Yes Lawd!
Multi-hyphenate creative Anderson .Paak and film screenwriter-producer Khaila Amazan rolled into USC Thursday evening for a special conversation about their latest project, “K-Pops!” They revealed the funniest behind-the-scenes stories from the filmmaking process while sharing the importance of storytelling and representation.
The movie, “K-Pops!” is .Paak’s latest labor of love, heavily rooted in his connection with his 15-year-old son Soul, as well as his unique connection with Black and Korean culture. Hosted by USC Annenberg and the USC Korean Studies Institute, the evening was moderated by Professor Hye Jin Lee, who wasted no time getting to the heart of the conversation by asking, “How did this film get developed?”
.Paak shared that it all started with his son in quarantine. Since the musician was stuck at his house, he filmed skits and uploaded them to Youtube with his son Soul, who, at the time, was sucked into the world of K-pop. Whenever Soul would bring K-pop up, Anderson would joke and tease, “K-pop? Boy! Tupac!”
The Oxnard native grew up in a Black household with his mom, and while his mom is also part Korean, she was adopted in the 50s and grew up with Black parents. .Paak shared that he “didn’t know anything about [his] Korean heritage.”
.Paak was first introduced to Korean culture through his son’s mother. But it wasn’t until Soul became obsessed with K-pop that the connection deepened, as .Paak began noticing familiar echoes within the music genre.
.Paak saw interesting correlations from the groups he grew up with like TLC, New Edition as well as his mom’s music (The Temptations, all the assembly line groups that Barry Gordy would create in the Motown era), when comparing them with the current K-pop production labels and training they use to create their “idols.” There was no denying that these K-pop boy/girl groups would take from the musical culture and history of Black Americans, from groups such as The Jackson 5 or Earth, Wind, and Fire.
.Paak shared that he wanted to explore a larger story using K-pop as a sandbox that can touch on his own experience in between cultures, Black and Korean, as there was a noticeable storytelling gap in Blasian culture.
“There were no Black and Asian stories on TV. I mean, we had ‘Rush Hour,’ ‘Romeo Must Die.’ Like, that was it,” .Paak said.
Knowing there were a lot more different and authentic stories to be told about the intersection of Black and Asian culture, .Paak moved forward to creating not just a skit, but a family film based within the world of K-pop music while being able to bond with Soul.
To take that idea and stretch it into what would be .Paak’s first feature film, he would collaborate with Khaila Amazan, who helped co-write the project. During the conversation, Amazan proudly shared that she’s been a K-pop fan since 2010. Upon hearing that .Paak was developing a film based around the genre, Amazan believed this was her moment to shine and immediately signed onto the project.
“I wrote in 2011 an AP Lit paper about how I thought K-pop’s gonna be big. I got a B+. And I’m like, look at it now,” Amazan said, chuckling.
Amazan recalled meeting three times a week for a year, squeezing writing sessions in between .Paak’s tour with Bruno Mars. Together, they worked to expand upon .Paak’s heartfelt and comedic ideas while building a cohesive family narrative that honored both Black and Korean culture.
Paak would reminisce about how they both went over films and music that Amazan thought he should watch and listen to, and vice versa, saying that Amazan was an encyclopedia for K-pop. Anderson would even start pacing and spewing ideas like he was rapping rather than writing, which let Amazan know he was in the zone. Through that type of collaborative process, they would learn from each other’s ideas and humour that would make “K-Pops!” special.
In terms of making the script as co-writers, .Paak talked about how Amazan “taught me about story arc, character, how a film is broken down into three parts…Kaihla came from a school background and she knew how to structure things. And then I was like, okay well, I want these jokes in there at least. You know, I want a couple fart jokes.”
After working on the script for years, they were able to infuse the story with plenty of fart jokes, as well as a real heart that honored .Paak’s relationship with Soul by taking inspiration from their actual relationship and mirror those joyous bonding moments and feelings onto the screen.
In .Paak and Amazan’s vision to bring a heartwarming father-son film to the big screen, they created a story that showcased Blasian identity with an authenticity that is rarely seen not just in Hollywood, but also in the space of storytelling.
“I even get hired for Black stories just for my ‘authenticity.’ And so one thing I liked [with .Paak and ‘K-Pops!’] is that you don’t have to force representation, trying to intentionally do it if it’s natural to you. [.Paak] naturally has a Korean family. [.Paak] naturally has Korean friends. I’m not Blasian. I’m Black, and I like Asian things, but it was just so natural and interesting for us because even in the film process, it was bifurcated, but thankfully, our creative chemistry allowed it to mesh together,” Amazan said.
.Paak wanted to tell a story based on himself and his son, which created Blasian representation without any “forced” narratives as a byproduct.
“I don’t think that it was like, oh, man, we have the weight of our culture on our shoulders. It was just a natural expression of what [.Paak] already goes through,” Amazan said.
They explained that there was no intention to be didactic, preachy or educational, and it shows through the film. Too often, telling the stories of a culture excludes perspectives, ideas, and involvement from the community that they tell the story about. “K-Pops!” is a movie made with a Blasian, not speaking for one. And .Paak’s thumbprints show up all over it, from the music, to the comedy, to the people on, and off the screen.
“If we don’t tell our stories, no one else will,” .Paak said. “I didn’t really realize until I got older that every time I see a person on the screen that looks like me, they’re doing drugs, or it’s violence, or it has to be some sort of trauma-based thing, and that was just what we grew up on.”
Amazan added that we are at a time where representation is evolving, and “K-Pops!” is a new story that hybridizes the next step of representation for different communities in a positive way.
During the filming process, being a first-time director and actor, .Paak had to be constantly on his toes as he was constantly revising and scrapping ideas on the ground with Amazan.
They would pivot dialogue on the script, adapt to switching crews from America to Korea to Saudi Arabia, and venture off scenes on the fly. Coming from a music background, .Paak explained he approached filmmaking the same way he would’ve made an album, leaning into instincts and trying different things on the spot. Paak laughed thinking of industry skepticism, “Doing a feature film is a whole other beast…they were just looking at me like, all right, he could blow it. But he’s got a great smile.” Khaila noted that it was challenging, but was fun and led to some of the best ideas, such as the animation scenes.
After being asked how the animated scenes came about, .Paak bluntly responded, “Yeah, no, I ran out of money.” He explained how after running out of money to film .Paak pitched an animated montage to cover. And even though his team was skeptical, that improv decision became vital to the story, making drawing and animated montages as a motif as a way to bridge the audience through different parts of the movie and showcase all the original music.
To truly bring the film to life and to handle both Black culture and Korean music with grace and respect, .Paak explained they also had to get real-life artists who embody these music scenes to be in the film. He enlisted longtime collaborator and K-pop producer Dem Jointz for the soundtrack, much to the delight of Amazan who revealed she was a huge fan and even emailed .Paak an entire wish list of artists she wanted involved. The music would have to fit with the story and scenes, and because .Paak’s bar for music taste is so high, Amazan revealed that “I gotta get like really good K-pop. If I showed him ‘gnarly,’ I would’ve been cooked. If he heard ‘fried chicken gang,’ he’ll be confused.”
For many of the cameos, .Paak would quickly realize how strict record labels were and how schedule-conflicted groups were, but he would reach out to people personally, and more often than not, they would be down to be involved in the project. From K-pop veterans like Vernon, legends like Earth, Wind, and Fire, and even internet personas like iShowSpeed, .Paak shared that he’s grateful for them offering their time and smiled as he explained that pitching it as a family-focused film was a big persuader for many special appearances.
.Paak continued to smile and laugh, sharing how his son kept on growing and told him to stop growing in between production. He also talked about how Soul, in the time that it took for them to finish the script and start acting, his K-Pop fandom faded into a Slipknot obsession.
The room shared chuckles as .Paak shared that he chased Soul’s interest in K-Pop for half a decade, but Soul would move on from his K-pop obsession, leaving them with a film to finish.
Paak joked, “All right, son. They got contractual obligations.”
As Soul was moving away from wanting to dance and was getting into playing the drums, .Paak says that when he wrote his finale performance in the film, he got Soul a moment where he dances and then hops on the drums.
.Paak reminisced telling his son, “Wow, man. I’m proud of you as my boy.”
Amazan made the point that filming it was like a home video, a time capsule of .Paak’s life.
.Paak jokingly agreed, “Yeah, a very expensive home video.”