Director: Anderson .Paak
Writers: Anderson .Paak, Khaila Amazan
Stars: Anderson .Paak, Jee Young Han, Soul Rasheed
Synopsis: Follows a washed-up musician who jumps at the chance to capitalize on his long-lost son’s stardom for his own renaissance, but learns that fatherhood is much more than stardom.
It’s 2014. My friend PRiM tells us about an album called Venice, by an artist named Anderson .Paak. He’s from California, he has one of the most distinct voices I’ve ever heard from an artist, and the music absolutely rocks. A year later, that same artist pops up all over the long-awaited album from Dr. Dre, Compton. Every single feature from him on that album is different, and it’s exciting recognition for our friend group for having listened to him a year before the masses got a hold of him. A year later, in 2016, .Paak drops his album Malibu, and that’s the end of any semblance of obscurity for an artist we had quickly fallen in love with the past two years. He absolutely exploded. He was everywhere we looked; every feature was better and more exciting than the last. His creativity was working off the charts. He consistently shifted any expectations the public might have had about him. With each new project he released, whether solo, or with Knxwledge as “NxWorries” or Bruno Mars as “Silk Sonic”, .Paak is an artist who was able to pivot into new and exciting sounds without ever losing what made him unique. Now, 10 years later, attending my first Toronto International Film Festival, I was able to see K-Pops! celebrate its world premiere and serve as .Paak’s directorial feature film debut. In those ten years, it’s surreal to look back at the journey and see what led to this point in time. And in that regard, and many more, K-Pops! is an absolute treat.
Whether you know anything about .Paak or not feels irrelevant. The moment he bursts on screen is really all you need to know about him. He’s doing what he does best: delivering smooth vocals in his incredible, raspy voice while playing the drums as cleanly as ever. He’s clearly having a ton of fun with the role as far as brash performance goes, pulling from an experience that was likely quite personal to him (and to any artist searching for their big break). .Paak plays BJ, a musician who has been playing background drums at a little alleyway bar in Los Angeles for long enough that all the regulars seem to know about, and mildly put up with, his overreaching antics. He believes himself destined to be a star, and he certainly has the all-eyes-on-me demeanor, style, and talent to pull it off. All he needs is that break. Instead, he meets Yeji (Jee Young Han), and the two begin a relationship that we see in the form of an adorably animated montage set to new .Paak music! It’s the first of many creative flourishes .Paak injects into the film, bypassing any opportunity to do the standard and instead take a risk. With this film, .Paak has proven himself a true multi-hyphenate. So even if every chance taken may not necessarily land, it’s exciting to see an artist take risks and work out exactly what their cinematic voice will be in real time.
Through the montage, we catch details of BJ’s musical stagnancy and his break-up with Yeji. The next time we see BJ, it’s 12 years later, and he’s still in the same bar. The only difference is it’s a bit more run-down, and a lot more empty. He even manages to anger and scare off the last remaining hold-outs that would listen to him. With that, his friend and boss, Cash (the legendary battle-rapper and .Paak’s real-life best friend Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park) and mother (Yvette Nicole Brown) let him go… but they also present the artist with a once-in-a-lifetime shot at stardom. The plan? Stay a background drummer, but do so on one of South Korea’s biggest musical competition shows, (the fictional) “Wildcard.” In doing so, he can showcase his talents to fan-favorite, up-and-coming all-around K-pop contestant Kang (real-life K-pop star Kevin Woo) in the hopes of collaborating on music. After another animated interlude set to more .Paak music, BJ arrives in South Korea. It’s here that the film really takes off, for it was the entire basis of conceiving the film in the first place.
Upon his arrival with some wonderfully fun antics in the mix, BJ makes it to Wildcard and it’s here that he meets Tae Young (.Paak’s son, Soul Rasheed). No surprise based on resemblance alone, and the film mines a ton of great jokes from this conceit, Tae Young is BJ’s son that he never knew about. While the film may gloss over the crash-course lesson on the ins and outs of K-pop, this is very much a story about a father and son reconnecting above all else. It’s a large part of why the film was made in the first place. During the height of the pandemic, .Paak was forced to take a break from non-stop touring and was at home just like everybody else. In that time, he was able to obviously spend a ton more time with Soul. I can vividly recall the countless posts on Instagram of the two of them dancing, making skits, and all around making the most of the time together. It was touching to see, and it’s lovely to know that K-Pops! was birthed from the curiosity and joy of investigating the passions your child might hold. And while the film may move a bit too fast for its own good at times, the purity of how it all came to be (and the heartfelt chemistry the two share on screen) carries it very far beyond a typical fish-out-of-water comedy or a familial reconnecting drama.
Obviously, music plays a massive part in this film, as well as in the lives of its lead performers and characters. When K-Pops! turns its focus on music in relation to a way of learning about oneself and our roots, it also excels. As written earlier, there’s a genuine curiosity baked into the conception of this film. .Paak wanted to learn more about K-pop because his son was obsessed with it. When BJ is breaking down the origins of hip-hop to Tae Young, he calls music “the great communicator.” It wonderfully encapsulates what this film is trying to convey. To look back at the history of music, especially hip-hop, one can see a clear through-line across countless genres and years. It is a genre that has been built off tradition and recontextualization to form something new and exciting. As BJ teaches his son about all that can be learned from such a wide array of music, you feel a genuine strengthening of the bond between the two of them. And again, .Paak and Rasheed elevate the material on-screen by seemingly being themselves. It’s a delight meta-textually, but within the developments of the film itself, it’s a charming treat that pays off.
From playing one of the all-time great Method Man & Redman songs (“Da Rockwilder” for those curious) to a montage set to the Beatnuts and a scene with Earth, Wind & Fire, K-Pops! is a film that explodes with .Paak’s tastes. There’s even a montage of father and son connecting set to the legendary “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy!” One may start to worry that this film will be fun solely for fans of .Paak and his music. But that assessment feels a bit off-base. There are countless beloved filmmakers who indulge their greatest passions and tastes with the films they make, and they translate incredibly well. Between the clear adoration for all the musical talent brought to life in K-Pops!, and a touching reconnection between father and son (both within the film and reality), it feels like .Paak’s debut film is one that is bound to spark a whole lot of joy, a whole lot of musical curiosity, and a whole lot of laughing and dancing.
K-Pops! celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the film, head right here.
