Anderson .Paak is explaining the difference between appreciation and appropriation as it relates to K-pop and its Black music roots.
In a new interview with Complex News, the 40-year-old multihyphenate, who is both Black and Korean, spoke about making his directorial debut with the film K-Pops! which also stars his 14-year-old son, Soul.
Near the six-minute mark in the video linked above, Complex’s Jillian Superstar asked Paak about the line in the film, “The Jackson's walked so BTS could dance,” and how K-pop is heavily influenced by Black culture.
“Where do we draw the line or the distinction between appreciation and appropriation,” she asked.
Paak explained that K-pop has grown from a niche genre within Korea into a global phenomenon, saying, “Every year it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and I think every year now they have to learn. People have questions now, and people are being exposed.”
He pointed out that much of K-pop draws from Black music and stressed that understanding this history is essential to approaching it respectfully.
“Anytime you're in the music business people are going to take the business model and do it their own way, and that's just how it's going to happen,” he explained. “It's not going to stop for anyone, but what you can do is learn from it. In order to really take care of the genre and to have respect for it, you learn about it and that's going to make it to where you're not appropriating—where you are appreciating because … you have respect for where it came from, and you're able to handle it with grace and with care and to the next generation.”
Paak explained that without knowledge of Black cultural roots, actions can become disrespectful.
“If you don't have any knowledge of it, then you will be going off and doing you know dumb stuff and that's disrespectful to the culture and that's only when you don't have a good sense of knowledge of what came before," he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Paak also reflected on his personal connection to both Black and Korean cultures.
“I didn't grow up Korean. I grew up in a Black household,” Paak shared. “The mother of my two sons is straight from Korea, and so they speak the language now and I got introduced to all the culture through her.”
Paak said he saw the film as a way to celebrate the commonalities between cultures and create positive representation.
“I hope this opens the door for more stories like this ‘cuz, you know, we pretty much got Rush Hour,” he said of the 1998 buddy cop film starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. “That's the only thing you really see Asians and Blacks on screen.”
He continued, “I know there's a lot of Blasians out there. I know there's a lot of stories out there and I hope we see more representation on the big screen. and I'm glad that we were able to you know have something different where it's I could have pulled from like a lot of traumatic things in my life but it was important for me to have something that was joyous and something where you could see the families connecting together a father and son connecting on screen and um something that is more about the things that helped us cope with the trauma.
“I could have pulled from like a lot of traumatic things in my life but it was important for me to have something that was joyous and something where you could see the families connecting together—a father and son connecting on screen."