[1] Following the highly successful Love Life (2000), Hitomi began to notice a "disconnection" between her perception as a public figure and her true self in private.

Longtime collaborator Zentaro Watanabe returned as the album's predominant arranger, programmer and instrumentalist, while a much more varied cast of composers contributed to Huma-rhythm compared to her previous releases.

"Samurai Drive", promoted as Huma-rhythm's lead single, became Hitomi's highest-peaking entry at number three and is considered to be one of her signature songs.

[3][4] The album was supported by the nationwide Hitomi Live Tour 2002 Huma-Rhythm, which visited twenty-one cities and closed out at the Nippon Budokan.

In June 2000, Hitomi released the single "Love 2000", which became widely successful after marathon runner Naoko Takahashi stated that the song helped to raise her tenshōn (テンション) or "excitement" before races, leading to a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

The single became Hitomi's longest-charting entry at twenty-six weeks, and its parent album Love Life (2000) sold over 766,000 copies at the end of 2001.

[10] In a February 2002 interview with Beat Freak magazine, she explains: "In the past year or two, I’ve been feeling a rift between the public’s perception of me and the real Hitomi that I wanted to express.

"While Hitomi stated that she always tried to write lyrics as truthfully as she could, she noted a growing desire to "pursue the core of [her] being" and set the word "humanity" as her personal theme during the album's development.

"[11] Hitomi listened to Strawberry Flower, Fantastic Plastic Machine, A Tribe Called Quest, and Bran Van 3000 during its recording, though she affirmed that none of these artists influenced Huma-rhythm directly.

[10] "Innocence" was recorded as an image song (イメージソング) for the Fuji TV coverage of the 28th Berlin Marathon, which Takahashi was a participant of, and it is said that the department's producer asked Hitomi personally.

[12] When asked by Yuko Ayakawa of Groovin' how she felt "[being] supported by so many woman of [her] own age," and if she's aware of it when creating music, Hitomi stated: "Very happy...

"[10] The album was recorded over the period of a year, in which several "large impact" singles were released, influencing her decision to balance Huma-rhythm with a selection of "relaxed" songs.

[14] A short preview of Hitomi's next single "Understanding" is affixed as a hidden track to the end of "Little More" (リトルモア) on these editions, which was subsequently released in full two weeks after the album.

It underperformed compared to Hitomi's previous singles; peaking at number sixteen and charting for five weeks, selling 51,000 copies in total.

"Inner Child" appeared in commercials for the Gunze brand Body Wild a month in advance, which became a topic as Hitomi was featured donning men's underwear.

[6] Its music video features Hitomi in an ushanka traversing across a moonscape as she searches for a series of keys: one attached to a cherry blossom tree and one in a pool of water; she unlocks a room to free a caged bird before walking into the light herself.

[19] "Innocence" received a video treatment which features an all-black clad Hitomi singing in an atrium, intercut with all-white scenes of her and a chimpanzee in a spacesuit.

[21] From the weekend of February 2 to 3, 2001, Tower Records partnered with Hitomi to erect a large display in front of its nine-story Shibuya building.

[31] Huma-rhythm lasted eight weeks in the top 300 chart,[32] and was certified platinum in January 2002 by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipments of over 500,000 units.