# Joji (musician)

George Kusunoki Miller (ジョージ・楠木・ミラー, Jōji Kusunoki Mirā, born 16 September 1993), known professionally as Joji and formerly as Filthy Frank and Pink Guy, is a Japanese-Australian singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and former comedian. Miller's music has been described as a mix between R&B, lo-fi, and trip hop.
Miller created The Filthy Frank Show on YouTube in 2011 while he was still living in Japan, gaining recognition for playing oddball characters on the comedy channels "TVFilthyFrank", "TooDamnFilthy", and "DizastaMusic". Miller began producing Filthy Frank videos in 2012, during his college enrollment in the United States. The channels, which featured comedy hip hop, rants, extreme challenges, and ukulele and dance performances, are noted for their shock humor and prolific virality. Miller popularised the Harlem Shake, an Internet meme that contributed to the commercial success of Baauer's song "Harlem Shake" and led him to further prominence on YouTube. As Pink Guy, Miller released two comedy studio albums, Pink Guy and Pink Season, as well as an extended play, between 2014 and 2017.
In late 2017, Miller ended The Filthy Frank Show to pursue a music career under the name "Joji", the Japanese version of his first name. He signed with 88Rising and 12Tone Music Group to release his first two studio albums, Ballads 1 (2018) and Nectar (2020), both of which peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and spawned the singles "Slow Dancing in the Dark" and "Sanctuary". Both songs entered the Billboard Hot 100 and ARIA Charts, while his 2022 single, "Glimpse of Us", peaked at number eight on the former and atop the latter, became his highest-charting song, and preceded his third album Smithereens (2022).

## Early life

George Kusunoki Miller was born in Osaka, Japan to an Australian father and a Japanese mother. He attended Canadian Academy, an international school in Kobe, Japan, where he graduated in 2012. At age 18, he left Japan and travelled to the United States.

## YouTube career

On 23 September, 2006, Miller would create his first YouTube channel called "2cool4u92". The channel's only video, which shared a name with the channel, was uploaded on 17 October 2006. In the video, which was recorded by someone who is presumably a schoolmate of his, a 13-year-old Miller breakdances in what is seemingly a school hallway. This is the earliest known video of Miller on YouTube. On 16 June, 2008, Miller created the DizastaMusic channel, on which he generally uploaded sketch comedy-based videos. The earliest known video on the channel was uploaded on 19 June 2008, titled "Lil Jon falls off a table".
The channel began gaining popularity after his conceptualization of Filthy Frank in 2011, a character Miller described as the anti-vlogger of YouTube. The DizastaMusic channel has over 1 million subscribers and 177 million views as of October 2021. On 15 August 2014, Miller uploaded a video to the DizastaMusic channel announcing that he would not be posting any more content onto the channel due to its risk of being lost because of the numerous copyright and community strikes it had received. He also announced that future "Filthy Frank" content would be uploaded to a new channel he had created called TVFilthyFrank.
Miller's channel TVFilthyFrank had many different series, such as "Food" (和食ラップ), "Japanese 101", "Wild Games" and "Loser Reads Hater Comments". This channel currently has a total of 7.88 million subscribers and over one billion views as of October 2023. Miller created a third channel, TooDamnFilthy, on 1 July 2014. On this channel he had two series, "Japanese 101", which was also featured on his main channel, and "Cringe of the Week", which typically was abbreviated to "COTW". As of October 2021, TooDamnFilthy has 2.33 million subscribers and 332 million views.
On 27 September 2017, Miller announced the release of his first book, titled Francis of the Filth, which addresses things uncovered in The Filthy Frank Show and serves as a culmination of the series.
On 29 December 2017, Miller released a statement on Twitter explaining that he had stopped producing Filthy Frank content due to both "serious health conditions" and his lack of interest in continuing the show. In September 2018, Miller stated in a BBC Radio 1 interview that he had no choice but to stop producing comedy due to his health condition.

## Music career
### Pink Guy (2012–2017)

Miller always had a passion for music composition. He has expressed that even before his YouTube career, he had an interest in creating music and created his YouTube channel as a means of promoting it. In an interview with Pigeons and Planes, he said, "I've always wanted to make normal music. I just started the YouTube channel to kind of bump my music. But then Filthy Frank and the Pink Guy stuff ended up getting way bigger than I thought so I had to kind of roll with it."
Miller's music under Pink Guy is often comical, staying true to the nature of his YouTube channel. His second album, Pink Season, debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200. Under his comedy rap stage name, Pink Guy, Miller has produced two albums, and one extended play, Pink Guy, Pink Season, and Pink Season: The Prophecy, respectively. On 16 March 2017, Miller performed for the first time as Pink Guy at SXSW.
Future plans were stated to include a "long overdue" tour, another Pink Guy album and more progress on his personal music outside of the Pink Guy character. As of 29 December 2017, Joji has ceased production of all Filthy Frank-related content, including Pink Guy music.

### Joji (2015–present)

Aside from the comedic and often rap-based music he created under the Pink Guy alias, Miller also created more serious and traditional music under another stage name, Joji, which became his primary focus in late 2017. Speaking on his transition from his YouTube career to his music career as Joji, Miller said to Billboard "now I get to do stuff that I want to hear." In the article by Billboard, he specified that 'Joji' isn't a character like Filthy Frank and Pink Guy. "I guess that's the difference," he continues. "Joji's just me."
During his time growing up in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan, Miller began to produce music and sing with friends as a side-hobby and a way to pass the time. After relocating to Manhattan, New York, Miller expanded upon his music career by starting his Pink Guy persona, which paved the way for his Joji persona. Miller originally announced his Joji album on 3 May 2014 alongside the first Pink Guy album. However, Miller subtly cancelled the project until he began releasing music under the name PinkOmega. Miller released two songs as PinkOmega: "Dumplings" on 4 June 2015 and "wefllagn.ii 5" on 28 August 2015, both of which were later released on the Pink Guy album Pink Season, the latter being re-titled "We Fall Again".
Miller intended to keep the music made under Joji a secret from his fanbase due to them mainly wanting his comedic music. In late 2015, two singles were released, titled "Thom" and "You Suck Charlie"; both were released under a false alias, but it was quickly leaked that the user behind the account was Miller, which prompted him in January 2016 to publicly announce on Instagram that he was releasing a full-length commercial project titled Chloe Burbank: Volume 1. In the same post, he linked his SoundCloud account.
Joji began releasing music under 88rising in 2017; the songs "I Don't Wanna Waste My Time" (on 26 April), "Rain on Me" (on 19 July), and "Will He" (on 17 October). Joji was featured in the song "Nomadic" with the Chinese rap group Higher Brothers. Miller performed live as Joji for the first time on 18 May 2017 in Los Angeles. The event was streamed by the Boiler Room. On 17 October 2017, Miller released the debut single from his debut commercial project, In Tongues. The single, titled "Will He", was released on platforms Spotify and iTunes.
Miller's debut project under the moniker Joji, an EP titled In Tongues, was released on 3 November 2017 by Empire Distribution. A deluxe version of the EP was released on 14 February 2018 with 8 remixes of songs from the EP along with the release of "Plastic Taste" and "I Don't Wanna Waste My Time" as part of the track listing. Joji released the song "Yeah Right" in May 2018, becoming his first to chart on a Billboard chart, peaking at 23 on the Billboard R&B Songs chart.
Miller debuted Ballads 1 under the label 88rising on 26 October 2018, which quickly peaked the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart. Shortly after its release, Miller announced a North American tour, spanning 9 dates in early 2019. At that time, he was already on tour for Ballads 1 in Europe. On 4 June 2019, Miller announced his single "Sanctuary" through his Instagram page and released it on 14 June. It was accompanied by a music video, which was uploaded to 88rising's official YouTube channel.
Joji was featured in the song "Where Does the Time Go?" with Indonesian rapper Rich Brian on his second album The Sailor. On 30 January 2020, Miller announced another single, "Run", which released at midnight on 6 February, alongside a music video released later that day. On 2 March, he performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On 16 April, Joji announced the single "Gimme Love", which released at midnight, and along with announced his upcoming album Nectar, which was initially set to be released on 10 July 2020. However, on 12 June 2020, Joji announced that the album had been pushed back to 25 September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 10 June 2022, Joji released the single "Glimpse of Us", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. On 26 August, he released a second single called "Yukon (Interlude)". On 4 November, Joji released his album Smithereens, alongside the single "Die for You". To promote the album, Joji toured North America from September 2022 to 2023.
In February 2023, Joji performed his songs in Australia during the annual Laneway Festival. On 6 June 2023, Joji announced the Pandemonium tour for North America. Following this, additional tour dates were announced for Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

## Artistry

Joji's music has been described as trip hop and lo-fi that blends elements of trap, folk, electronic, and R&B. His songs have been characterised as having "down tempo, melancholic themes and soulful vocals" with "minimalistic production". Joji himself classifies his work as dark love songs, with his 2020 album, Nectar, dissecting cliché tropes and topics.
He has been compared to electronic artist James Blake, whom he has cited as an influence alongside Radiohead, Shlohmo and Donald Glover. In an interview with Pigeons and Planes, Miller said that his music was inspired by his time growing up in Osaka and by boom bap instrumentals he listened to while attending Canadian Academy.

## Impact

Miller's web-show has had a significant impact on internet culture and is responsible for creating many internet memes. Most prominently, a video from 2013 ended up starting the Harlem Shake meme, leading to Baauer's eponymous song debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100.

## Discography
### Studio albums

As Joji
* In Tongues (EP, 2017)
* Ballads 1 (2018)
* Nectar (2020)
* Smithereens (2022)
As Pink Guy
* Pink Guy (Mixtape, 2014)
* Pink Season (2017)
* Pink Season: The Prophecy (2017)

### Unreleased albums

* Chloe Burbank: Volume 1

## Tours

* Ballads 1 Tour (2018–2019)
* Nectar: The Finale (2021–2022)
* Smithereens Tour (2022–2023)
* Pandemonium (2023)

## Awards and nominations

List of Joji's awards and nominations :
| Award ceremony | Year | Nominee(s) / Work(s) | Category | Result |
| ARIA Music Awards | 2022 | "Glimpse of Us" | Song of the Year | Nominated |
| ARIA Music Awards | 2023 | Die for You | Song of the Year | Nominated |
| iHeartRadio Music Awards | 2019 | Joji | Social Star Award | Nominated |
| iHeartRadio Music Awards | 2023 | "Glimpse of Us" | Best Lyrics | Nominated |
| Music Video Festival Awards | 2020 | "777" | Innovation in a Music | Won |
| Music Video Festival Awards | 2020 | "777" | Best Animation in a Music Video | Won |
| Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards | 2023 | Joji | Favorite Breakout Artist | Nominated |
| UK Music Video Awards | 2022 | "Glimpse of Us" | Best Alternative Video – International | Nominated |
| UK Music Video Awards | 2022 | "Glimpse of Us" | Best Editing in a Video | Won |