South Korea Pops for Black Music Producers

If you visit Seoul, South Korea these days, you can feel the influence of African American culture everywhere. It’s laced in the music playing in nightclubs, restaurants, and shopping malls. It’s in the fashion – the hoodies, sneakers and jewelry sported in schoolyards and on the streets.

Welcome to the K-Pop empire, the pop phenomenon where Black writers and producers have a hand in making music for such acts as BTS, Blackpink, and Tomorrow X Together. In a 2017 press conference, Bang Si-Hyuk, CEO and Founder of BTS’ management agency, Big Hit Music, said “Black music is the base” of the superstars’ musical sound and identity. Even before the band debuted in 2013, its members unofficially released “Born Singer,” which samples J. Cole’s “Born Sinner” with original Korean lyrics. On June 10, the septet officially released and remastered their song on album “PROOF.” Their new releases also features prominent Black producers like Dem Jointz whose credits include not only Western artists Kanye West (now Ye), and Anderson .Paak but more K-Pop acts like SHINee, EXO, NCT and newcomer NMIXX.

Yet as K-Pop’s vibrant videos featuring energetic dance hip-hop, house, and EDM attracts a global fanbase, critics of the genre have also found a growing audience pointing out the genre’s racial stereotyping, from Blackface to cultural appropriation.

Navigating such a racially-charged space is no cakewalk for Black producers, but these pioneers continue to power the K-Pop phenomenon.

“It’s amazing”, says Lil Rod, an L.A.-based rapper and hip-hop producer. Lil Rod has collaborated with The Underdogs, an r&b production duo featuring Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas. The Underdogs have produced and arranged songs for an array of artists under Korea’s SM Entertainment, including boy group EXO and girl group Girls’ Generation for their respective 2014 title tracks Overdose and Mr. Mr.

“You’re getting somewhere between, let’s just say, seven people to 30 people all in one room let’s say for a week,” he says of so-called “camps”, in which labels bring in groups of creatives to write and produce for an artist. “ … you guys are obviously in studio 12, 16 hours a day, for a week, or maybe two … and every day there’s about four major artists popping in and out.”

Unlike Western music labels which tend to favor the trendiest creatives, K-Pop labels like to tap veteran Black creatives, he says.

“When you’re working with these types of artists, they’re hiring you just for who you are. They trust what you’re doing, and they already look up to you, so the flow is so much easier for them,” says Lil Rod.

Thaddeus Dixon, also an L.A.-based producer, songwriter, and music director adds, “When I travel overseas, I definitely see the gratitude that other countries have for the artwork that we display in America. They have a strong appreciation for what we create.”

Dixon’s work links to members of Girls’ Generation. Dixon produced Taeyeon’s Secret, a bonus to her 2016 digital release Rain.

“It was just something, you know, different. Something that will challenge me to open up my eyes and ears more.”

Producing Secret was surprisingly easy, Dixon says. R&B singer and actress Kiana Ledé sang the demo while he created the backtrack.

“Sometimes if you’re creating for artists in the same genre … it could be tiring or uninspiring or repetitive, so this was something like, ‘Oh, okay cool. Let’s try it,’” says Dixon. “In this business, what’s the worst that can happen? They just don’t take the song,” he said.

“Sometimes you work with artists, and you have to make, you know, eight, nine, ten versions and edits and stuff like that. But this one, we just made one edit, or one version based on, you know, what they kind of wanted, or the synopsis was, and it was off,” says Dixon.

Through the years, producers like Thaddeus Dixon have grown to master the genre’s routines. Creators are given a set of guidelines by the label, they then record and send the demo. If it is well received, it is edited and then recorded by one of the artists under the label.

Although producing for a different market can be a challenge, Dixon did not see it as an obstacle.

Lil Rod and Dixon say language differences can be barriers, but can be overcome through an appreciation for each other’s cultures. Dixon worked closely with Girls’ Generation member Tiffany Young during her North American tour Magnetic Moon as her music manager. Girl’s Generation is returning in August as a full group for their first album in 5 years.

“They entrusted me to deliver her music on a performance scale,” Dixon says. ”That was amazing.”

“In this industry, in this business, it’s cutthroat,” Dixon says. “You can be up one day and you produce this and then the next day you’re going to feel like nothing. So to be appreciated from people who don’t know you, don’t share the same experiences as you, it’s rewarding in a real like, heartfelt way.”

“When people create music [in the States] it’s usually based on a lot of different types of experiences … whether it’s going to the club, whether it’s, you know, being in the hood, being in the ghetto,” says Dixon. “Overseas, they aren’t privy to some of those experiences. So it’s a little harder, but that’s also a draw that American producers or creators have because it’s very interesting to people overseas.”

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This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 9:00 AM.