Everyone has moments where they have to choose between two paths that will lead to drastically different lives. For Mina Otomonai, it came during her second year of high school when she strongly considered moving to South Korea to pursue a career in music. Her friends convinced her to stay in Japan.
"I probably would have ended up being a K-pop idol," the 20-year-old tells The Japan Times. "It's hard to make a career as a solo act in Korea."
Instead, she stayed and adopted the moniker Chanmina. Her break came during a rap battle, her energetic style landing her a deal with a major label in 2016. Since then, she has managed to balance spitfire vocals and pop melodies to become one of the most prominent women in Japanese hip-hop and one of the few rappers to go mainstream.