Ballistik Boyz from Exile Tribe is a seven-member Japanese male dance, vocal and MC unit formed and managed by LDH. The group is part of the collectiveExile Tribe, related to Exile, and signed to the record labelRhythm Zone from the Avex Group. The group was formed in a collaboration of Hiro and Doberman Infinity during Vocal Battle Audition 5. They are the first group in Exile Tribe where all members are holding microphones to sing and rap while dancing. Ballistik Boyz debuted with their self-titled first album, BALLISTIK BOYZ, on May 22, 2019.
History
2018 : Formation and Pre-debut
In April 2018, Exile Hiro and Doberman Infinity decided to produce a new group by choosing 4 finalists from "Vocal Battle Audition 5", Ryusei Kainuma and Riki Matsui from the rap division and Ryuta Hidaka and Yoshiyuki Kanou from the vocal division, plus three members of Project TARO who were the winners of 2014's "Global Japan Challenge", Miku Fukahori, Rikiya Okuda, and Masahiro Sunada. On May 1, 2018, the group's formation was announced on TBS TV show "Weekly Exile". Starting May 12, the group participated as the opening act of FantasticsMusha shugyō "FANTASTICS yume-sha shugyō FANTASTIC 9". They were also performing as opening act of Dance Earth Party's 3-day festival Dance Earth Fesival 2018 ~Splash Summer~ on July 14, 15 and 16, 2018.
2019-present: Major Debut and Battle of Tokyo
From March 2 to 31, 2019, Ballistik Boyz launched their own Musha shugyō. On March 31, it was announced that the group would make their major-label debut on May 22 with a self-titled album. On the same day, the group released their first official music video for the song "Tenhane 1000%", which was filmed in Los Angeles. In June 2019, LDH's multimedia project "Battle of Tokyo", which includes all Jr.Exile groups, started. During this month those 4 groups released collaboration singles every week, until they released a full album titled "Battle Of Tokyo 〜Enter The Jr.Exile〜" on July 3, 2019. Accompanying the album release, the groups held a row of live performances from July 4 to 7 with the same name. On August 28 it was announced that Ballistik Boyz would release their first single "44Raiders" on October 23 accompanied by a row of release-events. In September, the group held performances in Malaysia and Taiwan and announced they would also perform in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in near future. On October 1, they released the music video for the title track of their new single and launched their own YouTube channel at the same time. After performing in different countries across Asia, it was announced that the group would release their second single "Anti-Hero's" on February 12, 2020, as the kickoff single for their first national tour Ballistik Boyz Live Tour 2020 "BBZ" which will take place from February 14 to April 25, 2020. The lead song “Anti-Hero's” of the second single includes a message from the life of Ballistik Boyz about pursuing what you truly believe: 'If you believe in yourself and fight without fear, you will truly shine.' Furthermore, all songs from the single were be pre-delivered for digital streaming in a weekly manner starting with "Anti-Hero's" on January 22, followed by "Front Burner" on January 29, "Bang Out" on February 5 and "Strangers" on February 12.
