Red Eye Drops "Nothing Holds Me Down" Featuring NORIKIYО

By RJHH Team | September 24, 2026 · Tokyo | 2 min read

Red Eye releases “Nothing Holds Me Down feat. NORIKIYО” on September 23. SMTK, also based in Osaka, produced the beat. It’s his first single in close to a year. Red Eye played the Budokan in 2025. Around that show, his working environment shifted, and he went through a stretch when he couldn’t put out music the way he wanted. He says that he had issues with the terms of a contract signed before the Budokan. “Nothing Holds Me Down” comes from that: the lyrics describe that frustration, the time lost from not being able to release what he wanted, and the decision to move forward on his own terms from here.

NORIKIYО is one of the most consistent presences in Japanese rap since the late 2000s. Based in Tokyo, he’s moved through several phases with a writing style that doesn’t adjust for the room and a way of rapping that hasn’t changed much because it didn’t need to. His presence on this track reinforces the register: not a visibility feature, but two MCs who share a history of not bending their approach to outside pressure. SMTK produces from Osaka in a sound that sits between boom bap and trap, precise and without excess. His work with Red Eye goes back several years. The single has been streaming since September 23.