Seventeen member Vernon is digging into the inspiration behind his latest album, V8, which he made with fellow group member The 8.
“It was The 8 who suggested this unit in the first place to both me and our label,” Vernon tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I said yes because I felt like I could do something fun with him. I think we have relatively synchronized taste in music out of Seventeen.”
Known for his love of hyperpop, the 28-year-old rapper, a New York native, is a member of the popular K-pop boy group Seventeen. He, along with The 8, decided to branch out from the group’s typical sound to release the hyperpop-filled duo album. Understandably, the playlist Vernon made for THR is filled with gems from the genre.
Featuring Jack Ü, Bladee and Mechatok, 100 Gecs, Blur and Madeon and LMFAO, his playlist is never boring. “I usually make playlists when I want to focus on listening to a specific sound or genre, or when I’m working on a song and I want to pull different references from different songs for the song,” Vernon says. “I frequently shuffle or just let the algorithm take me wherever it does.”
Vernon and The 8’s lead single, “Singasong,” even features some LMFAO-inspired shuffling choreography. “I went to a Korean middle school, but even in Korea, everyone was infected by [‘Party Rock Anthem’]. Every time a period ended, I went out to the hallway and everybody would be just shuffling nonstop like crazy,” he says.
“After finishing our song, ‘Singasong,’ I knew we had to dance for this, but I kept contemplating what kind of dance we should do,” he says. “Then I saw Romance Planet, which is a different musician who shuffles to his own music, and that really inspired me to maybe just bring back the ‘Party Rock Anthem’ shuffle.”
In a new episode of The Playlist, Vernon takes THR through some of his favorite songs that inspired V8, what it was like working with The 8 on their album and how he feels K-pop has changed sonically over the years.