“I’ve taken the challenge even though I wasn’t qualified at all at the time. Pushing yourself and not being scared can really take you places. I’m living proof of that.”
Raised in Kobe, Japan, Minami Minami is the perfect example of having a clear purpose and watching it unfold. Babysitting for four or five families a week by age 10 and singing in choirs as a child, music came knocking at age 14. “I had a knowing I was going to be a part of the music industry,” she says. “I already had goals, who I wanted to work with, and was telling all my friends.” As part of an international school, her peers were focused on getting accepted into prestigious colleges, but she wasn’t interested. “I was the only one that didn’t take the SATs because I knew I was going to Tokyo,” she adds.
In 2008, friend Young Kirk was offered an opening spot for Chingy in exchange for ticket sales. Minami offered to help, sold 60 tickets, and was invited to sit in alongside Kirk’s bandmate Staxx T. Following the show, the duo asked her to join the group (lyse). The trio didn’t work out, but Minami and Staxx T formed Hip-Hop duo Cream.
Relocating to Tokyo, Minami soon met Rapper-producer Verbal, of Hip-Hop group M-Flo, telling him she would one day work with him. Six months later, she began door-knocking at agencies, inadvertently on a national holiday with no one around—apart from one nice car in the garage. Catching sight of the car at a red-light Minami, ran over and gave the driver a demo. It was the CEO of the agency, and Cream was signed the next day. Within three years, Minami was songwriting with Verbal. Her first credit for K-pop artist BoA (through Verbal) changed her career trajectory, with credits now including M-Flo, Namie Amuro, BoA, ICONIQ, and V6.
In 2011, Cream launched their YouTube channel (, one of the first in Japan to be music-driven (now with 25,000,000+ views, 260,000+ subscribers). Translating hit songs into Japanese, and releasing a new song every week for two years, sporadically adding in originals. “It was a lot of work,” admits Minami. “People were not getting paid; there was no monetizable system. We struggled with the monetization part of music for a really long time.”
Covid brought major challenges. Quitting their agency and leaving their record company, Staxx T was arrested for marijuana possession (right after launching StuFF brand), and there was a quarantine music festival scandal. Minami’s fiancé—who she was in a very public relationship with—cheated on her with a porn star. Recognizing a pattern of horrible relationships, and a need to choose differently, she quit smoking, quit drinking, and went into a period of deep reflection, discovering Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s theory of the seven stages of grief (Minami adds that there is no such thing as therapy in Japan). While she could conceptualize Kübler-Ross’ theories, she couldn’t pinpoint the feeling of each stage. Wanted to create a project that helped walk listeners through grief, her journey inspired upcoming EP, seven.
Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Armen Van Burren) appeared magically through a mutual contact and, loving Minami’s concept, brought Ramiro and Daniel Padilla as co-producers, and Nasri (vocalist/songwriter from Magic) to help on vocals. Working with Garibay’s team in Los Angeles proved life-changing. Calling her out on her victim mindset, Garibay helped her become more self-aware. “I started to realize the words I was choosing were putting me in that frequency and I needed to get out of it,” confesses Minami. “You need to take responsibility and stand in it to completely come out of it.”
Doing her best to enjoy the ride on her solo work (as advised by Verbal), and to be more present than she was on the initial ascent with Cream, seven is out in Q1. 2025’s singles “How Could You?” “In My Head,” “Black Dress,” and “Please” follow 2022’s “Broken Heart” (released a week after her breakup). Cream’s new album is anticipated later in 2026.
Contact Deborah Radel @ DR PR / deborah@drpr.us
Visit instagram.com/minamiminami.official
Photo Credit: Nae.Jay
