Viper Hamato

Viper Daniel Hamato, OBE, AOTY, PMOF, MOH (May 13, 1987 – ) is an Japanese born-American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, voice actor and director. Regarded as one of the best musicians of 21st century in terms of lyricism and themes within his music, he often played all instruments on his records, only having the likes of Dylan O’Brien, Prince and Taylor Swift on drums for certain recordings. He is known for his prolific song writing, his sexuality, drum playing, warm vocal range and private lifestyle.

Viper Hamato’s music incorporates various styles of R&B, Pop, Dance, New Jack Swing, Jazz and Country. Pioneering the sound of 80’s & 90’s Sound and even Cyber-Pop that only began emerging within the 2010’s, 2020’s and 2030’s. Hamato is prolific in musical output, having released 11 Albums in his life time. With a heavy amount unreleased, having five studio albums ready for release around 2004-2007 left in his studio Forest Way Studios. It is believed that Hamato in 2020, recorded a majority of music videos that still remain unreleased for his studio albums for songs that weren’t ever released as singles as well as various other media and configurations of previous albums. Hamato has done work with various artists usually under three pseudonym’s, as well as writing songs for other musicians that Hamato had stated he had some form of respect for. Estimates have been anywhere between 750 to over 1,500 songs that remain unreleased within the Vault, with Viper being dubbed as "The only artist of the 21st Century that can compete with Prince on a vault basis" and is often noted of being the only artist among his peers that could easily outrank with his vault material if it was ever unearthed.

Born in Kyoto, Japan but Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Hamato signed a recording contract with Sony Music America after months of being assigned contracts from the likes of Warner Bros. Records, and even Virgin at the time. At only the age of 13, Hamato began work with what would soon begin to be albums like Dreams (2002), Burning Flag (2004), and Issues (2007). His fifth Studio album viper. (2009) claimed his commercial success as a crossover artist. During the 2000’s however, the relationship between Sony Music America and Hamato Records was split a week before the launch of Hamato’s Fourth studio album, he later went on to make, with Prince, his fifth studio album metamorphosis (2011) which was stated to be his magnum opus of song writing alongside another artist. Hamato has yet to sign back to Sony Music America but relations with other Sony Music labels worldwide were not affected at the time.

As of age 30, in his 2019 Netflix Documentary “Till Death Do Us Part”, Hamato reported experienced pain in his left hip and knee cap as part of heavy dancing without stretching beforehand and even Strep during the recording of the Crazy Cool album sessions in Early 2018 which caused Hamato not to speak for two entire weeks.

Early Life
Viper Daniel Hamato, also legally known as Viper Daniels, was born in Kyoto, Japan on May 13, 1987 to Japanese financial banker Hano Hamato and Secretary worker Amy Daniels, with his grandparents migrating from countries Spain and Ireland to the United States. Viper, though under the name legally of Viper Daniels, picked up the last name of his father due to how unique it sounded, in 1987 due to complications, Hamato's mother passed away after giving birth to her son, leaving him with only his father in place. Due to this at such a young age, it was later decided by Hamato's father that they would move to Brooklyn, New York due to the families heritage. In his Netflix documentary, Viper had stated that at the time, though he knew he was born in Japan, there was not much history as to why he'd moved at the age of five, never having a chance to ask his father as to why they had moved so quickly. Though Hamato knew that he had never got to meet his mother due to her passing, he was grateful for the situation he was in at the time due to Brooklyn being so vast in terms of music while growing up.Hamato's first verified written song that he has openly spoken about was a song called "The Funky Chicken" written in 1997 which was done using a sample of Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music using a Macintosh PowerBook 500 Series Laptop. The relationship between Hamato and his father was seen to be very close even after Hamato's success within the music industry, usually supporting him anyway he possibly could up until his death in Late 2009. When spoken about it on rare occasion, Hamato has often stated that "My Father and I were always there for each other, always checking up with each other when we could, if he couldn't reach me while I was in the studio or out touring, I'd usually have my assistant tell him that I'd call him the minute I was doing nothing and I always stood by that promise, I even cancelled the rest of a world tour in the final days because I didn't want to leave him alone, he'd seen his son perform live, he knew the gist of what I did and I loved him for it, and I still do to this day."

Hamato went to The Brooklyn New School during his early years of school before moving to South Brooklyn Community High School from the age of 13-15 before being homeschooled due to the overwhelming success of his debut album and name attached to it. He later visited his old High School in 2010 as a way of paying back to his community that he was raised in with donating over $2,000,000 dollars to both the Primary and High School including new Mac Computers and a new class that secured the teaching of music for people who were interested and later, in 2013 offered scholarships personally to students who passed grades to the Minneapolis Community & Technical College.

Hamato has also stated that some of his musical muses are Prince, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Dylan O'Brien, Alicia Keys and even Mariah Carey and have usually allowed him to open his mind in terms of musical ambitions and themes that he explores, evident in a majority of his work within the 2010's and 2020's.

Houses
During his lifetime, Viper Hamato has stated that he has multiple houses around the world due to his dislike of the hot weather, and tries to go to any place where it serves a possible warm to cold temperature. Though not known where some are, Hamato has stated that he has houses residing in these places:


 * Brooklyn Apartment (Still believed he owns the house)
 * Manhattan Apartment
 * House in Upstate New York
 * House In Minnesota (believed to be close to Paisley Park)
 * House in Forks, Seattle (due to Hamato's Interest after seeing the filming location in Twilight)
 * House in British Columbia, Canada
 * Forest Way & Forest Way Studios in Melbourne, Victoria.
 * Apollo Views, a house in Apollo Bay, Victoria

Hamato has also often stated that the most he has paid for Houses was around Several Million Dollars which was for both Houses in Melbourne in 2003, Hamato has been very humble when it comes to houses and has usually stated that he would "much rather be enclosed by people than fences all the time". There have been no complaints towards Hamato in terms of sound disturbances and neighbour's have often stated how quiet Hamato usually is.

1997-1999: Beginnings and Song writing
In 1997, Hano Hamato, Viper Hamato’s father had seen his son excelling in Primary School English, usually surprising the teachers’ expectations at 10 years old with the way that he was writing stories and spelling quizzes at the time. Though nothing major at the time, it was suggested to help Viper to further refine his English skills, to begin writing 100 word stories about anything that came to mind. Various stories from the telling’s of a duck and a bear having lunch down at a lake all the way to leaves being an imaginary friend of a child began becoming more and more, to the point where Hano thought of a way to further assist him, to give his son his old Macintosh Laptop to help move his stories over from paper to a computer. It eventually become a point where both stories and poems would become shown on the laptop, one of the poems that were on the laptop that grabbed Viper’s Fathers attention was a poem called “Boogie Chicken” which, was, as stated. His father, with curious interest, asked his son if he was able to make it into a possible song which took Hamato over three days and one weekend to think over. Eventually changing the title to what would become “The Funky Chicken” which would be Hamato’s first ever song which was made in 1997, very curious in the process of song writing, Hamato began following the song writing process, using one of his muses at the time, Stevie Wonder as main inspiration.

By the end of May of 1997, Hamato had written an apparent Twenty songs with Two verses, a chorus and an ending. Picking up sentences and words from various TV Shows, Places and even from his school that he would write down and later find another form of inspiration. However, the songs were not expanded on until later to where the formula of the song was made less simplistic. By June of 1997, Hamato had brought a simple Microphone to add onto the PowerBook 500 that he was using at the time and started recording songs in the bathroom of his apartment as a Capella's, to later come back to and further add instrumentation that could be computer generated, the earliest known recording according to Hamato's Archivists was June 1st, 1997. Many recordings during the time were done usually in spaces of around 4-5 days before Viper would move onto the next song, it was believed that Hamato would work on songs for two months before recording them for the rest of the year. This would be the way he would go about it for the rest of 1997 while in school at the time.

By 1998, Viper Hamato had begun taking up lessons in Piano at age 10, though at the time, Hamato's father Hano had doubts as to whether or not his son would be able to completely learn at such a young age. Hano would go onto later state that "though yes, I had my doubts of my son. I would later go on to see that it would serve heavier and heavier into what he was chasing, and I'm glad to this day that I did not stop him". By August of 1998, Hamato had learned scales and notes of the piano, but has never learned to write or play note music, more so playing by key and ear. During this time, Hamato was still writing and recording music whenever he could during the time of school and learning Piano and had begun writing just days after his 11th birthday with the help of his music teacher in understanding basic song structure, though lyrics had not improved for the time. The understandings of the structure lead Hamato to build longer verses and chorus and begin even adding background harmonies within the acapellas. It would then be by September of 1998 that Viper would begin moving onto drums, having learned the basics of piano, though he did not have his fathers permission learn in the small apartment at the time, he would allow him to learn with drum stick and a drumming pad, this was the easiest instrument to learn according to Hamato who had stated:"'It was the most easiest instrument to learn for me because there was no notes, no scales and no chords progressing up and down. It was just six drums where and what to hit and make sure to have a rhythm, at age 11 it was kinda difficult given that I was not the proper height for a drum set, but they gave me just a Tom Drum and to start from there and I think the fastest I went at the time was 100 Beats Per Minute, and eventually I was doing it to songs like ...One More Time and I knew I had something down. But that was you know, the slowest, by the time I had everything figured out I could go about 250 BPM which I haven't tried moving past, maybe I can, I don't know'" As of 1999, Hamato had written in total of 64 songs that were taken from inspiration of various quotes, places and even from his school that he expanded on and eventually began to, after recording the rest of the songs that he had worked on from 1998, began working on a few more songs in 1999, in total during January and June, Hamato had written a total of ten songs before working on a selected amount of tracks that would make it onto a Demo Tape that could be shared to Record Labels or people of interest that would later share it with possible Record Labels that would take up in Hamato's sound. Hamato had written 74 songs over a two year period and has stated that his song writing didn't improve much until Hamato had gotten tips from his piano Teacher.

In June of 1999, Viper Hamato began compiling instrumental sounds for a demo tape that would be shared, when getting the time, with any possible record company at the time within the main area of Manhattan and the New York general area, though many of the tape copies were taken and never heard back from. Hamato kept trying for another two months up until August of 1999 where he would stop making copies of the Demo Tape and reserve the rest for anyone who had spotted Hamato's eye at the time. It was around September of the same year when Hamato had met Dean Manning (Hamato's manager from 2000-2009) in a Local Brooklyn Café in Kensington where Dean had sparked a conversation with Hamato who was at the time writing lyrics from a near-by conversation he'd overheard about a question."'There was a sort of magic that I'd seen from Hamato when I'd seen him pull out a notebook, what he was doing out at a place like this I knew it wasn't for the food given that he and I eventually agreed that it wasn't the best place for food, but when I'd introduced myself, he and I knew immediately what was going on. And he was very good at picking up people's energy and he'd just simply stated 'writing a song' and that's where he and I really hit it off'"Hamato would later go to fire Dean however, due to his siding with Sony. Though no bad disagreements on both Hamato or Manning's side have ever been fired at each other, and still are good friends

2000-2001: The Demo Tape and Violet Stars EP
It was during the first Quarter of 2000 in February that Dean Manning, Hamato's manager at the time delivered the news that after heavy consideration from record labels, there were only a total of four who had taken interest in Hamato's sound and music: Sony Music America, Warner Bros. Records, A&M and Virgin (though at the time, Virgin was going through financial hardship), and were offering various amounts of contractual deals for four albums, all except for Sony who were offering two initially (before having it expand to four albums between 2002-2009). With consideration from his father and manager at the time, Hamato openly agreed to two albums with Sony as of the 6th of March 2000, which, in return gave him 9% royalties, 90% live tour ticket income and a $75,000 advance, $25,000 sign on fee alongside a $10,000 manager fee.

With 5 days in-between the contract signing and break, Hamato was told that he was able to produce tracks that he found album worthy to put on his first EP. The Demo Tapes the EP would be refined between March and May, though this was stated to happen at the time, Sony eventually ended up cancelling this and seeing it as a possible waste of the contractual agreement after planning it to only be a release in the US. The two contractual EP’s were then combined into one before Hamato was to be signed for his four studio albums which gave him a 150,000 initial contract for a singular EP.

In 2001, Hamato began working on the initial track listing of what would later become his second planned EP, but first to be publicly released with planning going ahead from Hamato's initial suggestion that, given this was going to become a Worldwide release, with the green light from Sony in doing so, Hamato was stated by Sony to have at least a cover song on the album. Hamato eventually went with Prince's Uptown the first song that he'd been introduced to by his father. At the time, Viper didn't understand the lyrics and chose much rather focus in on the composition of the song.

Viper had later revealed in 2017 that Prince was actually accepting of Hamato's cover, instrumentally, and had noted that it would've sounded a lot better live than in a studio where no faults are able to hide. Viper would go to cover the song alongside Prince on the Welcome 2 Australia Tour in 2012, a day after Hamato's 25th birthday.The first launch of the single Violet Stars from the album was pushed towards US Audiences, the single gained little to no sales in terms of it's sucess however, charting nowhere upon any single charts upon launch, due to this, Sony was unwilling to give the next few singles the same success, pushing the single Song 6 and the song Ride, these singles individually were to be given singular market launches, but were later decided against in order to get further sales aimed towards the relaesed EP at the time. Though Song 6 would not go to chart in Australia, Ride would find some relative success in Canada, charting at Number 79 on the Canada Hot 100 charts, but Sony were disappointed after finding out it had not charted in the UK Top 40.

With the album being launched soon after the launch of Violet Stars, the EP debuted at Number Fifty on the Billboard 200. Which Sony was unexpecting of given it's short length, debuting with 7,000 physical units sold in it's first week, the album, in the US alone would go on to sell over 55,000 units weeks after. Just a month after the albums launch. The last single was released to serve as yet another worldwide single, "Ride" served as the third single to a somewhat successful EP which had the single debut at #79 on the Canadian Hot 100, however, it mainly failed to chart around the world. Though disappointing Sony in terms of sales, Hamato was given the green light to make his first studio album after the bigger success of his first EP. Hoping that it would replicate with his first studio album, Hamato was called in for a contract of $125,000 for a single album. Knowing that if the success could not be replicated, it wouldn't make a financial impact back on Sony's financial status.

Overall, The Violet Stars EP ended up selling 73,200 copies worldwide. His only EP of the 2000's

2002-2005: Dreams and Burning Flag
Now with a bigger contract and green light to create his first studio album. Hamato began working on what would become the inner workings of the album in June of 2001, just days after the launch of his last single from his second single. Just days after he was able to start writing for the album, Hamato had amassed an albums worth of songs, seven, at the time of being able to make plans for his first studio album. The first song known that had been written for the album was 60 MPH which was many of the known songs from Hamato that go upwards of five minutes. But it was by August of 2001 that Hamato had written over 25 songs for his next studio album, with Hamato stating that he was able to release a song by September of the same year to introduce the new song. Filming was done during Mid-August for what would become Celebration. However, it was on recommendation that Hamato push the single back to a Late-October/November release due to audiences still moving on from Hamato's previous single.

With filming wrapped up on the single. It was later delayed indefinitely after the September 11 attacks with Sony also pulling back the launch of Spider-Man (2002) due to the attacks. It was later discussed almost a month after the attacks, alongside Sony representatives that Hamato should remove the towers in post editing footage, recommending that they even re-film the music video out of respect and possible controversy due to the situation. Though going through with the re-shooting of the music video, it was later found out that Hamato submitted the Pre-9/11 version to MTV instead of the edited version.

During the uncertain times however, it was also debated along many things about what should be changed about Hamato's album if there was anything, including the packing for the Celebration single at the time, which had a photo of the towers from Governor's Island. Which was later replaced with a photo from the street of the Empire State Building. It was later in the year as well, that during the progress update that Hamato was given the go ahead to release the single in the first quarter of 2002, also stating that the album was coming together, and that he had written over fifty new songs. Which later, Ten of the 76 tracks that he had written and recorded, had made it onto the Dreams album. Overall, during the albums recording period of June to December, seventy-six songs were recorded for the album.

In January of 2002, both Viper and Sony made the executive decision to push out the first single from the Dreams album. "Celebration" which was released February 18, 2002. The single, though later on in the years appreciating with its value, upon launch, was heavily criticised and caused heavy controversy in the likes of sensitivity due to the music video and still heavy talk surrounding September 11 due to Hamato's push of having the World Trade Centre still in the music video. Hate from republican groups, conservatives and patriots including the like of death threats had made their way to Hamato which had even gotten to the point where he had to move from his house to a hotel room due to the heavy amount of people finding where he lived. Due to this, and the controversy rocking the US deeming Hamato as insensitive, the single failed to chart anywhere and was not played on many Pop stations during it's time.

With the threats still hanging around Hamato at the time, he was unable to do any form of promotion due to the possible threat of someone causing harm while promoting. Causing Sony to do most of the work in promoting the album, which was to come out only two months later after controversy of the single, which had spent several weeks on the billboard charts. During the launch of the album, it peaked at number Twenty Eight on the Billboard 200 Album Charts, selling 47,000 copies in its first week. The second week saw the album chart at number Forty Eight with only 25,400 units sold within the week. Worldwide, the album sold 84,900 copies in its first week according to Sony Sales. Overall, the album only sold 350,000 copies due to poor promotion and controversy from the first released single of the album, though dealing with this, Sony eventually gave Hamato the incentive to push out two more singles, and to later, offer another contract for Hamato for his sophomore effort.

With Sony slightly panicked about how the singles were being treated, the next single that was pushed out was "Made For Lovin' You" which, though getting the same treatment in terms of reviews about the sound, and the vocals, the song failed to chart anywhere worldwide once more. With the possible worry that the next single would not chart, Sony was hesitant to put the next single out given the previous chart positions of both singles at the time, fearful that if they pushed another single out it would lead to more of a chance of overexposure much rather than their planned delay to push singles to 2003. Hamato however, moved forward that the put a single out once more, just only four weeks after the previous single.

The third single "I Know Where It's At", came a whole three months after the albums launch, which was now out of the Billboard 200 charts, launched to relative fanfare due to it's sound, but man had noted the pitchy vocals to still be an issue. Though the single had charted in more countries, including Australia where it became a Top 20, the single charted lower than expected by Sony on the Hot 100 where it debuted at Number 78. Staying only a singular week on the charts before leaving, though Sony had noted that the singles were starting to become an issue in their staying power. Hamato had become more of an album artist than one of constant singles, which was later proved by later albums.

It was then in January of 2003, that Hamato was given, thanks to the massive album sales of dreams at the time, yet another contract to make another album, uncertain if or not it would follow the same success of Dreams, offered Hamato a $2,500,000 contract for yet another album. Once signed, Hamato began requesting more studio time as far back as four days after the renewal of the contract, even though Hamato had been writing for his next album as far back as June of 2002. It was by the end of the month as it turned into February, that Sony had reported that they were loosing money due to Hamato's studio time, having now written forty songs for the album. However, Hamato had reported back that he was yet to find a sound that was differentiating from Dreams.

Though planned at the time, Sony was planning to put two more singles out for the album, being "Koocachoo" and "Same Old Story", eventually choosing the later of the two to send off for the album as the ballad. Being released in January of 2003. Though the single did not have the same charting power as it's previous single "I Know Where It's At" the single managed to chart higher in the US, where it became Hamato's second Top 75. Though typical reviews had stated the obvious of his current vocal status, many had given the song credits for the ballad style that Hamato had done with it's simplicity and vocal layering. However, due to the single only staying on the Chart for a single week, Sony then later decided to halt all later singles for Hamato's first studio album and move onto his Sophomore effort.

As far back as January of 2002, Hamato began working on yet another album, his sophomore effort that would later become his second studio album Burning Flag. Though the album was quite an effort for Hamato which he had stated in many interviews, it was writing and producing songs that sounded sonically similar but no where alike to his previous album, the earliest song that was known to make it on what would become the "August 2003" configuration would become the first single released to the public, "I Want You" which was debuted on December of 2003, five months before the albums launch. The single, upon first launch, became an instant smash hit for Hamato which is what Sony was looking for with his previous attempts, but directors felt slightly sceptical with how easily the hit had been obtained. The single became Hamato's among many, debut number one hit in Australia and reached a peak upon the Billboard Hot 100 of 12, his first Top 20 hit. In many other countries, except for Japan, which reached Number 34. The single charted within the Top 20, however failing to chart within the United Kingdom. The single went to go on to sell 350,000 copies worldwide and be certified Platinum by ARIA Australia, the only country where the single had achieved Platinum status.

Shortly after, the second single "Let's Groove" was released which became another immediate hit for Hamato in Australia upon launch, debuting at Number One with 53,000 copies sold in it's first week. However, the single only reached Number One in Australia, becoming a Top 20 in many other countries except for Canada, where it charted at Number 86 on the Canadian Hot 100. The single went on to sell 480,000 copies worldwide and only be, once more, certified 3x Platinum by the ARIA Recording association.

With the relative success of the albums two singles, the album was launched on the 5th of April 2004 to major critic and fan success. Debuting at Number Three on The Billboard 200 with an opening week of 454,000 sales in it's first week, worldwide, the album was believed to have sold over 640,000 sales in it's first week. Allowing Hamato to reach some of the amounted success that Sony had marketed towards the album at the time. Though fairing better then his previous album Dreams (2002), Burning Flag would go on to sell a certified 3,000,000 copies and be his first album to be certified Platinum by the RIAA. Later both the BPI certified the album for Gold for selling 110,000 copies in the UK, and the ARIA for selling 280,000 copies in Australia. Which was, at the time, 4x times Platinum.

Influences
Revealed in Hamato's Documentary "Till Death Do Us Part", the first recollection of music that Hamato was

Sony Music America
On April 8, 2009. A week before the launch of Hamato's fourth studio album "viper." Sony Music America has come to an executive decision to split away from Viper Hamato and Hamato Records due to complicated relationships that had, according to many people who worked for Sony and Hamato alike, since the beginning of the contract that Hamato had signed, though nothing troublesome, it was heavily reported that Hamato refused to have anyone else write his music and that though allowing people to work with him, he would be the main songwriter unless Hamato had specifically stated that he wanted to write with someone. This had caused Sony to cast doubt over his releases and how they would sound. Cause many unreleased albums that were planned from 2004-2008 to be changed or even cancelled completely.

Due to this split, Hamato was unable to both republish or reissue any of his first five albums or works between those said year until the 29th of January, 2021. Though able to freely perform the songs and collect his royalties as he was, at the time the sole producer and writer of the song, Hamato was not able to talk about the working conditions surrounding the state of Sony Music America up until that point, including how Hamato was treated with demands and ways that his music could or had to be changed. Opening up on the Interview "Viper with Zane Lowe" on Apple Music, Hamato had stated that many times 'there were album he wanted to push out for the fans to keep them happy, and Sony had stated no due to over exposure, I would later find out that I couldn't because that would rush their contract they had with me and they wanted to, even though they never said anything to me about it, delay the music as much as possible until 2010 so they could make as much money off of me as they could, but that's the problem with a highly prolific artist, they eventually come out with an album whether they like it or not.'

The relationships between Hamato's record company Hamato Records and Hamato himself had diminished beyond a point where Viper had signed a lifetime deal with Warner Bros. to distribute his music in the US until such time as he no longer required their services, this is the only other company other than Sony that publishes music and Hamato has often stated that 'the Sony Family Globally, in Europe, Australia, Japan and everywhere else has been so kind to me, I love them all to death, if I had no where else to go and no record label behind me at the time. I would've signed back with Sony, just somewhere else in the hopes that I'd still be able to continue music, but that never happened, and I'm glad it didn't'. There still have been, since 2021 no resolution towards Sony Music America due to Hamato owning his masters and Vault Material.

Spotify
On May 27, 2017. Music Streaming Service Spotify had advertised a new playlist labelled "We Love 2000's" with various artists including, at the time, music from Viper's Sony Catalogue including "Celebration" and his 2009 hit "Spinning Around". With Viper hearing word of this, legal action was taken against Spotify Technology S.A and Sony Music America on Hamato's personal request to have it taken down on the basis of Masters ownership and that Hamato did not allow any streaming service (at the time) to have his music catalogue up on any sites. After three days of the court case being dismissed by Hamato after agreement that Spotify will take down the songs and any feature that includes work done by the singer, Hamato published all of his work both on Apple and Tidal Music exclusively with an open letter that stated simply:

'' 'What Spotify does with their music royalties compared to the likes of Tidal and Apple Music is pay little to the musician, the people who worked with them and the producers. And then pays the label like they've found gold. Say you're a small artist and you have your first million streams on a song, you only get $4,000. And you get the 25%, not the label. Which means only means $1,000 while the label gets the rest. What Apple Music and Tidal do is make sure that you have food on your table, even with 5,000 streams, you're more than likely to go home with $30 than $2. Which instates I won't be putting my music on a streaming service that is business and people last. Pick your cards, and please play them wisely.'''

Love, Viper.

Though Viper has his music on streaming services, he is currently one of the only artists who still has over 25% of his sales still being physical copies. With his recent album "Crazy Cool" having over 35% Physical sales

Health Issues
Though known to be very healthy growing up while on the road and behind the scenes, Hamato has had his fair share of personal health issues that were highlighted in his 2019 Documentary "Till Death Do Us Part" which included mental health issues in 2010 due to his fathers death, though not open about what they were exactly. Hamato has stated that he had isolated from everyone he possibly could no matter family in the hopes that in doing so, he would possibly find an answer and a clearer mind as to why he reacted the way he did in 2010 after his father passing. Hamato has also had his fair share of insecurities, once more opening up in the documentary about his musicianship, though not establishing himself as a perfectionist. Hamato often stated that he never thought he had a 'Magnum Opus' or a good enough album within his catalogue to look back upon and state one that he was going to remembered for, more so the singles 'like any other pop artist'. Though he has slowly moved away from that with his husband who has helped him try to improve on the way that he views his work with a more level head view much rather than down on it.

In terms of physical health, Hamato has been voted on multiple occasions of having the sexiest body for a male singer, Hamato has usually indicated that a majority of the time he keeps his diet very simple and having junk food on the rare occasion. Though he has been seen eating fairly often during interviews and what is known, by close friends alike, almost several cups of coffee a day with Bottles of Water In-between.

Hamato however, in 2016 suffered an injury while in Australia while walking down stairs in his home, causing the male to break his nose in the process, though fixed within four weeks and cancelling scheduled shows from the Salvation Jane Tour, it is the only work Hamato has had in terms of 'Under The Knife Surgery' work to fix his nose, and has often stated that he has stayed completely away from any form of plastic surgery. Hamato has often been an advocate for people to try and be their 'happiest in their own bodies without the work of others trying to perfect what is already a unique flaw that makes the person who they are, though he has stated there are cases where plastic surgery is needed and believes that, in those cases, if they are needed. That should be the only time they should require the use of modification towards a persons body'. Viper has also been subject to various amount of throat issues including Strep which had happened during the 2017-2018 recording sessions of the Crazy Cool Album. Hamato has often stated in and out of his document that it is quite common and that he'd gotten it once a year and if it was a bad year, at least twice in a year, often documenting that it happens around September-October to where there will usually be little to no Recording sessions due to how rough and sore and inflamed his throat will become. Hamato has stated the single "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" has been the only song he recorded every while suffering throat issues. Stating that it was the best opportunity in an artistic manner to show tiredness both in the song and the voice. The song took three takes and over four hours of proper warming up before he had the right vocal take of the song. Viper has also usually never toured around the same months due to the his leaning on a backing track or even lip-syncing, which he has only ever had to do once due to a throat infection which had hit him in March of one year before coming back around once more in September.

Hamato has also cited in his documentary due to dancing, hip and knee pain at the age of 30 due to heavy choreography routines and splits that he had done during 2009-2018 tours. He had often stated that though while needing nothing to manage the pain, during the time that it is there, it hinders his ability to walk without limping or even stopping completely to try and deal with the pain. Though Hamato does not dance as much as he used to due to this, if and when he has to, he is often told to warm up for at least two hours before going on stage and dancing, usually doing the heaviest routines for the songs that require it and others to dance with the group in his own unique way.

Viper has also been aware of a possible hereditary heart disease that his father might have passed down to him, during the years of 2010-2011 it was reported that Hamato, in panic had his heart checked over 30 times to make sure everything was in check, but Hamato is yet to comment on this situation, he has become however, an advocate for heart disease due to his fathers passing and has often donated upwards of $3,500,000 to charities to help find cures to heart diseases.

Music and Voice
Hamato possess a Tenor Vocal Range. Over the course of his career, Hamato has often been praised for easily belting and moving within his range but however, has been noted to not use as frequently as many pop-stars due to his musical style. Vocal coach Liam Thomas has stated that "much like his pop predecessors such as Bono, George Michael, Jeff Buckley and Marvin Gaye, Viper uses his voice to build a wall of sound around the already building wall of instrumentation, but when he has to use his voice to belt, there's usually reasonable emotion to the belting, and that's the only time he truly uses it." He adds as well that though while Hamato has kept his voice in amazing condition given that there would be a few voice breaks at his age, you can start to heart the faltering and wavering in his live voice if he's dancing and usually slips into his accent when singing, should he however, calm down with dancing, it's when his voice steals the show.

Hamato, with sound, has also stated that he is a giant fan of the "Wall of sound" which is the technique used in music to build a wall of instrumentation be it of vocal harmonies, guitars, drums and even percussions around the voice in the song. Hamato's use of this has usually been within the background vocals to where a majority of the songs within his albums will pay attention more to the background harmonies.

Videos and Stage
See also: Viper Hamato videography

Hamato has drawn many comparisons with reviewers to the likes of his older peers and ones launched in the same timeframe including the likes of Britney Spears, Janet and Michael Jackson and Prince for the most part. Thoughout Hamato's career, many of his songs have much rather been focused on driving a story through the music's lyrics more so then having a video going along with the video, though there were a few tracks omitting from the statement above, later works would go on to heavily reflect this and later prove his hard working perceptions as a video director

Influences
Hamato describes the Late 90's R&B/Hip-Hop as one of his main inspirations, he'd stated that "though while the heavy bass didn't start showing up in my music until much later, you can really see the elements and building blocks for the sound that I've built out of it, and I don't think I'd be here without it"

Hamato has also stated to be a very big fan of Cyberpunk-esque styles and has begin implementing them in his most recent work, explaining. "There's something so scary, so mystical about the cyberpunk world that just draws me every time, and I hope that's the way we go because, there can be so many outcomes for the way that it could go with the likes of The Matrix, Blade Runner, but I do hope there's just a version out there that has a peaceful society where there's nothing reflected of the modern world"

Hamato has also been influenced by various amounts of artists over his lifetime in terms of musical style, album releases, themes and even genres, with the likes of Britney Spears, Prince, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder which Hamato often sites his influences of. Hamato has also been noted to have met them all either personally or at award shows.

Legacy And Influence
See Also: List of awards and nominations received by Viper Hamato and Viper Hamato as a Bisexual Icon

Personal Life
Viper Hamato has been known by close friends to be quite recluse and usually has a small amount of friends due to how Private his life is, and hasn't opened up much about his own life and personal struggles aside from times where he openly did such as with the documentary Till Death Do Us Part. It was believed at age 18, Hamato got married to girlfriend of a year, Angelica Louise, not much was known about the two on a personal level, but it was rumored for months that Hamato had broken up with her due to her not respecting Hamato's boundaries to the point where he had tried to stay as far away as he could from her, even see at one time at an award show, four seats away from his Wife at the time before the separation. It is still unknown if they were married, however, Angelica, in 2016 had begun stating allegations towards the singer at the time that the two of them had gotten back together in 2011 shortly after meeting Grey and becoming a father. Hamato straight up denied this accusation, stating that he had not seen her since 2009 where one of the security guards asked him stating that she knew him on the viper. tour Hamato later stated that yes he did, but had no willing part to talk to her.

Viper Hamato has only ever been linked with only two people in his life. However, they are not known celebrities, and when spoken about, Viper has not given many details about their names or how they met. His most current relationship is with Grey Kennedy, (born 1990), a 31 year old man from Ireland whom he met in a club in Minneapolis in late 2010 while recording with Prince. Grey, who has often stayed private, has often opened up over some interviews, not in person how different the stage presence of Viper, and Viper as a normal person are completely separate and how much of a shy but kind person he is when not involved in work. In Late 2010, the two of them became heavily involved with one another and agreed to both have children, while their full names are not known, when spoken about publicly, Viper has openly stated that his two kids, Owen and Jayden, don't share his name, but indeed, Grey's last name; Kennedy. However, Hamato has given no indication as to what their middle name is. Viper And Grey got officially married on December 14, 2017, a week after Australia legalized Same-Sex marriage.

Discography
Main Articles: Viper Hamato album discography, Viper Hamato singles discography

See also: Albums Produced by Viper Hamato, Songs Written by Viper Hamato and List of Unreleased Songs Recorded By Viper Hamato


 * Violet Stars - EP (2001)
 * Dreams (2002)
 * Burning Flag (2004)
 * Issues (2007)
 * viper. (2009)
 * metamorphosis (2011)
 * The Hits I (2012)
 * The Hits II (2013)
 * Crazy Love (2014)
 * Salvation Jane (2016)
 * Crazy Cool (2018)
 * Till Death Do Us Part: Live (2019)
 * The World Experience - EP (2020)
 * The Cyber Experience - EP (2021)
 * The Love Experience - EP (2022)
 * Dreams 20: B-Sides and Demos (2022)
 * Carbon - EP (2022)
 * The Dance Experience - EP (2023)
 * The 2020 Experience (2024)
 * Burning Flag 20: B-Sides and Demos (2024)
 * The Hits III (2025)
 * The Demo Tape 25th Anniversary (2025)
 * Can't Let Her Get Away (2025)
 * Chains (2026)
 * TBA (2026)
 * TBA (2027)
 * Nine Yards (2028)

Unreleased or Early Configured Albums

 * Can't Let Her Get Away (See inside for more Info)
 * Kings Blues (original version of Burning Flag)
 * Burning Flag (Configuration below album track list, Believed to be November, 2003 track list)
 * TMNT OST (2007) (later cancelled due to Sony related issues)
 * Emancipation (original re-working of metamorphosis) (2011)
 * San Francisco Nights (2011 Album - only few tracks known, unknown if full album)
 * The Paisley Park Sessions (2012 - nothing known other than it's existence)
 * Fun Day (2014 - Original album configuration before changing over to The Hits I/II)
 * Over Exposed (original re-working of Crazy Cool) (July, 2017 Configuration)
 * Till Death Do Us Part (Second Original Re-working of Crazy Cool) (January, 2018 Configuration)
 * Untitled Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Album (2017-2019)
 * The World Experience (Full Album slated for 2020 release, was cancelled due to possible overexposure and replaced 'chapters' with Hamato's Experiences)

Live Unreleased Albums

 * Burning Flag: Live (2004)
 * The Issues Tour (Slated to be a two disk set) (2007-2008)
 * viper. live (2009)
 * live in japan: viper. (2010)
 * Act I: (2012)
 * Act II: (2013)
 * Act III: (2013-2014)
 * Crazy Love: Live (2015)
 * Salvation Jane: Live (2017)
 * Till Death Do Us Part (album released, however, other recordings exist) (2018-2019)
 * A Night at Crown: Live (Done before Melbourne Lockdown) (2020)

Songs Used In Videos Games, TV Shows, Commercials
Viper Hamato's music has been quoted to be, though controversial, very radio friendly and advertising friendly as well. Here, you can see the songs that have been used in Commercials, TV Shows and Video Games

Headlining

 * Burning Flag: Live (2004)
 * The Issues World Tour (2007-2008)
 * viper. live (2009)
 * Act I: (2012)
 * Act II: (2013)
 * Act III: (2013-2014)
 * The Crazy Love World Tour (2015)
 * The Salvation Jane World Tour(2017)
 * The Till Death Do Us Part Tour (2018-2019)
 * A Night at Crown: Live (Done before Melbourne Lockdown) (2020)
 * The 2020 Experience (2022-2026)

Supporting

 * Welcome 2 Tour (2010-2012) *New York Shows and Melbourne, Australia Shows Only
 * The MDNA Tour (2012) *New York Shows Only
 * Unbreakable World Tour (2015) *Osaka Show Only
 * Reputation Stadium Tour (2017)
 * Love On Tour (2021) *New York Shows Only

Quotes
Here are quotes stated by Hamato since 2000, though he might of changed his mind on some regarding topics, a majority of them have been situated about people he knows or things he is well educated himself in, and has usually sat himself out of topics knowing he is unable to talk about.

Dylan O'Brien
[On his musicianship] "The first time I'd heard him was with this band that was playing on a local college station at the time when I was doing my album back in 2011 in San Francisco because I was on a break from recording but I still write, and I turned to my manager who was with me and I said 'I love the vibe of the song but, who the hells playing on drums? It sounds tight' and he didn't know so I went through this whole process of calling up the radio station and I had my manager in a fluster trying to find out who it was and they just said "Slow Kids at Play" and I did some more research and I was talking to my manager and we just looked at each other and said 'That's the Teen Wolf guy?' I loved the work he did on "She Can't Remember" and I knew, from that point forward I had to have him on some of my tracks, Dear Jessie, The Gift, Salvation Jane, Did It Again. He's got an amazing talent, I love the guy so much"

[On his personality/acting] "Dylan? He's everything everyone says about him, he's such a nice dude, very humble and we got along so well when I met him and the cast on the set of Teen Wolf, there's not much else I can say really? Cause he's what everyone says about him as I said. His acting is definitely something to watch out for, I really enjoyed American Assassin at the time of it's launch, it was something he needed at the time and it's those kind of things that either show the path forward or where the line ends and I'm glad it's going forward because he has a lot of potential but Hollywood is a very harsh place

Michael Jackson
[On his musicianship] "Michael was and still is one of the greats, I got to hang out with him while making Burning Flag in 2005 and the way that he just came up with the demo [regarding "Gotta Have You"] in minutes with just beatboxing cause he was listening to other songs from the album I'd configured at the time and he recorded the track and we'd done the main structure of the song in about three days and it blended so well with the album and still does to the day, there's even an original version in the vault where Michael wanted to change it so it was beatboxing instead of the drum tracks but I couldn't put it on the album because I knew Sony wouldn't like it. We'd made so many songs though that are still in the vault, he is just -ugh, incredible and I'm so thankful I got to work with him"

[On the 1993, 2003, 2005 accusations] "I think it's a very sensitive topic for Michael at the least because that's something he's fighting still to this day and that still haunts him because no one gives him a break, and at the time I was 17, he was so caring about everything but there was this tension in the air that I knew was there and I just looked at him and I said 'Look, I'm sorry for having a sailors mouth, but just so you're aware of everything, I don't believe any of the shit that they're speaking right now' and I'd made him laugh because of my accent but I've never believed them for a day in my life, because there is just something that a person that hasn't been misunderstood in their life multiple times can understand, all he wanted to do was live his life and give back to the world, show that not everything has to be so up and arms in violence or even political. The guy just wanted to have fun because he never got to be a kid, what isn't simple about that?"

Prince
[On Prince in general] "There is - so much that I can say about that man that just, never fully explains his energy, his talent or his drive you know? I hear so many people compare me and him to vault material and I laugh at that every single time because there is nothing in my vault that compares to his, like he gave some of his songs away to me because they'd suit me but I said, I've recorded it but it's yours, you go and release it and there's been two tracks that have been released to date that both him and his estate have released that I've done before he gave them to me. He was impressed at the restyling I did on the two tracks because it gave it a new life but there is no artist, not even me, and I see the comparisons, that come close to Prince and there never will be, because there was only one of him.

[On his Bass Playing] "Holy S**t his bass playing skills?! The minute I came over to Paisley Park, he and I were just getting everything set up and he already had his bass set up and he was playing what became Stare and I just looked over at him while he was playing it and he stopped, looked at me with the smuggest grin he could pull off and he said 'You like Bass guitars huh?' and he just laughed when I nodded because I've always seen Bass as one of the important elements in a song and I honestly think, since that moment there's been so much more bass in my songs to add more flavor and I've seen so many reviews, saying that looking upon my music, they call it A.P and B.P - After Prince and Before Prince and I think one of the main elements toward that is the heavy inclusion of bass, bass in terms of sound and the instrument as well and, I've noticed so much more now how much lacking it is in modern pop and it's all driven by Treble or Voice and Volume"

Janet Jackson
[On Janet Jackson Documentary]