Born from the survival show No No Girls, alumni of the show ASHA and KOKONA have made their presence felt in stunning fashion. Debuting as TAKARA , the duo who are produced by the iconic rapper CHANMINA, have dropped the hip-hop pop banger ‘Time Is Money’.

The track not only is a reflection of the hard road the artists endured to reach their debut, but also the year process to put together the material to ensure they are hitting the mark in the strongest way.

“‘Time is money’ started when TAKARA was formed. CHANMINA said to us, ‘I think it would be good to have a song that really values the Japanese language’. She suggested that something like toki wa kane nari (time is money) could be interesting, and we started working on the song from there. At first, it was completely different from what it is now, but little by little it gradually took shape and became what it is today.” – ASHA

“When you’ve been sitting on a song for a whole year, your style naturally changes little by little, and so does what you’re thinking and feeling at the time. We thought that properly updating it to reflect that would make it feel more like us, so we kept reworking it together, saying things like, ‘Maybe it would be better if we did it more like this’. We were born and raised in different places, and until a year ago, we were living completely separate lives. There are things about us that are similar, but there are also things that are different. Those experiences are real, and we want to value each other exactly as we are. I think that way of thinking has taken shape in what we’ve made.”- KOKONA

TAKARA will also be dropping their first EP, self-titled (宝), on the 24th of August 2026, also through CHANMINA‘s company NO LABEL ARTISTS. The EP will feature four tracks:

• 1. ‘Time Is Money’
• 2. ‘Get High’
• 3. ‘明るい夢
• 4. ‘Believe In Me’

You can presave 宝 here.

While you wait, you can listen to the new single ‘Time Is Money’ here or check out the video below.