INTERVIEWRYUGA

After starting his DJ career in 2017, DJ RYUGA gained experience in clubhouses in Tokyo, and in 2019, at the young age of 21, he became the RESIDENT DJ at 7TOKYO, an exclusive club in Roppongi, and the following year, he changed the stage and officially joined CLUB The following year, he officially joined CAMELOT as a resident DJ, which was ranked No.1 in DJ mag for two consecutive years.
With HIP HOP and R&B at its core, the group continues to attract audiences daily with a play style that specializes in open-format music with a touch of four-strike.
In this issue, we asked young DJ RYUGA about his future prospects and the roots of his DJ career.

How did you become a DJ?

When I was in high school, hip-hop was just getting popular in Japan, such as "Freestyle Dungeon" and "High School Rap Championships," and I was influenced by them. At the time, I had a friend who was a local rapper, and when I went to a hip-hop event that my friend was attending, I didn't expect to see a rapper, but a DJ who looked really cool... I was hooked from there.

On how he got into CAMELOT

At the time of my debut, I was gaining experience at various nightclubs in Tokyo, but little by little I began to feel that I wanted to play in big clubs... and it was then that I happened to be approached by someone and here I am today.

You were only 21 years old at the time, but did you have any worries?

To be honest, I was not pressured or nervous because I am allowed to do what I like and enjoy doing. On the contrary, since I was given such a great opportunity, I was more eager to live up to the expectations.

Changes after joining CAMELOT

Since you started playing at CAMELOT, has there been any change in the way you think about DJing?

Until now, I was only thinking about how to make my time more exciting, partly because I was working as an individual. However, since becoming a RESIDENT DJ, I have become more aware of the overall atmosphere and flow of the party that day. I now pay close attention to the DJs who will play next to me and the current state of the audience, build a relationship where DJs can cover for each other, and think about the overall flow of the music selection throughout the day.

What do you keep in mind when selecting music?

You don't want to spend too much of your time on hit tunes just for your own time. The number of hit tunes that are generally considered exciting by today's audience is actually limited. If I use up all of them in my own time, the DJs after me will inevitably lose their excitement. If that happens, the audience as a whole will not be able to enjoy the show. And in fact, the audience gets more excited when you play a hit song just once than when you play it over and over again. It has more explosive power.

You are playing with a great deal of thought, aren't you?

I think my experience as a DJ at after-hours parties (parties that start in the morning, not during the club's most exciting time of day) has come in handy. The after parties are very serious, and if you miss even one song, the customers will leave immediately. So I think I was able to learn the importance of each and every song during my after-hours days.

About the challenges of being a DJ

I am very happy when I can excite the audience with a song that they would never know. I feel like I've done it.

Now that you mainly DJ every Tuesday, can you tell us what makes CAMELOT unique on Tuesdays?

I think Tuesday's CAMELOT has the strongest HIPHOP flavor of all the weekdays. The party atmosphere is as lively as any other day of the week.

Outlook for the Future

Do you have any plans to produce music in the future?

My roots as a DJ are in rappers and hip-hop, so I hope to one day create music that many people can listen to by having rappers put lyrics on the tracks I create.

Do you have any goals as a DJ?

I have many senior DJs whom I can learn from, but to be honest, I don't have a goal. In my opinion, DJs are not compared to their peers, but rather to their past selves and how much they have improved and how much they have enlivened the audience....
So now my goal is to become the best DJ I can be.