Anderson .Paak‘s K-Pops! (Music from and inspired by K-Pops! Motion Picture), due May 29, started out as a companion album to his directorial debut, K-Pops!, which hits Netflix May 30, after a theatrical run earlier this year. The album is packed with A-list K-pop guest stars, living up to the family comedy’s setting in South Korea’s idol industry: aespa, NMIXX, Joshua of Seventeen, Soyeon of (G)I-DLE, Hongjoong of ATEEZ, JO1, G-Dragon, Jay Park, Chung Ha, Lngshot, Crush, Dean, and Kevin Woo are all on board. But it’s also full of Paak’s own vocals, and thoroughly guided by his lush, retro-leaning sensibility, so it ends up being the closest thing to a Paak solo album since 2019’s Ventura.
Paak is currently on the road with Bruno Mars, where he’s pulling double duty as opener DJ Pee .Wee and onstage with Mars for the show’s Silk Sonic segment. With his Dean collaboration “Aftertaste” out now, Paak talked with Rolling Stone about making his album, the future of Silk Sonic, working with his son, Soul Rasheed, and more.
This is definitely as much an Anderson .Paak album as it is a soundtrack.
Yeah, definitely, man. I wanted it to be like a collision of both worlds. I wanted to bring these K-pop bands and artists into my world and create something with me and [producer] Dem Jointz, who’s been working with a lot of K-pop artists and worked with me on the soundtrack and the movie. I wanted to bring them into our world and have fun painting on this canvas and do different things that I felt like weren’t usually done within their element. And it was very much so an Anderson .Paak album, if you will, in the K-pop world.
The album is also a good reminder of the obvious point that K-Pop comes from Black American music.
Yeah, for sure. And a lot of times too, you don’t get K-pop compilations like this where these bands are on the same album as each other. With these groups and these solo acts, I don’t know if it’s ever been done like this before. So we wanted to do something that hadn’t been done and at the same time, like you said, remind people what this really is.
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Which is?
It’s definitely Black music, R&B music, hip hop. And a lot of times with the K-pop music it’s their interpretation of it, and we’ve seen it before — everybody’s interpretation, whether it’s K-pop or within Indian music. There’s been so many different times where it’s been done. And I think the intriguing part with the whole thing is seeing people’s interpretation of it and how they do it. But I think it’s about respecting the culture and the music and paying homage as well, so that it’ll take care of you in the long run.
As you hinted at, these acts are on competing labels. It’s not easy to get them all on one project. How did you even do that?
Shit, dude. I thought hip-hop was political, man. This shit is crazy, man. It was tough just getting everybody on board and then going through the clearances with everything. This is one of the hardest things, man, just within the movie and now within the soundtrack and getting visuals done. It was very tough. But once people were on board and once people saw the movie and seen what we were trying to do, everybody was just a pleasure to work with, man. And I don’t know very many people who could bring all these people together, and I’m honored that I was able to do it and with my producer Dem Jointz. I don’t think it would’ve been possible without him.
He’s been working in the scene for years now, and he was a very important piece in making sure we had the right songs for everybody. And we had a content shoot in Korea and having everybody come, and it was almost like a little K-pop camp. I miss everybody. But it was really tough, man. It just took a lot of patience and a lot of hard work between me and Dem Jointz, and we got it done.
You haven’t released a solo album since 2019. Does this feel a bit like a solo album to you?
Yeah. I mean, at first I was just thinking we wanna have a soundtrack to accompany the movie. There’s a lot of original music that’s in the movie, and I had fun creating a lot of songs for the movie. But then it kind of took on a world of its own, and it became, “Oh, wow, this is more than just a soundtrack now. This is actually my album.” Like you said, I’ve been very busy, and I haven’t put out a solo album, but every project that I’m involved with, I’m very involved with, and I can’t help it.
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I get my hands in everything, whether it’s NxWorries or Silk Sonic or any of these compilations. And this was the same thing, man. I wanted to just maybe put a few songs from the movie. Then it just became like, nah, I wanna make the greatest soundtrack possible. And I want this to be a moment just as big as the movie. I couldn’t help it.
What was it like working with your son?
It was dope to be able to work with my son in the studio and get him to do vocals. At the time we were doing the movie, and he was going through puberty and getting into teenage years. And so he went from really loving K-pop to loving Slipknot. So things changed. And when it became time for him to record and do his musical piece, I had to really find a song that he was comfortable doing because he didn’t really wanna sing. He was into different music.
Me and Jointz had this song, “Love Is Everywhere.” We had it for years. And I remember just stumbling upon it, and I was like, wow, maybe this could work. And it kind of worked with the theme, and it was in a range that I felt like he could do. And I played it for my son, and he liked it. And we got to go in the studio and record it. And having him record vocals to a song that I had for years and re-record my vocals was awesome, just hearing him sing. And he has a beautiful singing voice that I hope that he uses more, but he’s a little shy about it.
Any other collaborators that stood out?
Lngshot. [Rapper/singer] Jay Park’s group, really young guys coming up. When they recorded the song, man, I was just blown away. You never know what you’re gonna get when you send them the demos, and they come back and — they just blew it out the park and just killed it. And they were really cool to hang with. We shot the video too.
You and Dem Jointz went through your archives and pulled some stuff and finished it up for this album.
Yeah. I always say there’ll be no song left behind. I record a lot of songs, so I always like to go back in the archives and see if stuff works for movies or commercials or anything for other artists. So I got to do that. I have a lot of fun with that within the movie. I learned the hard way that music you want in movies, that shit starts to get expensive after a while. I had Lil Wayne, I had all kinds of different songs that I wanted to put in. When the budget came back, they were like, “Hey, they want this much. That’s this much.” I’m like, “All right. Well, maybe we’ll just use some of my songs that I have in archive,” ’cause I can’t afford something.
So I got to use songs that have been out, like “Jewels,” but then I got to use stuff that I did with producers like Rogét [Chahayed]. Like “The Last,” which I’ve had with him for a while, and we’ve been trying to get done for a while, and I’m really proud of. It kind of opens up the movie with this really beautiful animated sequence.
Tell me about putting together “Aftertaste” with Dean.
When Jointz played me that tune, he had the demo. I immediately thought of Dean. There’s very few people that I feel like can pull off the R&B sound in K-pop, and Dean’s one of them. We had a banger of a tune almost 10 years ago with “Put My Hands on You.” And I knew I wanted him on the soundtrack, but I was just trying to find the right song for him. And that was one right away I thought would be perfect, and I sent it to him. And I know he hadn’t been putting out music in a while, so I didn’t know if it was gonna work with his schedule or what he was gonna do.
And he came back right away and said he loved it. And he recorded it and just killed it. Dean’s very particular with his sound. And we had to go through different mixes and make sure everything was right. But he knocked it out the park. It was dope to be able to come back again after 10 years.
Since you have a prior association with RM and with BTS as a group, was there any talk of you doing something more with them?
I mean, I wanted to get something with them even within the movie, and we were talking. But then right when I was in the process of making this stuff, they were in the military. A lot of them were in the military. And RM was in there, and he wanted to do stuff. But it was just scheduling conflicts. And then they went into their writing camp, and then I was doing the soundtrack. And they were working mainly on stuff for their album. And then I was on tour. So it was just scheduling, man.
Could it have gone the other way too, where you were at their writing camp for Arirang?
Yeah, yeah. They had reached out, but then my scheduling was all upside down at that point too. So it was just like, man, couldn’t quite. But it seems like they did all right without me.
Are you looking at other movie ideas as a director?
Absolutely, man. I got my ass kicked on this movie. And I can’t wait to do it again. I learned a lot from this first film. And I just feel like if we don’t tell our stories, then I don’t know who will at this point because there’s not a lot of unique stories that are told like this, especially within Black and the Asian community. And the movies I grew up with, there wasn’t a lot of representation within that specifically. So I would love to be able to tell more stories within the film world, whether it’s acting or directing, producing, writing. I’m obsessed, so I can’t wait to do another one.
A lot of people maybe didn’t realize that you have Korean roots of your own. Have you encountered people who are just really surprised?
Absolutely. Especially from Koreans themselves. They’re claiming me hard right now, so it’s awesome to be claimed. And especially now that Koreans are trending real hard, so I’m in there now. I’m getting awards now for being Korean. It’s crazy. So I’m having a lot of fun, man.
You’re doing a Silk Sonic segment on the Bruno tour. How’s that been feeling?
It’s been great, man. It’s a hell of a gig. Shout out to Bruno, man. He’s putting your boy on a pedestal. He’s got me coming out there, and fireworks are going off, and it feels great to be back on stage with him again, man. He’s got the hottest ticket on the planet, and for him to beautifully put Silk Sonic within his set, it’s awesome and it’s an honor, man, to be on the stage with him. I think he’s probably the greatest entertainer that we have right now. And so to be able to share the stage with him is — I don’t take it lightly. And we have a lot of fun. And as DJ Pee .Wee, we get to open up as well, so I’m doing double duty out there. It’s a lot of fun.
Is Silk Sonic an ongoing thing? Do you think you guys will make another album?
Oh, man. Sure. I think it’s always in the cards, man. That’s the beautiful thing about having a group, man. You can always pull it out whenever you need it. And I’m glad that he’s enjoying the success of his latest project. We got a lot of shows. It looks like I’ll be on the road with him for the rest of my life. So I’m pretty sure we can squeeze another album out.
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Again, it’s been a long time since you dropped straight-up Anderson .Paak solo album. Do you have plans for that?
I definitely have big plans. And as soon as I can just sit down for two seconds — I’ve definitely been working on new material, but I just want it to be right and I want it to have the proper space it deserves. So you could definitely look forward to another solo project. I can’t tell you when, but I’m definitely working on it.
Anything else going on that we should know about?
Just come see us on the road, man, with Silk Sonic and Pee .Wee. And then I got some really fun stuff coming out on [my] label, Apeshit, that I’m really excited about. I don’t wanna give it away too soon, but they can look out for stuff for the label. More movie stuff and maybe even a book might be in the future as well. I can’t stay still for too long, so there’s always gonna be something.
