Rommy Montana Interview: How 03- Performance Built FROM BLOCK 03-

Translation and archive note: This English edition was translated and edited from HIPHOPCs’ Japanese interview published on May 3, 2026, one day before the first FROM BLOCK 03- event was scheduled to begin. Rommy Montana’s first-person meaning and the original question order are preserved. Dates, billing and venue details were checked against the organizer’s archived LivePocket listing on August 19, 2026. The supplied flyers and photographs used in the Japanese article are not reproduced here.

Before 03- Performance attempted a three-day event, it was already built to travel through screens. Performance videos, cyphers and collaborations gave the platform a recognizable place in contemporary Japanese hip-hop. FROM BLOCK 03- asked a different question: could that online identity organize a physical room for three consecutive days?

The archived organizer listing records FROM BLOCK 03- for May 4–6, 2026, at THE PINK TOKYO in Shinjuku, with a different bill each day. In this interview, 03- Performance representative Rommy Montana explains that the idea did not begin as a top-down order. It came from NAGI, the person leading the event team, after the Tokyo and Osaka editions of BLOCK 03-.

That detail is the center of the story. The platform was no longer only publishing performances; it was beginning to operate as an event organization in which another team member could propose a format and move it toward reality. Interview and original Japanese text: Ito Kotaro.

After BLOCK 03-, the next idea was a small festival

Ito Kotaro: You are holding FROM BLOCK 03- as a festival-format event across the three days of Japan’s Golden Week. First, what prompted the project?

Rommy Montana: When the Tokyo and Osaka editions of BLOCK 03- had finished, we immediately wanted to try an event in a new form, so the team began meeting. A member named NAGI, who is responsible for the event team, suggested, “Why don’t we do something like a festival on a small scale?” I thought it sounded interesting and would be a very good experience, so we made it happen.

Ito Kotaro: So it started with a staff proposal rather than a top-down instruction. Moving into another format while the energy of BLOCK 03- was still present suggests that 03- Performance was beginning to function as an event organization. NAGI’s suggestion opened the route toward a festival format.

Making “from Tokyo to the world” physical

Ito Kotaro: What meaning did you put into the name FROM BLOCK 03-?

Rommy Montana: One of 03- Performance’s concepts is “from Tokyo to the world.” We wanted to translate that into a real, offline form. The online movement had taken shape to a certain degree, and we wanted to give it a form offline too. That is why we started it.

Ito Kotaro: The name can be read as a declaration: beginning from BLOCK 03- and expanding outward from there. A message that had first traveled through video and online distribution was being reconstructed on a physical floor.

This distinction matters. An online platform controls framing through edits, uploads and repeat viewing. A live event gives some of that control to the room: performers, DJs, staff and audiences occupy the same time. FROM BLOCK 03- was designed as a test of whether the platform’s identity could survive that transfer.

Why the three days were not programmed alike

Ito Kotaro: DAY 1, DAY 2 and DAY 3 appear to have different musical colors. What standards or themes shaped the three lineups?

Rommy Montana: If we were going to hold it for three days, I wanted to decide on a concept for each day and make the atmosphere different every time.

DAY 1 featured only women performers. DAY 2 narrowed the genres to drill, jerk and related sounds. DAY 3 was centered on artists who had appeared with 03- before.

Ito Kotaro: Instead of repeating the same package for three days, each day had a separate role while remaining part of one continuous event. That is a useful design for listeners: the schedule itself explains how 03- Performance sees different parts of the scene.

The archived three-day bill

The organizer’s archived LivePocket event page lists the following bills. Because this is now a historical record, the link is provided as documentation rather than a ticket-purchase call to action.

• DAY 1 — May 4: Alif Wolf, LIZA, 3Li¥en, Starceed, DJ NANA, DJ HAZUKI and INDIGO.
• DAY 2 — May 5: ORIGAMI, Tee Shyne, WillHalo, Xameleon, BAN and LOKU.
• DAY 3 — May 6: Red Eye, YELLA SOMA, Bene Baby, Sean shyne, YUUGOH, DJ RyuNosuK and TOMOYA.

Billing note: The Japanese article’s prose used “NANA,” while the organizer listing identifies “DJ NANA.” The organizer page renders YELLA SOMA as “YEALLA SOMA”; this English edition retains the artist spelling used in the Japanese source. These are editorial reconciliations, not changes to Rommy Montana’s answer.

DAY 1 put women performers at the center of the program. DAY 2 treated drill and jerk not as isolated uploads but as sounds expected to carry a room. DAY 3 worked as a home-side bill built around existing 03- relationships. Together, the days functioned less like three copies of one party and more like three tests of the platform’s range.

Why THE PINK TOKYO

Ito Kotaro: Why did you choose THE PINK TOKYO? Did Shinjuku itself have a particular meaning?

Rommy Montana: I think THE PINK TOKYO is a club that will support Tokyo hip-hop in the future. I came to feel that through our interactions with the people at THE PINK TOKYO.

His answer does not rely on capacity, acoustics or transport access. It is about a relationship with the people operating the room and a belief about what the venue might support next. That makes the choice organizational as much as geographical.

It also fits a wider Tokyo pattern. Platforms, event teams and venues increasingly overlap rather than occupying separate lanes. HIPHOPCs’ Tokyo Rap Atlas maps how the city’s scenes develop through multiple local centers rather than one fixed capital. In that context, Rommy’s confidence in THE PINK TOKYO is best understood as his forecast, not an objective ranking of Tokyo clubs.

Can a video platform become a live-event platform?

Ito Kotaro: Does 03- Performance plan to continue holding physical events rather than working only through video?

Rommy Montana: Yes. We are still newcomers to the event business, but we want to keep experimenting and create more opportunities for people to enjoy 03- in real life.

Ito Kotaro: Calling the team newcomers while promising to continue places humility and intent in the same answer. It is one example of a broader movement in Japanese hip-hop: a team that began in video and online distribution starts building a position on the live-promotion side as well.

The later record supports the direction of that answer without proving anything about attendance or commercial results. The same organizer’s LivePocket archive lists FROM BLOCK 03- 3DAYS Vol. 2 for August 13–15, 2026, again at THE PINK TOKYO. That follow-up shows that the three-day format continued. HIPHOPCs has not independently audited ticket sales, audience figures or the financial performance of either edition.

What this interview records

FROM BLOCK 03- matters here less as an event recommendation than as an organizational snapshot. In Rommy Montana’s account, the project began with a staff idea, translated an online slogan into a physical format, divided three days by curatorial purpose and chose a venue through trust in its operators.

That is a more specific story than “a YouTube channel held a festival.” It shows 03- Performance testing whether its curatorial identity could become event infrastructure. The archived second edition suggests the test was not treated as a one-off.

For another example of the platform linking generations, read HIPHOPCs’ English report on NITRO MICROPHONE UNDERGROUND’s XBS and 03- Performance. Rommy Montana is also credited as a producer on the official “03- Glo Cypher 2025” video, another view of how his role extends across production, platform-building and presentation.

Verified event record

• Dates recorded by the organizer: May 4–6, 2026
• Scheduled hours: 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
• Venue: THE PINK TOKYO, B1F Inoyama Kogyo Building, 3-18-5 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
• Organizer/seller name on LivePocket: FROM BLOCK 03-
• Original ticket status: sales ended; the page is cited only as an archive

Official sources and further reading

• LivePocket: archived FROM BLOCK 03- event listing
• LivePocket: archived FROM BLOCK 03- 3DAYS Vol. 2 listing
• 03- Performance official YouTube channel
• FORCE Festival 2026 guide — another English HIPHOPCs reference page on independent Japanese hip-hop event infrastructure
• Watson profile — a guide to an artist whose rise intersects with the performance-platform era discussed here
• More HIPHOPCs exclusive interviews in English
• More Japanese rap coverage in English

Interview and original Japanese text: Ito Kotaro / HIPHOPCs
English translation, archive framing and verification: HIPHOPCs editorial team
Japanese-edition flyers and photographs: described in the source article as supplied by 03- Performance and Rommy Montana; not reproduced because attachment-level English reuse terms were not recorded
English-edition artwork: original HIPHOPCs editorial design