Their commercial success spread the genre to a wider audience, and as a result, hip-hop became more accepted in Japanese society.
1994 In February, East End, friends of Tokyo Performance Doll's Yuri Ichii, appeared as guests at Ichii's live performance at Theater Apple in the basement of Shinjuku Koma Theater in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
File Records' president Yoshio Sato, who was watching the performance, gave the nod to form "East End × Yuri".
Initial sales were poor but thanks to a strong push from NORTH WAVE and Tower Records Sapporo, "DA.YO.NE" became popular in Hokkaido.
It was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "highest-selling CD by a non-English rap artist".
On New Year's Eve, they appeared at the 46th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen (the first hip-hop group to do so).