KPops!<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Giles Netter\/Aura Entertainment\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
\n\tYou touched upon it earlier too, but what makes the movie, in my opinion, so enjoyable is bringing different cultures into the fold. Especially given how Black culture and Black artists have heavily influenced K-pop.<\/p>\n
\n\tI did have a lot of unique experiences with both, and I know a lot of people do have that, but there aren\u2019t a lot of films that showcase that. I felt like this was a great opportunity because when he was showing me these things, like with K-pop, I was like, \u201cOK. You know about K-pop, what you know about Tupac? [You] know about BTS, what do you know about BET?\u201d I was always trying to make sure the balance was there.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlso, as I just was looking at it from face value, it immediately made me think of groups that I came up with like New Edition, TLC, SWV and then even Motown. How they had an assembly line, and they had a whole incubation system; how they put groups together. I thought it was very similar to that. It\u2019s very similar to Beatlemania, when The Beatles are doing Black music and blues music. But it\u2019s somehow different when they do it. I thought these were all interesting things that could be shared in the movie, and it\u2019s tricky to put that in without it being preachy or anything. But I thought it could be fun to have K-pop work as a sandbox for all these different things [and] these different ways to bond with my son. I think that was the fun part and that was the basis of what the movie was about for me. It\u2019s not something that is revolving around K-pop. It\u2019s deeper than that. It\u2019s really a father-son movie<\/p>\n
\n\tWas that always the plan? <\/p>\n
\n\tThe initial idea didn\u2019t have as many layers, but after I got with my co-writer, Khaila Amazan, [it became that way]. She was really a great tool in showing me not only how to make a movie and build a script, but she was also a K-pop fanatic. I got to go through script writing 101 and K-pop music 101. I learned about the shows that they put [Idol trainees] on and have them debut on. Then there\u2019s all the different positions that are in a group. Again, it just made me draw back to the different groups that I knew. I\u2019m a big music nerd when it comes to Black music and just pop music. I love it. It\u2019s very rare that there\u2019s anything new under the sun. It\u2019s usually things that have been done and now there\u2019s different interpretations of it based on wherever we\u2019re at now. I feel like Korea and K-pop is having its time and it\u2019s been growing and growing and growing.<\/p>\n
\n\tK-pop was big at the time, but it has gotten even bigger every year that I\u2019ve been working on this. It\u2019s been quite a journey just learning about the whole system and even making the original music. Once I realized we were going to put him on this fictional show that was based around shows like Produce 101, I had to go in and do a deep dive of how K-pop songs are structured, which is really fun and lots of switch up and songs that are really catered towards good choreo and everything.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou worked, and are working, with producer Dem Jointz on music for and inspired by the movie. He\u2019s a big name producer in the world of K-pop these days. What was that like? <\/p>\n
\n\tWorking with Dem Jointz was huge. I had already been working with him for years. I met Dem Jointz through Dr. Dre \u2014 I always called Dem Jointz, Dr. Dre 2.0. He\u2019s the guy that worked under him the most and is the most versatile, craziest talent; his mind is just going a million miles a second. He\u2019s now one of the biggest K-pop producers, and he has molded the K-pop sound, but it\u2019s all based around just who he is as a producer. I don\u2019t know if there is a typical K-pop sound. It\u2019s pulling from R&B, hip hop, EDM, whatever, but the way Dem Jointz produces, that\u2019s how he\u2019s always been. He\u2019s just a guy that gets in there, and he\u2019s a crazy mad scientist that has all these ideas. It was almost like Dr. Dre, he moved over to K-pop and took over that sound. I would say [Dr. Dre\u2019s company] Aftermath isn\u2019t dead, it just moved to K-pop. Through Dem Jointz, that was what I realized.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t.Paak and Kevin Woo on the set of \u2018KPops!\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\tTell me about the cameos and actors in the film that come from the world of K-pop. Kevin Woo obviously is someone who is extremely familiar with the environment and knows what being an idol is like.<\/p>\n
\n\tI think it adds to authenticity. It was important to have real people that knew about the world in there. Shout out to Kevin, one of the first people we cast. It\u2019s awesome that he\u2019s even still picking up our phone calls because he is part of the biggest thing in the world right now with KPop Demon Hunters, but none of us knew anything about that. I don\u2019t think he even knew about that. He was just always so humble and so down to rock with everything. He hadn\u2019t been used to playing a villain. He just did so well with taking direction and providing a lot of info and insight about how things would really go. A lot of things with the language, the music, it was awesome working with him because he had the knowledge. I think that was very pivotal. It\u2019s tough, man, when you get to casting and who you can actually cast legally with all these different things that were going on, and someone that could speak English but also speak Korean and also dance and also sing. It was very tough to find someone who could do all the things. He was big with that and a lot was riding on his performance. He just killed it. To see now how successful he is with his other projects, it\u2019s awesome. <\/p>\n
\n\tI do wonder if the success of KPop Demon Hunters made you more confident about the timing of this coming out. You\u2019ve obviously been working on it for years. K-pop is in the zeitgeist right now. Are you happy this is coming out in a time like that?<\/p>\n
\n\tYeah. I believe in fate, and I believe everything\u2019s perfect timing. Leading up to this I was like, \u201cDamn, did we miss the boat? Is it taking too long for people even care anymore?\u201d I think it\u2019s perfect, and it\u2019s right on time. I think it\u2019s great that K-pop music, K-pop cinema, everything is blowing up and people are having to discuss certain things. And now there are questions being asked and conversations being had.<\/p>\n
\n\tI think this is a great addition to the conversation. This is a unique story that is needed, and K-pop fans are going to be surprised going to this movie thinking that it\u2019s all about K-pop. I think they\u2019re going to enjoy it, but they\u2019re also going to be surprised at the fact that it\u2019s about more than just K-pop music or about the cameos or anything like that. I really hope, in the end, people are exposed to some new things that they didn\u2019t know before and it opens up their palette a bit.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tK-POPS!, Anderson .Paak, 2024. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAura Entertainment\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
\n\tThis movie feels very authentic to the world it\u2019s in. I know some fans can be very precious and might feel like people are coming to cash in on what they see as a popular thing. There\u2019s a line in the movie where someone says to you \u201cJust another person coming to capitalize off of K-pop\u201d or something to that effect. It feels like K-pop has become ingrained in your life after working on this.<\/p>\n
\n\tI have fun collabing. I have fun pulling from the well of different things that I\u2019m into and collabing with different people and creating something new. This is another way. It\u2019s K-pop but, more importantly, this is more about me wanting to make something new and make something that I felt was needed at the time. I have been wanting to get into film space. A lot of the offers I get are pretty much glorified cameos or something to do with trauma. Something that\u2019s just like, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s not fun. I wanted to do something fun, inspiring and joyful, and this is what I felt like was something that I could really pull off and wanted to do as my first film.<\/p>\n
\n\tI understand people being precious with the genre of K-pop. For a long time, it was something that was considered niche and was kept in a bubble, and now that\u2019s blown up. But again, these feelings aren\u2019t new. If you feel some type of way, then imagine how Black people felt when people like Elvis or The Stones were coming out and doing Black music that they\u2019ve been doing for years, and now they\u2019re seeing it blow up. These are all feelings that have happened before and all different things that have taken place within music history. This is just a more recent version of it. I\u2019m glad I can be telling a unique story about it, while not doing something divisive and more so trying to bring people together. That\u2019s how my son was even born into the world \u2014 because of his parents\u2019 love of music and coming together from two different worlds. Now he\u2019s doing his own music. He\u2019s going to have his own story to tell. I\u2019m glad that we could make something that is part of that.<\/p>\n
\n\tI think a lot of people shy away from talking about what you\u2019re saying, but there\u2019s a lot more in common in music genres than people might want to admit.<\/p>\n
\n\tYeah, and there shouldn\u2019t be anything wrong with going back and studying how these things came about, and then embracing that, taking care of that and acknowledging it. Then moving on [and] making something innovative from there, because that\u2019s how it\u2019ll take care of you. When you go and study and follow and you learn it, that shows that you have a love for the craft, and you\u2019re going to help preserve it and protect it. You\u2019re going to uphold it. If you don\u2019t, then you\u2019re just taking, and at the end [of the day], it\u2019s going to take from you. It\u2019s not going to protect you in the end. I just feel like that\u2019s how things work. It shouldn\u2019t be something that angers anybody or something that people have to defend. Actually, if you just go back and learn, you\u2019ll see where people were pulling from and all these different things. How they were inspired and how we got to this point. So, yeah, I think that\u2019s important, man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the pandemic, Grammy Award-winning musician Anderson .Paak was looking for a way to connect with his son\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[213090,64,63,134,52275,255368,136],"class_list":["post-509100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-anderson-paak","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-k-pop-news","tag-kpops","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}