What’s it look like when the most-subscribed musical act on YouTube gear up for their next album cycle? Rolling Stone took a trip to Seoul to embed with BlackPink as the K-pop girl group hit the studio to work on the follow-up to their smash 2020 collection The Album, in the city where the mag said, “you see them everywhere, from tiny screens in elevators to billboards on skyscrapers.”
The cover story follows the group as the quartet — Jennie, Jisso, Lisa and Rosé — work on their next album, which is reportedly due out later this year. And the biggest take-away is that the four women are way, way more involved in the creative process than even Blinks might realize.
“We don’t just receive a completed song,” says Jisoo, 27, the lead vocalist who grew up less than 20 miles away from the headquarters of their management company, YG Entertainment. “We are involved from the beginning, building the blocks, adding this or that feeling, exchanging feedback — and this process of creating makes me feel proud of our music. If we just received pre-made songs, it would feel mechanical. I feel more love for the process, because we say, ‘How about adding this in the lyrics? How about adding this move in the choreography?’”
Multilingual rapper Lisa, 25, describes how their main producer, Teddy Park, is a firm, but strict taskmaster in the studio. ““Oppa directs all of Blackpink,” she says, referring to the 43-year-old producer using a Korean honorific for an older man. “He knows us incredibly well. He pushes us hard. ‘Again, again, again,’ he’d say.”
It also chronicles their long, hard road to stardom, beginning with the traditional k-pop “training” period, an intensive series of auditions, call-backs, vocal and dance lessons, choreography drills, performing in front of panels of judges and endless rehearsals that have helped parent company YG Entertainment spin-off such precursor global stars as Big Bang and 2NE1.
And, despite their iconic status at home and around the world, according to 26-year-old rapper Jennie, most of the time they want what everyone their age does. “More than anyone, we want to be ordinary girls,” she says. “Sure, there are times when we talk about what kind of influence we could have. But what we actually love is talking about our cats, dogs, good food, and pretty places.”
In between pining for those mundane, day-to-day experiences, they’re also interested in elevating, and maybe even changing, what hip-hop means in 2022 to a global audience. “Hip-hop is in my blood,” says Lisa, who went solo last year for the first time with the Park-written single “Lalisa,” which fused hip-hop and EDM grooves with traditional Thai instrumentation.
“I don’t think hip-hop is just about rapping. Look at Rihanna, she could make anything hip-hop. Hip-hop means something different to everyone,” adds Jennie. “To me, it’s the spirit of cool — vibes, swag, whatever words you can use. I think Blackpink’s hip-hop is something the world hasn’t seen before. We, four girls in their twenties from different backgrounds, are using -Korean and English to weave pop music with a hip-hop base. Maybe if the really cool rappers in America, who do ‘real hip-hop,’ look at us, it can seem a little like kids doing things. Our hip-hop isn’t the rebellious kind, but we are doing something very cool. What hip-hop is this? I don’t know! It’s just cool!”
While they are actively gearing up for their latest incarnation, the mid-20 singers are also looking forward, imaging what it might be like to share the stage in 20 years. “I mean, won’t Blackpink last at least 10 more years? We’ll be nearly 40 by then,” Lisa says. “Someday we’ll get married and things like that. But then I see the Spice Girls, how they got together for a reunion concert. Can we do that too someday? Will I be able to dance then, like I do now?”
Jennie suggests that even if they’re 70 and have very different lives, “I’ll still feel like I’m Blackpink. As corny as it sounds, I don’t think Blackpink will ever end in my heart. It’s a part of my family. You can’t deny your family.”
