The New K-pop Girl Group Ready to ‘Evolve’ the Genre

“I had my very own imaginative and prescient for what I needed to listen to in Ok-pop,” says Paul Thompson, an Italian American who 11 years in the past moved to South Korea from California to show English, however has since turn into higher often known as chart-topping Ok-pop producer MZMC and founding father of MZMC Inc., an leisure group based mostly in Seoul. “I knew no different firm was 100% going to let me do the imaginative and prescient I had. It was time for me to attempt to evolve Ok-pop.”

Enter VVS, Thompson’s newly fashioned group eyeing October for its official debut, and with 4 albums already mapped out. Embodying his love for The Neptunes, Timbaland co-producer Danja and singer-songwriter-producer Ryan Leslie, Thompson created a streamlined sound for the brand new act, which is called after the diamond class of the identical identify. “I might say we’re mashing up Ariana [Grande’s] ‘POV’ and Nicki Minaj,” says Thompson, who calls the members of VVS “the fitting 5 to push Ok-pop ahead.”

With one Japanese and 4 Korean members, VVS includes Brittney (20, the group’s chief and English speaker), Ilee (19, a rapper impressed by Blackpink’s Jennie), Rana (18, the primary dancer who’s musically influenced by Lauryn Hill), Jiu (15, the primary vocalist who appears as much as Ok-pop powerhouse Taeyeon) and Liwon (15, a vocalist who admires fellow teen singer Kiana).

For now, the quintet has day by day rehearsals, vocal and rap classes, and group exercises. As their debut looms nearer, the members will transfer right into a shared dwelling area and add media coaching and language classes as a part of Ok-pop’s well-known trainee system. However in contrast to different trainees, the members of VVS could have had what Brittney and the women name “tradition lessons” to dig into the roots of R&B and hip-hop.

“From the cultural beginnings to right now the place feminine rappers are capable of carry out onstage with such confidence, the truth that we’re capable of be taught concerning the historical past of the OGs is admittedly significant,” Ilee says by a translator. “We realized about feminine rappers at first of the hip-hop business, like Lil’ Kim, who influences me as a result of she’s very assured.”

In the meantime, Brittney — who practically deserted her Ok-pop desires after time coaching in two totally different companies earlier than becoming a member of MZMC Inc. — pulls inspiration from an act nearer to dwelling. “BTS got here from a small firm,” she says. “We come from a small firm, too, so I feel there’s quite a bit that we are able to be taught from them. They’re very arduous employees, they put all their effort into their job, and once they carry out onstage, they’re 100%. I feel their teamwork is superb, so I inform my ladies about them, too.”

After initially shifting to South Korea to show English, Thompson spent the next decade turning into the chart-topping Ok-pop producer MZMC for arena-filling acts like EXO, NCT and Kang Daniel. Much like NewJeans mastermind Min Hee Jin and different Ok-pop creatives who’ve moved from the liner notes to the C-suite, Thompson reworked his producer moniker into a company entity, founding MZMC Inc. in early 2019 and incorporating as a Korean entity in January 2020 with an all-Korean workers and crop of songwriters that features Ok-pop idol Yuju and lyricists in Los Angeles and Nashville.

Thompson’s personal physique of labor — alongside key hires of administration, casting and artist growth veterans in Korea — shortly earned his new label the belief of the business. Blackpink’s company, YG Leisure, has already invested within the firm by a take care of its distribution division, YG Plus, to help in merchandising and advertising, in addition to international distribution.

And regardless of working as an Italian American in a predominantly Asian business, Thompson says, “All of the mother and father know what I’ve completed, all of the trainees know, and a variety of them audition due to the music. They understand, ‘OK, the corporate continues to be Korean, all of the contracts are completed in Korean, it simply occurs that the CEO will not be.’ ”

Regardless of its American influences, MZMC Inc. plans to focus on the worldwide Ok-pop fandom in addition to the scene’s core markets like Korea, Japan and English-speaking territories. “It’s going to be more durable for us to get throughout as a result of all the massive corporations have far more cash than us to place towards advertising,” Thompson says. “The easiest way we are able to market ourselves is to undergo different channels the place we don’t need to put an enormous finances behind that.”

That’s precisely why he has made one more unconventional transfer: welcoming Anderson Cooper to movie a CNN documentary about MZMC Inc. to air at a later date. Thompson believes embracing such an unfiltered method throughout a time of artistic experimentation factors to the kind of ambition wanted to interrupt by business hierarchies.

“They’re already going to be questioning if we’re authentically Korean,” Thompson says. “Quite a lot of the Korean corporations’ first goal demographic goes to be Korea. For us, it’s nonetheless Korea, however we all know now we have a barrier there to entry anyway, so let’s see how we are able to market ourselves extra precisely [beyond that].”

This story will seem within the April 27, 2024, problem of Billboard.