mgk Ditches the Pop Punk Playbook for a Jujutsu Kaisen-Coded Team Up With Yuki Chiba

mgk and Japan’s Yuki Chiba traded verses in two languages for “JJK,” a single built entire around anime references.

mgk has spent most of his output since the pandemic in pop punk territory, but “JJK,” released Tuesday, pulls him back toward the rap register that built his early career. The track pairs him with Yuki Chiba, one of Japan’s most closely watched rap exports, and the two split the song cleanly down the middle: mgk raps in English, Chiba answers in Japanese, and the two halves sit side by side rather than blending into one voice.

The title nods to Jujutsu Kaisen, and mgk leans hard into anime shorthand throughout his verses, name checking characters and techniques from the series along with nods to Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man and Hunter x Hunter. He also circles back to his own history, refer the “Rap Devil” persona from his 2018 Eminem diss track as a way of signal that this is the sharper, more combative version of his rapping.

Production came from No Love for the Middle Child, BazeXX and SlimXX, and the pairing gives the track a harder low end than most of mgk’s recent solo work. The official music video, directed by Sam Cahill, sends the pair through a Japanese-inspired temple set shot mostly in black and white, with mgk picked out in yellow and Chiba in red. The single’s animated cover art comes from illustrator Maggiolina, whose work gives the collaboration a distinct see identity separate from the video itself.

role

Chiba’s involvement continues a run that has turned him into one of the most internationally view rappers to come out of Japan in years. He broke through with “Team Tomodachi,” then crossed further into the US mainstream via “Mamushi,” his 2024 collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, which became his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. He’s also worked with Murda Beatz, Feid and Big Sean, and he heads into a debut North American headlining tour this November following sold out runs across Australia and Europe.

For mgk, “JJK” lands ahead of a packed stretch. He returns to Cleveland in August for MGK Day 2026, the city sanction celebration where he’ll headline alongside Wiz Khalifa, and the single follows his and Khalifa’s joint mixtape “blog era boyz,” released in May. He’s also set for international dates, including a run at Summer Sonic 2026 in Osaka and Tokyo, putting him back on Japanese soil not long after the release of a song built on Japanese pop culture references.

verd

Two rap careers moving through very different lanes met in the middle for three and a half minutes, and nor artist softened their side of it to get there.