Anderson .Paak and aespa are joining forces on “Keychain,” a new track from the soundtrack to K-POPS!.
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The nine-time Grammy-winning artist-producer and the SM Entertainment quartet announced the collaboration on Instagram Monday (Feb. 23), sharing cover art of a purple fuzzy bag featuring a miniature .Paak keychain alongside an aespa logo charm. “Keychain” is due Feb. 27 at midnight ET.
Production comes from Dem Jointz, whose K-pop credits include NCT’s “Cherry Bomb,” EXO’s “Obsession,” aespa’s “Supernova” and SHINee’s “Don’t Call Me.”
While “Keychain” marks .Paak and aespa’s first official release together, .Paak is no stranger to the K-pop world. His past collaborations include Dean’s sleek R&B track “Put My Hands on You” and RM’s vibrant, genre-blending “Still Life” from Indigo.
More recently, .Paak featured on and coproduced G-DRAGON’s punchy, groove-driven “Too Bad” from Übermensch. aespa’s Karina also made a cameo in the “Too Bad” video, adding another link between the artists ahead of “Keychain.”
Ahead of the film’s 2024 Toronto International Film Festival premiere, .Paak told The Hollywood Reporter that K-POPS! grew out of the COVID-19 lockdown, when he and his son began making skits after his son said he wanted to be a YouTuber. He said the project expanded through researching K-pop — from its competition-show structure to its musical ties to ’90s R&B and gospel — and became a way to explore Black and Korean cultural duality through both the story and the soundtrack.
K-POPS! was cowritten by .Paak and Khaila Amazan, and features original music created with Dem Jointz. The film stars .Paak alongside Soul Rasheed, Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park and Yvette Nicole Brown, with cameo appearances from G-DRAGON, SEVENTEEN’s Vernon, Jay Park, Jessi and Crush. It opens exclusively in AMC Theatres on Feb. 27.
See aespa and Anderson .Paak’s “Keychain” announcement below:
This story was originally published by Billboard Korea.
