The album was announced as a third stage in M-Flo's career, featuring Lisa as the group's vocalist between 1998—2002, and their "loves" era between 2003—2008, which featured billed guest vocalists on most of their recordings. For this third stage, M-Flo saw this as a return to their roots, which was the reasoning for the album title, Square One. The album was produced without concerns for what the industry or their management were concerned about, which was similar to how M-Flo had pursued their career when they debuted.
Square One took a lot of time to create compared to their previous albums, because Verbal and Taku Takahashi needed to get used to each others styles and ideas again. Verbal believed that Square One showed off both of the work in their solo careers strongly.
The songs were written and produced by M-Flo members Taku Takahashi and Verbal. Eight songs were written in collaboration with fellow Rhythm Zone artist Cream's vocalist, Minami, as well as two songs featuring lyrics by Cream's rapper Staxx T. The song "Don't Stop Me Now" featured lyrics former Hi-Standard vocalist Akihiro Namba, and FLJ music magazine producer Toshiya Ohno.
While the songs feature guest vocalists similar to their loves albums, the artists names were not announced. Verbal explained the reasoning behind this was that people attach a certain value and preconception to the name of an artist, and would pay more attention to the music itself if the names were not announced.
The song "Sure Shot Ricky" sampled the viral commercial song "Shōshūriki no Uta" (消臭力のうた?), sung by 13 year old Portuguese boy Miguel Guerreiro. Verbal said the song was chosen as if it were played at a club, it would be a song everyone knows and everyone enjoys.The album was announced as a third stage in M-Flo's career, featuring Lisa as the group's vocalist between 1998—2002, and their "loves" era between 2003—2008, which featured billed guest vocalists on most of their recordings. For this third stage, M-Flo saw this as a return to their roots, which was the reasoning for the album title, Square One. The album was produced without concerns for what the industry or their management were concerned about, which was similar to how M-Flo had pursued their career when they debuted.
Square One took a lot of time to create compared to their previous albums, because Verbal and Taku Takahashi needed to get used to each others styles and ideas again. Verbal believed that Square One showed off both of the work in their solo careers strongly.
The songs were written and produced by M-Flo members Taku Takahashi and Verbal. Eight songs were written in collaboration with fellow Rhythm Zone artist Cream's vocalist, Minami, as well as two songs featuring lyrics by Cream's rapper Staxx T. The song "Don't Stop Me Now" featured lyrics former Hi-Standard vocalist Akihiro Namba, and FLJ music magazine producer Toshiya Ohno.
While the songs feature guest vocalists similar to their loves albums, the artists names were not announced. Verbal explained the reasoning behind this was that people attach a certain value and preconception to the name of an artist, and would pay more attention to the music itself if the names were not announced.
The song "Sure Shot Ricky" sampled the viral commercial song "Shōshūriki no Uta" (消臭力のうた?), sung by 13 year old Portuguese boy Miguel Guerreiro. Verbal said the song was chosen as if it were played at a club, it would be a song everyone knows and everyone enjoys.false2022-10-22 09:50:22SQUARE ONE20122012-03-142012-03-1468Hip HopJ-Pop1131642123070fb49dc68-9b48-4fd8-a075-ff888ae2880822dd2db3-88ea-4428-a7a8-5cd3acf23175a70d98eb-2cc8-42b5-83fc-db7f59c1b722/media/data/media5/Music/m‐flo/SQUARE ONE (2012)/folder.jpgm‐floAlbumArtistm‐floArtistm‐flom‐floM-Flo (エムフロウ, Emu Furō, stylized as m-flo) is a Japanese hip hop group consisting of record producer DJ Taku Takahashi, Verbal and Lisa.
Lisa left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career and the remaining members then started the M-Flo Loves... project working different vocalists for each song over three albums, including the likes of Namie Amuro, Bonnie Pink, Koda Kumi and BoA.Their mainstream success and critical acclaim established them as the most iconic and influential hip-hop production team in Japan with success throughout Asia.Taku Takahashi and Verbal also started successful side-projects outside M-Flo, such as the Teriyaki Boyz and Global Astro Alliance collaborating with international producers and artists such as Kanye West and the Beastie Boys.
In 2008, the group announced a hiatus, stating that each member would be focusing on their respective side projects. In 2012 the group ended their hiatus with the release of Square One on March 14, 2012.On December 14, 2017, Lisa returned to the group and they announced that they will release new material in 2018. At the same time, M-Flo also released a digital compilation album called UNIVERSE to celebrate past years of the group, that contained all the 150 songs they released since their debut.