#tikarambles

🎉 Happy 20th Anniversary, Rhythm Heaven!!! 🎉

I know I mainly use my blog here to post art, but several others were posting their RH collections in celebration, so I wanted to add my own!

In the collection! - Boxed copies of every game! (plus two digital copies and a Tengoku Fan Translation repro cart) - Official Rhythm Tengoku Strategy Guide! - Official Tengoku Yokai miniplush! -Two fanbooks/doujinsji and one fan light novel! - RH Poster! - Barista pin! - Miniprint of a commission I got several years ago! - Duct tape dolls of DJ Yellow and Student, from a very close personal friend of mine! - A whoooole bunch of Yetee shirts! (so many I actually forgot one that I only found after I took this photo oops) - DJ hoodie! (I wear this to conventions!)

I should've done a bet here where if the DJs showed up in Groove then I would go through my vault of unposted DJshipping art to share some of it in celebration, but I guess because I never made that bet it's not gonna be posted even though they show up in a Rhythm Toy. Oh well ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I saw my DJ buddies put together their miscellaneous headcanons for the DJs in a big list, and they’ve inspired me to do the same! Shoutout to @tapswitcher-theoneandonly and @farey8336 for inspiring me to do this! 💕

A lot of my headcanons are inspired by other folk’s interpretations mixed with my own ideas and experiences. Some of the things here I may have already elaborated on in previous drawings and comics. Prepare for a lot of text because I have a lot to say about these two DJs that mean a lot to me ahah//

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- When it comes to their ages, I like to keep them to more of a range without a pinpoint number. DJ Yellow is in his mid-to-late 20s, Student is in his early-to-mid 20s, and there’s a 2-4 year age gap between them. So for example, if Student is say, 23, then that means DJ Yellow could 25-27. The reverse works as well; if DJ Yellow is 28, then Student could be 24-26. Again, no concrete numbers but a very defined range.

- DJ Yellow is 6’0” / 182cm, and Student is 6’1½” /186cm. DJ Yellow’s frame and body shape is twink slimmer than Student’s. I have no idea how much they would weight.

- While I don’t have a defined date for their birthdays, I do have ideas for the seasons their birthdays take place in; Student’s birthday is in the winter, and DJ Yellow’s birthday is in the late spring/early summer.

- Much like how online creators often use pseudonyms and screennames in lieu of their real names, “DJ Yellow” and “Student/DJ Blue” are their stage names. They have real first and last names, but prefer to be called by their stagenames even with friends. Think of it like how if you meet with online people in person you still refer to them by their online names haha. This goes for all of the folks in the rapper groups (Rap Men/Women, Adore and the Love Posse).

As for what their real names are? I’ve decided on their names for a while now and have vaguely hinted at DJ Yellow’s surname in an older piece, but despite being proud of the names I’ve come up with I’m not confident enough to share them publicly haha… Maybe as a riddle for folks to figure out?

- The reason Student has his fishmonger job (as seen in Catch-of-the-Day’s Try again screen) is because his family works in the fishing business! When he decided to move out on his own into the city, his family was able to help secure him a job with the local fish market so he didn’t have to worry about finding work as he settled in. Student is very knowledgeable about fish and the fishing industry because of his upbringing!

- Student’s schedule Monday-Saturday is: wake up at 7am, have breakfast and get ready for work, leave by 7:30am, take the public transport train to the fishmarket, work the mid-morning to closing shift from 8am to 4pm with lunch in between, do a bit of shopping to pick up dinner supplies before he catches the 4:30pm train, arrive back home at around 5pm, take a shower to get rid of the fish smell, then spend the rest of the night doing whatever until he goes to bed around 11pm-midnight. On Saturday nights he stays up a bit later, but he tries to never stay up past 2am. Sunday is his day off.

- Student is actually pretty physically strong! Since a lot of his work involves carrying around tubs and crates of ice and fish, he has pretty good upper body strength. He can easily pick up and carry DJ Yellow around without breaking a sweat, something that DJ Yellow has a lot of difficulty doing himself haha.

- Student actually knows a good bit of sign language! It’s only really shown when he has to help mute or hard-of-hearing/deaf customers at the fish market.

- DJ Yellow loves birds, especially from the parrot family! Budgies, cockatiels, amazons, cockatoos, lovebirds, macaws, etc. He wants to be a bird dad once he’s in a better home environment for birdkeeping. Until then, he often hangs out with his bird buddy, Eglantine, to get his bird fix. He’s also a big fan of the comedy routines of Crow and Vulture!

- DJ Yellow lives in a small studio apartment close to the downtown livehouse he works and does lessons at, and it’s thanks to MC Adore that he was able to get a place so close to the venue. Student eventually becomes his roommate, and in the future once DJ Yellow’s album is successful they upgrade to a small house.

- Other than seeing the people close to him get hurt or letting Student finally go out by himself to perform his own DJing sets, the one thing that DJ Yellow is absolutely terrified of? Ghosts.

- DJ Yellow is a hardcore audiophile, and spends way too much money on purchasing new audio equipment for him to use either in his gigs or with his home setup. He does like to repair and refurbish secondhand turntables, however; the turntables he uses for his classes were all refurbished by him! He also enjoys checking out electronic music stores and browsing through their vinyl record sections for hidden gems.

- The reason DJ Yellow never removes his headphones around anyone not only has to do with image branding, but he uses his headphones as a personal confidence boost since he’s never felt 'right' without wearing something on his head, and anyone seeing him without his headphones or otherwise 'bald' would be panic attack territory for him. If DJ Yellow allows someone see him without his headphones, that’s the official sign that he has complete and total trust in them.

- On the topic of head headphones, I’ve always interpreted the antenna to be able to move around according to his emotions! Upright when excited/alert/surprised, flattened back when upset/nervous/concentrating, etc. How they work is a mystery.

- Even more headphones stuff, Student has had three pairs over time; his original low-quality pair he had when he first moved to the city, the higher quality ones that DJ Yellow gifted him in the early days of when they were doing lessons together, and a mid-quality pair that he wears at work.

- When it comes to cooking, Student is better at hands-on cooking (chopping vegetables, working on a stovetop, etc) while DJ Yellow prefers hand-off cooking (ie. stick it in the oven/microwave until it’s done). DJ Yellow is terrible in the kitchen, which is something Student is trying to help him improve with.

- Regarding food preferences, they both enjoy sweets like cakes and puddings, DJ Yellow enjoys spicy and sour flavors, and Student enjoys savory, salty, and bitter flavors.

DJ Yellow’s favorite foods: japanese curry, piccata dishes, spicy noodle dishes, sour drinks/candies.

Student’s favorite foods: vegetable stir-fries, teriyaki dishes, egg dishes such as tamagoyaki and egg sandwiches, unsweetened iced teas, salted candies.

Their usual drink orders from Barista’s café are a double-shot machiatto for DJ Yellow and chai latté for Student.

- Neither of the DJs have driver’s licenses. If they need to be driven somewhere they call up Yellow Rapper since he’s the only one of the two rappers that does know how to drive. They often carpool with the Rap Men when going to events or going out for food.

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I also have a whooole bunch of headcanons that have to do with their romantic relationship, but I’m refraining from sharing them since I’d like to keep my blog as accessible as possible for those that aren’t into shipping these two. I can at least confirm that they are both very affectionate, supportive, and loving with each other 💛💙

So usually around this time I’m finishing up my annual Krampusnacht drawing, but this year I think it’s going to either be late or completely non-existent. This is because, to be completely honest with you all, art has been getting harder and harder for me to do as of late due to both physical and emotional reasons. And because of this I feel like I need to take an extended break from art, especially commission work since that’s a major contributor to the mental/emotional side of my art stress for me.

So while I still may post personal art whenever I can (you cannot take my love of drawing DJs away from me), I'm going to be taking a break from commission work in particular until I'm in a better place where I'm able to confidently take on paid client work again.

Well I guess people are apparently interested in my take on why the DJ School only teaches people how to look like DJs and why Student is an exception. Prepare for tl;dr headcanon/story stuff with a sprinkling of sketchy art! ___________

In the interpretation of the series that my fan story takes place in, DJ Yellow only teaches others how to look like a DJ because that’s what most people in this world can handle and even learn how to do. The general population can enjoy genres like rap, hop-hop, R&B, and turntablism, but when it comes to actually trying to make music in those genres, outside of rappers and a few special cases, most people are just not naturally attuned to the unique rhythms and flows they all have. It’s easy to just appreciate these unique genres, but if you don’t have the natural rhythm sense for them, then learning how to actually create music in them can either be extremely difficult for many or borderline impossible for most.

Trust me, DJ Yellow would love to teach actual turntablism, but because of the clashing natural rhythm sense of rappers compared to the general population, it just ends up frustrating people to the point where they’d either quickly quit or would rather skip learning the actual skills in favor of the flashy performance part of it. It’s much easier to pass off looking like a DJ than it is to actually be one; Just set up a playlist and do some cool moves that make it look like you’re DJing and the crowd will be happy no matter what. But that’s not what real DJing is, and it’s definitely not what Student wanted to learn.

Student’s case is a special one. The first few months were all about making him look like a DJ with once-a-week lessons, which is what we see in-game. Eventually, Student asked DJ Yellow if and when it’s possible to actually teach him how to be a real DJ. DJ Yellow responds that, as much as he’d love to since Student is attuned to the rhythm sense and flow of turntablism, they both know that these lessons are just to make you look like a DJ and nothing more. It’s right there on the flier and Student even agreed to these terms way back when they first started doing lessons.

But Student tells him something. He tells DJ Yellow about the night they first met at Live House OGU, how he saw what DJ Yellow did up on that stage and how it was the most inspiring thing he’s ever seen. And out of all the rock and pop music that was played that night, it was his set of unique sounds and rhythms that everyone went crazy over.

That’s what Student wants to do. He wants to make his own music with his own unique touches. He wants to get a crowd pumped up with his sets and maybe even inspire them to want to work with unfamiliar rhythms. He wants to leave his footprint in an industry that still looks down upon these genres and show them that what actual DJs do is just as real and important as any other kind of music out there.

A long pause later, DJ Yellow asks Student what his work schedule is like.

Student tells him he works a mid-morning to mid-afternoon shift six days a week that gets him back home at around 5pm. DJ Yellow then asks if he can make it to the studio they do their lessons at by around 6pm, as well as if he can do more than one lesson a week, because he’ll be needing a lot more training if he’s serious about becoming a real DJ.

Needless to say, Student was ecstatic upon hearing this, and he told DJ Yellow that he’ll make it to these special classes every day if he can no matter what. And that’s how Student became DJ Yellow’s official DJing apprentice.

DJ Yellow still does his usual DJ School lessons for the general population that’s only interested in looking like a DJ, but once all those are done for the day he breaks out the real material just for Student. Over the next several weeks and months they end up becoming really good friends and even start hanging out casually together outside of lessons.

aaaa thank you so much! It always makes me happy to hear when others enjoy my art of this niche series!<3

I’ve actually played very little Warioware myself; just a smidgen of Smooth Moves and mostly watching footage from Game & Wario and WW Gold. I do still have a decent amount of headcanons that relate RH to WW since they’re all but confirmed to be in the same setting!

I imagine that Diamond City and Rhythm World (combo Earth World + Heaven World aka Rhythm Heaven) are sort of sibling cities; one is more of a general industry metropolis while the other is more about the music industry since it’s a natural source of Rhythm and Flow. In recent times, however, Diamond City has been trying to get more into the music industry itself with the addition of more music clubs and shows like Ear Candy. In DJ Story, “Diamond City Records” will be brought up as a major plot point.

As for character relations, while I think most characters have only really met in passing, I feel like 9-Volt, 18-Volt, and 13-Amp are all very big fans of all of the rappers in Rhythm World! The younger generation is a lot more into and accepting of these relatively new music genres and are all very influenced and inspired by them. 9-Volt’s a fan of DJ Yellow’s original turntablism sets (one time he spent all day trying to copy DJ Yellow’s Scratch-O on his mixing console; 5-Volt thought it was the cutest thing ever), and, if it wasn’t obvious from all the “Yo!”s they do in their game set, 18-Volt and 13-Amp are both very inspired by the Rap Men and Rap Women respectively! 13-Amp especially aspires to be like the Rap Women one day, as well as MC Adore whose style she absolutely loves.

On a completely unrelated note, 13-Amp’s rapper dragon mascot character is super cute A+ drigdrag

Hmmmmm I don’t imagine they argue about a lot of things as they get along extremely well, but there are two very distinct things I can think of for them.

A minor thing about DJ Yellow that Student has a lot of difficulty letting slide is that, because DJ Yellow is such an audiophile, whenever a new fancy piece of audio equipment relating to his career comes out, DJ Yellow just has to nab it and doesn’t really think about the potential future consequences. There has been many an argument where Student has tried to explain to DJ Yellow that he doesn’t need these new expensive pieces of equipment immediately.

One time when Student casually mentioned how there’s apparently HD vinyl records coming out soon, DJ Yellow was immediately on a site about to prepurchase them and Student had to wrestle him away from his laptop before he could enter his payment info.

The major thing that the DJs argue about, however, is DJ Yellow’s rivalry with J.J Rocker. It’s no secret that DJ Yellow and J.J. are… not on good terms due to their differing opinions on the music industry and what makes someone a real musician. Student often ends up arguing with DJ Yellow about how his tactics only feed into J.J.’s insults and bitterness towards the rapper community, and that DJ Yellow is not being a good example for their community with his constant spats with J.J.

On the other hand, DJ Yellow argues with Student about how he’s not exactly thrilled that Student is apparently getting pretty acquainted with J.J.’s disciple. While DJ Yellow and J.J. are obviously heated rivals, Student and Disciple actually get along quite well together when their teachers aren’t around and both have mutual feelings on one day getting their teachers to not be at each other’s throats all the time. And Student especially wants to show DJ Yellow that just because a person is close to someone he hates doesn’t mean they share the same mindset, and that they’re actually a good, kind, and talented person when the other party isn’t considered.