Nakamura Minami Interview: From Homelessness to Forza Horizon 6
Translation note: This English edition was translated and edited from HIPHOPCs’ Japanese interview published on July 12, 2026. Repetition and conversational filler were shortened, but the speakers’ meaning and first-person framing were preserved. Statements about personal history are the interviewee’s own account. Links to official release and game pages were checked on August 19, 2026.
Born and raised in Tsujido, Fujisawa, Nakamura Minami began rapping after meeting Kamui while she was experiencing homelessness. She went on to form TENG GANG STARR, build a solo career with TREKKIE TRAX, collaborate across rap and club music, and appear on the Forza Horizon 6 soundtrack with TANTRON on “Turbo Fire.”
In this exclusive interview, Nakamura talks about growing up comfortable in her own company, learning festival music by oral tradition, the limits of speaking for other unhoused people, and how a chain of invitations carried her from Tsujido to international stages.
Growing up in Tsujido—and the work she does now
Tomomi Sato: Please introduce yourself.
Nakamura Minami: I was born and raised in Tsujido, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, and I still live there. I am a rapper. Nice to meet you.
Tomomi Sato: You still live in Tsujido?
Nakamura Minami: Yes. I was born there and grew up there.
Sam: What were you like as a child?
Nakamura Minami: I was not someone who needed to be with other people all the time. I could be by myself. If somebody spoke to me, I felt grateful. I did not dislike being alone, but I was not good at approaching people first. I was happy when friends invited me. I used to spend time drawing pictures and making mazes on my own.
Tomomi Sato: What does your work look like today?
Nakamura Minami: I rap. I also write lyrics and music for rappers and other artists. I helped develop lyrics and flow for Toua’s “MY Routine,” and I have worked on music connected to Den-On-Bu and the rhythm game CHUNITHM. Performing my own rap is fun, but writing for someone else uses a different part of my brain. I really enjoy that too.
Festival music came before rap
Tomomi Sato: When did you begin making music?
Nakamura Minami: I started in third grade. I played taiko, shinobue flute and kane in hayashi music for a local shrine festival. In middle school I played in a band, and I also used a multitrack recorder to enter every part by myself.
Later, because of something that happened in my life, I became homeless. When I was about eighteen or nineteen, I was part of a community of unhoused people around my age. Kamui came to meet us. He asked each person why they were homeless and what they were thinking. Today I can speak in an interview like this, but at the time I could not put into words what hurt. Kamui asked me to write in a notebook about how I had lived and what I felt. After reading it, he told me, “You should rap.” That was the beginning.
People may think of TENG GANG STARR as a duo, but there were several people involved at the very beginning.
Tomomi Sato: Did learning festival music shape your rhythm?
Nakamura Minami: People assume taiko automatically gave me a strong sense of rhythm. But hayashi is old music, passed down by mouth rather than through recordings. Its rhythms can be complicated. When I once practiced with a metronome, the accents seemed to turn around, and I felt the difference from Western rhythm. Because it belongs to a culture different from staff notation, I even wondered whether I had poor rhythm. A rapper needs rhythm, so I practiced live performance intensely. I think that is where I developed it.
Speaking about homelessness without claiming to represent everyone
Tomomi Sato: You have spoken elsewhere about living on the street from roughly eighteen to twenty-one. What was that period like?
Nakamura Minami: The community I stayed with lived in a place that was almost outdoors. I would go to Harajuku and pick up unfinished tapioca drinks. The tapioca pearls are large, so people often left some behind. Once, while filming with PIZZA LOVE, I automatically thought, “There is tapioca!” and picked one up. They were shocked.
But people who are homeless do not all share one set of values. I am careful not to speak as though I represent every unhoused person.
Tomomi Sato: Does that experience still enter your writing?
Nakamura Minami: My solo song “Kokodoko” includes a lot from that time. Convenience stores have air conditioning, and the floors are cold. In the middle of summer, I could take off my sandals and put my bare feet on the floor to cool down. That detail is in the song too.
From trap to TENG GANG STARR and TREKKIE TRAX
Tomomi Sato: Your work now crosses hip-hop, club music, games and overseas collaborations. Where did that expansion begin?
Nakamura Minami: When I was homeless, Kamui visited our group and we watched VICE’s Atlanta coverage together. Then we watched Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like.” Some people in our community could not reveal their identities. Seeing Chief Keef make that video while under house arrest gave me a sense of connection: even when your movement is restricted, there are still things you can express. That became another reason I started rapping. I already liked trap, but that experience deepened it.
TENG GANG STARR released an album in 2019, toured and held a release party. By the end of the tour, we knew the group would go on hiatus. I had never worked as a solo artist and was unsure whether to continue. But Lil’Yukichi, andrew of TREKKIE TRAX—who had also been our backing DJ—and Pochomkin of Gaki Ranger had all said they wanted to make music with me. My manager at the time also encouraged the idea of working with TREKKIE TRAX.
In 2019, TREKKIE TRAX CREW and I released “Reiwa.” They were already scheduled for EDC Japan 2019, and the song came out one month after the new era name was announced. It sounded completely different from the rap I had made before. In TENG GANG STARR I had mostly written verses; I had barely built a whole song or hook myself. I asked the crew many questions. They had been working for more than ten years, and they answered everything. My world expanded because those people were there.
How “Turbo Fire” reached Forza Horizon 6
Tomomi Sato: “Turbo Fire,” your collaboration with Dutch drum-and-bass artist TANTRON, appears in Forza Horizon 6. How did you react when you learned it would be in the game?
Nakamura Minami: At first, nobody told me the song was for a game. I suddenly received a DM from a private Instagram account. The person said they worked for Hospital Records, a label with roughly thirty years of history in drum and bass. I thought it might be suspicious. But I checked the label website, and the email address matched the one in the message. They asked me to join a compilation, and I said yes.
We finished the track, delivered it and received the master. Then someone from Microsoft appeared in the email CC. I was so happy when they told me it would be included in Forza Horizon 6. The song fits the cars well, and I was glad we had called it “Turbo Fire.”
Tomomi Sato: How did people around you respond?
Nakamura Minami: People celebrated the Hospital Records release with me. I was told I was the first Japanese rapper to release through the label, which made me very happy. TANTRON’s music can be aggressive, but the track also has the bright, melodic quality associated with Hospital. Longtime label listeners, drum-and-bass fans and game fans all congratulated me.
Editor’s verification: Forza’s official soundtrack page and Hospital Records both list TANTRON x Nakamura Minami’s “Turbo Fire” on the Forza Horizon 6 soundtrack. The claim about being the first Japanese rapper on Hospital Records is presented as Nakamura’s account; HIPHOPCs did not find an official label statement establishing that superlative.
ULTRA JAPAN, salute and a face on the Coachella screen
Tomomi Sato: Which overseas or club-music experience stands out most?
Nakamura Minami: There are many. A recent one was ULTRA JAPAN 2025, where I performed on the main stage with TREKKIE TRAX CREW. We made a song for that performance. While writing and recording, I imagined the moment when I would ask the crowd to put their hands up. Even though it was around noon and the song had only just been released, people raised their hands and danced. I was grateful to the crew for giving me that chance.
Another was seeing a huge close-up of my face on a screen at Coachella in 2025. We joked that I looked like the organizer of a survival game. salute had messaged me about making a track together. I learned later that it would be released through Ninja Tune. It was not something I made because I had decided, “I want to appear at Coachella.” It grew naturally from the collaboration.
Ninja Tune’s official release page confirms Nakamura Minami as a contributor to salute’s TRUE MAGIC, while the label’s artist biography lists salute’s Coachella Do Lab performance.
What she wants to build next
Tomomi Sato: What do you want to try next?
Nakamura Minami: First, I want to keep making music. Until now I have often joined projects because somebody invited me. I can be very particular, so releases under my own name have sometimes come only once a year. Recently I released “Miracle Body.” Producers now send beats designed around the thought, “This would be interesting with Nakamura Minami on it.”
Before, somebody might ask me to rap over an established club style, and I would go to clubs, study it and learn how to ride that rhythm. Now the beat itself feels as though it draws out my voice and rap. Being pulled into a performance by the beat feels very hip-hop to me. Maybe everything before this was training for that stage. I want to make more music from that feeling.
I also want to continue writing and producing for other people. I teach and serve in organizing roles at local festivals, but festivals usually happen on weekends and overlap with club events. I wish I could move instantly between them. I want to take part in festivals, enjoy clubs and attend larger music events too.
Tomomi Sato: A final message for readers?
Nakamura Minami: I will keep working. Thank you for reading. I know there are still many mysterious parts of me, so I hope you get to know me through my songs and this interview.
Official listening and further reading
- Hospital Records: Forza Horizon 6 soundtrack
- Forza: official radio and track list
- Ninja Tune: salute — TRUE MAGIC
- Ninja Tune: salute artist biography
- Rap Atlas: Kawasaki and Yokohama—understanding Kanagawa hip-hop
- More HIPHOPCs exclusive interviews in English
Interview: Tomomi Sato and Sam
Original featured-image photography: Utae
Original article photography: andrew (TREKKIE TRAX), with support from Bushman Acoustics
English edition artwork: original HIPHOPCs editorial design
