Korean hip-hop group MFBTY admit they still get stage fright.
Despite being together sice 2013, the trio – made up of Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-Rae and Bizzy – get so nervous before a performance they ‘go to the bathroom 100 times’.
Vocalist and rapper Yoon Mi-rae, real name Natasha Reid, told Metro.co.uk: ‘We don’t really eat before we go on stage because everybody has the worst stage fright. It’s crazy. You would think after all this time we’d be used to it, but as time goes by I think everybody gets worse.
‘I just get into my own head and get very quiet and try not to focus on it. I pray before I go on stage but it gets worse. I’m still finding ways to cope with it. Each of us goes to the bathroom like 100 times.’
Bizzy added that he ‘sweats’ when he gets nervous but his members help him overcome it.
‘I feel very relieved when I hear their rapping voice. It just calms me down and gets me going,’ he explained.
‘I’m really happy when I’m on the stage with them and the blessing and the pleasure is just there. I like the energy in our team.’
MFBTY (which stands for My Fans [Are] Better Than Yours) previously worked with BTS rapper RM on the dark and rumbling hip-hop track Bucku Bucku.
A big fan of Tiger JK, they decided to collaborate after meeting at an awards show.
Recalling the experience, Yoon Mi-rae described him as ‘helpful and sweet’.
‘When he came to the studio we were all amazed,’ she told us.
‘There’s a stereotype with idol groups that they’re not as talented or whatever, but when he got in he knew what he wanted. He laid down his verse really quick.
‘He was talking to the engineer and he knew all the terms, and he wasn’t cocky about it. He was helpful and sweet. And Bizzy, JK and RM just hit it off and got closer with the other [BTS] members and kept going from there.’
JK, who is married to Yoon Mi-rae, revealed she was approached by BigHit boss Bang Si-hyuk to be a part of the K-Pop group back when they were known as Bulletproof Boy Scouts.
‘Bang PD was Tasha’s producer and wrote many of her songs,’ he revealed, ‘he called me and asked if Tasha could join the group. Tasha could have been part of BTS and had a totally different life. She messed up by sticking with MFBTY!’
The group are embarking on an eight-city tour of south Korea with an eye on taking their new album DreamCatcher to the world.
Title track Motel, (created when they were ‘really drunk, like, seven or eight years ago’, according to Bizzy), is a song about finding physical intimacy through one night stands.
But the rest of the album is a melting pot of pop, hip-hop, dance and reggae, according to Yoon Mi-rae.
The JamCome On Baby singer explains: ‘We just got into the studio and did whatever felt good. There’s a mix of all kinds of different sounds that we’re into at the moment.’
So having been together for so long, what is the key to their strong relationship – especially as two of the members are married?
Bizzy thinks it’s down to knowing each other inside out.
‘We are really like a family so we know how we are like, wherever we are. It’s just the chemistry between us. Everything just works out,’ the rapper says.
JK passionately disagrees: ‘I thought I knew Bizzy and Tasha like the back of my hand but I found out a week ago I didn’t know them at all! The moment you get comfortable is the moment you get stagnant.’
Dreamcatcher is out now.
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