Blackpink’s Rebel Yell: ‘Pink Venom’ Collaborators on Making the K-Pop Stars’ Liberating and Defiant New Album

Because the reigning queens of Okay-pop, there’s loads driving on Blackpink’s sophomore album. The lady group could be forgiven for taking part in it protected, however they defy expectations on “Pink Venom” (out now) by concerning well timed matters, including a sure F-word to their vocabulary, and sprinkling in gradual jams. Helping Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa with the pivot is an eclectic batch of collaborators, who at the moment are lifting the veil on the artistic course of.

Bekuh Increase — aka singer-songwriter Rebecca Rose Johnson — has been with Blackpink for the reason that starting. Actually. “I met them once they had been nonetheless trainees,” she remembers. “We had the identical Korean trainer.”

In 2012, Increase was in Seoul pursuing her personal artist deal and was related with Blackpink through YG Leisure. Earlier than lengthy, she had co-written their debut singles “Whistle” and “Boombayah.” As an unique collaborator, it’s solely becoming that Increase returns for “Pink Venom,” which represents each a sonic and thematic rebirth. On “Typa Woman,” the group sounds fiercer and extra unapologetic than ever earlier than, hyping themselves up over blistering hip-hop/pop manufacturing. “I convey cash to the desk, not your dinner,” they sing. “Each my physique and my checking account bought determine.”

“It’s a music to empower girls,” Increase says of the monitor. “Once I hear it, I really feel just like the shit — and I need different girls to listen to it and really feel that means too.” She wrote the unique demo at Teddy Park’s (the group’s go-to producer) Black Label studio final yr and didn’t know if it might even be launched. “I believed Lisa may use it for her subsequent solo single,” the Orange County native says, “however I’m tremendous pleased that it’s going to be on the album.”

Whereas Increase is a part of the household at this level, she doesn’t take it without any consideration: “It’s a blessing to at all times get requested again.” She feels a private reference to Blackpink and enjoys Okay-pop’s artistic course of. “In South Korea, there’s much more respect for the writers and producers to get their second to shine,” Increase says of the distinction between working there and within the U.S. “If someone didn’t do one thing, their title isn’t going to be on it.”

One other Blackpink collaborator is Brian Lee, higher recognized within the U.S. as a daily contributor to songs by Publish Malone (he performed — and slayed — bass for Publish’s all-Nirvana, at-home live performance through the pandemic). He’s additionally one thing of a fixture of their camp, and “Tally,” the music he co-wrote for “Pink Venom,” is totally different from something the group has launched previously.

Till very not too long ago, it might have been unthinkable for a Okay-pop act to file an ode to sexual freedom. Maybe unsurprisingly, given the subject material, two of Lee’s co-contributors are girls. Australian songwriter Nat Dunn performed the demo for him in London and Lee instantly noticed the potential. “I simply advised them that the melody has to tug in your heartstrings within the pre-chorus,” he remembers. “Nevertheless it was Nat’s child.”

“I used to be simply obsessive about it,” Dunn affirms. The music was impressed by co-writer Soraya LaPread, who introduced up the topic in a session with manufacturing duo Salt Wives. “Judgment is one thing that numerous girls come throughout,” Dunn provides. “These lyrics are so impactful coming from them.” David Phelan and Alex Oriet, the artists behind Salt Wives, agree. “We are able to’t think about an act who higher embodies its [defiant] message than Blackpink.”

Nonetheless, the monitor wasn’t particularly written with the Okay-pop idols in thoughts. “We weren’t actually capturing for Blackpink,” Lee says. “It was a shock once we discovered it’s on their album.” Whereas different artists confirmed curiosity, Dunn knew that Blackpink was the precise alternative. “The music is the star in any room,” she asserts. “The selection is at all times about what’s greatest for the music. And on this case, Blackpink was the very best for this music.”

Lee ultimately performed “Tally” for Park, who successfully oversaw all the pieces “Pink Venom,” and the producer hand-picked it for the group. “He’s the pioneer of Okay-pop,” Lee says. “Teddy remodeled Okay-pop to simply imply pop. He made it common.”

Park was additionally instrumental in selecting one other standout, “Laborious To Love,” for the album. Arguably, Blackpink’s most susceptible music to this point, the disco-tinged anthem finds the quartet baring their flaws.

Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa belt on the refrain. “So don’t fall too laborious, ‘trigger I’m laborious to like.” Fairly the hanging sentiment after taking into account the aspirational high quality that informs the music and aesthetic of Okay-pop.

Songwriter-entrepreneur Freddy Wexler conjured “Laborious To Love” throughout a jam session with pals. He despatched the demo to Park and was shocked to listen to again the very subsequent day.

“I bought a FaceTime name and it’s Teddy, Lisa and Rosé” Wexler recollects. Whereas there’s a regimented strategy to Okay-pop, he described “Laborious To Love” as an overwhelmingly natural — and quick — course of. “I pitched it in June this yr,” Wexler says. Over the subsequent month, he would FaceTime with Park and the group, who recommended tweaks. “I might change the important thing and Blackpink would simply sing it again.”

Wexler was intimidated at first. “Music is nearly a spiritual expertise for Okay-pop followers, so there’s a strain to ship one thing that’s worthy,” he says. “Laborious To Love,” nevertheless, turned out higher than he might’ve ever imagined. “Usually, it’s by no means pretty much as good because it was in your head,” he prefaces, “this was an exception.” Whereas Blackpink has mastered catchy pop hooks and shiny promotion, they go deeper on “Laborious To Love” — showcasing their vulnerability and uncooked emotion, not like something they’ve finished earlier than.

That newfound maturity is on the core of the Okay-Pop group’s progress as artists, and additional asserts their knack for choosing dedicated collaborators. “I by no means sit down to put in writing a Okay-pop music,” Increase says. “I simply sit down to put in writing a terrific pop music.”