, known professionally as , is a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

rapper and pop musician. She debuted in 2016 independently, before releasing her major label debut album ''Miseinen'' in 2017.

Biography

Chanmina was born in

, to a Japanese father and a South Korean mother, and lived in South Korea until she was three years old. As her mother is a professional ballerina, she spent her childhood traveling around South Korea, Japan and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Due to her mother's influence, Chanmina learned ballet and violin from a young age. During this time in her life, she discovered the song " Day by Day" (2008) by Korean band

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

, and felt moved by the song, inspiring her to become a rapper. Chanmina originally planned to move to South Korea to become a

K-Pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

musician in her second year of high school, however her friend, female rapper Messhi, convinced her to stay in Japan. She first came to fame after participating in the 2016 ', a high school rap competition broadcast on BS Sky Perfect!, and her independently released debut single "Miseinen" (featuring Messhi on the track), managed to top

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Japan's hip-hop song rankings chart. Her first major label debut single "Fxxker" was released in 2017, followed by her debut album ''Miseinen'' (2017). In the same year, Chanmina released the

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

''Chocolate'', which was recorded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The following year, Chanmina switched labels to

Warner Music Japan Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records *Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Music Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * A ...

. The title song from her second album ''Never Grow Up'' was used as the theme song for the Japanese drama ''Jigoku no Girlfriend'' and became a sleeper hit, reaching over 10 million views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

eight months after the song's release, and receiving a gold certification for streaming from the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

. In September 2021, Chanmina's song "I'm a Pop" was featured in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

film ''

Kate Kate may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...

'', leading the song to chart in the

on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

World Digital Songs The World Digital Song Sales chart (formerly World Digital Songs) is a weekly record chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. Established in 2010—its first issue was dated January 23—as ...

chart. Chanmina released her third studio album, ''Harenchi'' in October, featuring "Voice Memo No. 5", "Picky", "Angel" and "Bijin"; songs she had released as singles or as leading tracks from

s in 2020 and 2021. Chanmina released her first full-length Korean-language single "Don't go" featuring Ash Island on September 23, 2022. In 2023, Chanmina founded her own record label, No Label Music, an imprint of Warner Japan. In April 2025, Chanmina signed with

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

label Mastersix Foundation to distribute her discography under her personal record label. In 2025, Chanmina formed the girl group Hana through the audition show ''No No Girls''.

Personal life

Chanmina is trilingual, speaking Korean, Japanese and English. On July 7, 2024, she announced her pregnancy and marriage to Korean rapper Ash Island. On November 1, she gave birth to her first child, a baby girl.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Live albums

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Other charted or certified songs

Guest appearances

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chanmina 1998 births 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters 21st-century Japanese women singers English-language singers from Japan Japanese women hip-hop musicians Japanese women singer-songwriters Japanese-language singers of South Korea Japanese people of Korean descent Japanese women rappers Korean-language singers of Japan Living people Musicians from Tokyo People from Nerima South Korean women rappers South Korean women singer-songwriters 21st-century South Korean singer-songwriters South Korean people of Japanese descent Victor Entertainment artists Warner Music Japan artists