ARAMA! JAPAN interviews BALLISTIK BOYZ

The Group

What sets BALLISTIK BOYZ apart from other groups?

Ryuta Takada: Not only does everyone in our group sing, but we’re all able to incorporate acrobatics into our dancing, and some of our members can even speak English and Portuguese. I think these things really give us a unique edge on all of the groups that have existed in Japan’s music scene up until now. I think that we need to fully use that edge to create new concepts and shock everyone through our performances.

Yoshiyuki Kanou: I think the most important thing is that all seven of our members have a mic during our performances, but we can still put our all into dancing as well. I think we’re a new type of group within EXILE TRIBE. The fact that we have both rappers and vocalists gives us a wide range of expression, but even more than that, the seven of us have evolved together in many different ways – I hope that we can show everyone the high quality of our music and dancing and prove that we’re the real thing.

We’re being given the opportunity to debut at the same time that Japan moves forward into the new “Reiwa” era, so I feel it’s really an amazing chance to become artists who lead everyone into this new era.
RIKIYA OKUDA of BALLISTIK BOYZ

What are your unique skills, and how do those skills connect to your performance?

Miku Fukahori: I think that right now the choreography skills that we learned in New York are the key element that’s tying our group performances together.

Riki Matsui: All seven of us are real chameleons who can take on so many forms – we each hold a mic, sing and dance on stage, and bring in acrobatics, too. This is our unique combination of so many styles, and it’s what lets us create performances like nothing else that has come before.

Video Source

2016: BALLISTIK BOYZ Members Miku Fukabori , Rikiya Okuda and Masahiro Sunada took part in “Project Taro”, a special three-year educational program to hone their talents in the United States with the objective achieving strong performance both physically and mentally and competitiveness on the international stage.

How have foreign language studies and experiences abroad influenced the group?

Rikiya Okuda: I started to sing and rap in New York, and when I write my lyrics, I start off writing them in English, so my experiences abroad have been really important to me. As a group, we work together to improve ourselves by sharing our experiences. I share the things that I learned abroad, like the music that I heard and the atmosphere that I experienced, and in return the other members have been teaching me more about Japanese culture. Because of that sharing, we’ve developed a strong trust and respect for each other.

Masahiro Sunada: I think that what makes BALLISTIK BOYZ so colorful is the way of giving your all that you can only learn overseas – it’s something that can’t be found in Japan. I also think that our abilitry to speak and write songs in languages other than Japanese really broadens our horizons as a group.

What messages do you have for your international fans?

Miku Fukahori: We have 3 members who can speak English and 1 who can speak Portuguese, so I really hope that we can use these skills to entertain people all over the world and tailor our performances to each place that we perform in. We would really love it if you would check us out!

Ryuta Takada: We want to keep moving forward at full speed toward our goal of reaching not just Japan but the whole world, and to keep giving performances that only we can give and making music that only we can make. Thank you for supporting us!!