pebble in a park to play with. Of course, this isn’t limited to artists. Everyone runs into problems at some point in their life. In that moment, they find a pebble they picked up long ago and kept in their pocket. It can serve as a tool to help or a weapon to take down an enemy. A little stone holds the power of a rock.

After Thrill Of It All, ECD parted ways with his record label and began working as an independent artist. “Rock in My Pocket” was a signature part of the dynamic sets he would perform live and by which he garnered a wide fandom reaching beyond the Japanese rap scene.

In 2018, ECD passed away. His final years saw him actively involved in social movements. When confronted on social media with cynical clichés about protests being pointless and having no effect in the end, he’d respond by posting counterarguments: “Why be so keen to believe you’re powerless? You have power. Each and every individual possesses their own measure of power.” The sentiment behind those words perhaps stemmed from the same aspiration we can identify in “Rock in My Pocket.”

ECD may well be an obscure artist today. Or rather, an artist who was committed to obscurity. And precisely because it was launched from such a position away from the limelight, the small stone or pebble that was “Rock in My Pocket” became a large rock, and pierced the very essence of art.