After working in SoHo, I popped into Iconic on Mulberry to peep the magazines. Peeped a lil fine shorty too. As I’m ear hustling with one ear cup off to find an in to speak, I overhear “Howard,” “BTS,” “a little trouble” shared between her, the shop lady, and her friend. Her friend, probably 40s with greys in her hair, is unexpectedly the k-pop stan initiating the convo. I chat to them both to get the details that I missed as she’s talking about her “biases” and the tradition of idols taking breaks from their groups.
Quick rundown. BTS did a promo video for ARIRANG, their next project. A part of the short clip is a scene of a group of 7 Koreans singing on Howard University’s campus in 1896 that you wouldn’t know was Howard except for their signature clock tower atop the Founder’s Library (the trouble). This refers to the real group of 7 Korean runaway sons of noblemen that, being blocked elsewhere, popped up to enroll not knowing any English. They went on to record a version of “Arirang” that stands as the earliest audio recording of Korean music and Koreans in the US.
I knew Koreans and the Black South had ties from growing up with my guys in East Atlanta (one being we like similar food) but this was a brand new story for me. Can’t say I’m too mad, learned something new. There’s plenty of cultural exchange between Asian people and Black people that won’t pass the modern purity tests since it’s not always a “We Are the World” UN thing. Looks like a good time to better monetize and collaborate to get ahead of the exploits.
Looking into the credits, I see maybe that’s my comfort of being from Atlanta because look here Mr. Mike WiLL Made-It, one of the main architects of the 21st century Atlanta sound himself, has credits on multiple songs on the BTS album (along with JPEGMAFIA). Mike WiLL has his own tape dropping the same day.
The effort to bring K-Pop further into the US is clear. I liked Lalisa’s album featuring Future even though it’s been panned in reviews. Hybe’s Katseye has good songs outside of “Gnarly” if you listen to “Gameboy” and “Gabriela” (also MM 👀). It’s not new for the East to tap into the popular sounds of the US which Black-led genres are a foundational pillar of. Check out these J-Pop tracks from the 2000s: Neptunes/Timbaland-inspired beats, attempts at soulful crooning, and a song that could easily sit in a Moesha soundtrack. For a long time, music journeymen knew good music is everywhere but wouldn’t always bloom in your environment in the wrong package. Now an off chance found sound can be more easily followed by a call, a flight, a move.
I notice a particular interest to get Black guys to care about this wave. If you can get me into it, you can get someone at Roc Nation into it who can pitch it to Hov and then the NFL Super Bowl halftime show is not far off. We’re all attempting to expand our global reach if you haven’t noticed.
from Montez ★