A rapper named “Mario” has been officially announced as the next star in a new game created by Next Big Entertainment.
“MarIO” is an amalgamation of the first two names of the rapper who is already popular and well known in Japan.
The name was first registered in October 2014.
A Twitter user named @Makuto_Pico posted a screenshot of the announcement from Next Big.
The rapper’s official Twitter account has been blocked since May 2018.
The tweet read, “Today’s the day!”
The Twitter account also shared a screenshot from a video of “MarINO” at the Tokyo Pop Festival in 2018.
A second tweet was published on the same day as the video showing “Marino” performing.
“There’s a song I’m going to play with a bunch of people on the streets in a bit,” the rapper said in the video.
The video was uploaded on YouTube on March 2.
“I’ll be the new MarIO, but you know I’m not the MarIO,” the first tweet said.
The artist was later confirmed as “MarINE MARIO.”
In May 2018, the musician confirmed the announcement by tweeting that he was “still in a really bad state” and that he would be taking care of himself.
The news has since been confirmed by Next Black Entertainment, which said in a statement that the announcement had been taken down.
“In a video interview, MarIO said he was ‘still in really bad condition,'” Next Black said.
“The video is a bit out of place but the message is still the same.”
The rapper was first announced by the music magazine Daum in September 2017, and a video was released in April 2018.
He later released an album titled “The King of Rap.”
“I’m really looking forward to being on this new stage, but my health is definitely still very shaky,” he said.