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Happy Monday, all. There are a lot of stories coming out that I’m quite excited about! I have a large piece in the upcoming print edition of Billboard taking readers “behind the scenes” of the super-successful virtual boy band PLAVE. You can read the digital version below. If you’re a PLAVE fan, let me know what time is best to join for a special YouTube live stream to discuss the story, the band, do some unboxing and more.

It’s been a packed day of new music releases from big stars like EXO’s Baekhyun, i-dle, Kim Jae Joong and RIIZE, but the artist I’m personally quite curious about is VVS, the subject of today’s cover story…

MZMC Makes His Mark With VVS

If you’ve kept up with K-pop in the last decade, you’ve heard an MZMC production. Just over a decade ago, the Italian-American expat (neé Paul Thompson) left his job as a Silicon Valley headhunter to teach English in South Korea and soon became the only non-Korean ever signed as an in-house songwriter by JYP Entertainment and later scored another partnership deal with SM Entertainment. Not only has the producer help craft some defining Korean-pop hits during his time (EXO’s “Ko Ko Bop,” CIX’s “Cinema,” NCT 127’s “Cherry Bomb,” Kang Daniel’s “Antidote,” NCT’s “The 7th Sense,”), but caused some shakeups in the industry by calling out certain companies (namely SM) about low-balling him for payments and, at one point, even claimed the copyright to ~50 tracks he claimed to have sync licenses over.

While Thompson’s issues with SM has cooled (he continues to have credits on new albums and spoke well of the company during a 2024 interview we did for Billboard), perhaps because he has much bigger things to focus on like his newly debuted girl group, VVS, who release their first EP today, D.I.M.M, under his own company, MZMC Inc.

In April 2024, I got the opportunity to interview Thompson as he was preparing the group (whose members didn’t even know their group name) for Billboard magazine, in a somewhat unprecedented move for a group debuting from an entirely new company. (I never asked, but I believe a 2019 profile on Thompson by Billboard’s current editorial director, the wonderful and K-pop-positive legend Hannah Karp, led to a friendly relationship that continued into getting the big look for his new group, which is why relationships matter even five years down the line!!!) While it was new territory for a magazine like Billboard, it was also quite experimental for MZMC Inc., who told me in our piece that he needed unconventional marketing strategies to get the group’s name out which included the very-early Billboard piece and letting CNN film a documentary about MCMZ Inc. Thompson even realized he had to change up the traditional K-pop strategy to gain traction. I loved these quotes from our chat:

Since VVS began dropping songs last month ahead of their debut EP, the MZMC strategy can be quickly understood.

By embracing Houston hip-hop sounds as a base for his K-pop creations, VVS are making smart, accessible songs. Young listeners will instantly connect with the group when they hear songs like “Tea” (based around a chorus where the girls proclaim “I’m the tea…and that’s why y’all sippin’ on me” and sounds like it could have easily been a track released by aespa) “FACT$” (“And that’s facts / When I pull up to the party, yeah, we dressed in all black”) and “Purrfect” (where the purring “Bish, I’m purrfect” hook is drawn-out a la Cardi B). My least favorite part about the group’s early releases is probably how the “Tea” music video plays like a movie and we don’t see the group showcase any choreography or singing. Although we would get that in the following video for “Purrfect.”

VVS’ latest single and EP title track “D.I.M.M” (at the top of post) feels like the next generation delivering their take on Ciara’s “Ride,” with a harder-hitting hip-hop focus. The group is certainly not scared to be bold here, deeming themselves “Korea’s Lil’ Kim” on the first verse, and declaring “F-ck them, yeah, f-ck them boys” over the chorus.

Visually, playing both dentist-office workers and smiling, sparkling little demons in the “D.I.M.M” music video will also set them apart from other girl groups. I was a little unsure where things would go, as I first thought “D.I.M.M” would represent some strange, made-up phrase, but it actually stands for “diamonds in my mouth,” which is a repeated hook used throughout the song, so one can quickly connect.

I’m super curious to see where VVS and MZMC go here. The string of pre-release tracks, buzzy visuals, and atypical K-pop marketing are exciting and have me hoping that the risks will pay off the clearly heavy investments put into the group, if just to keep allowing MZMC to keep experimenting and pushing his creativity into his projects, instead of needing to channel into outside groups.

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—24-member girl group tripleS are on this massive cover of NME magazine. Writer Lucy Ford says, “Revolutionary girl group tripleS are pushing the boundaries of K-pop” and references the Spice Girls, Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig within the first paragraph. (NME)

—SEVENTEEN is the new face of Korean food company Bibigo to “engage Gen Z.” DesignRush describes the “major marketing strategy for the CJ Foods brand, aiming to target younger, international audiences. ‘Taste What’s Beyond’ launches with a social-first approach, including a short-form video set to go live on May 20 across bibigo’s global TikTok, Instagram, and X platforms. In it, SEVENTEEN members will be seen enjoying iconic bibigo products like gimbap, corn dogs, and tteokbokki. A dedicated microsite tied to the campaign will open on May 23, the same day limited-edition bibigo x SEVENTEEN products are scheduled to hit online stores. Product packaging will incorporate the K-pop band’s signature colors of Rose Quartz and Serenity.” (DesignRush)

—Big Ocean got a feature in Dazed as “K-Pop’s first deaf boy band.” “K-pop has always been about more than just music, it’s about movement, emotion, precision, and presence,” author Simone Margett wrote in her first piece for the site. “But what happens when a group takes that idea to the next level and removes sound from the equation entirely? Enter Big Ocean, the industry’s first Deaf boy band, and one of the most novel, refreshing acts to hit the K-pop scene in years.”

• Fact checking 4 the Record: While I’m not an expert on disabilities, what I’ve understood and been told by the members is that they do have some hearing: HyunJin lost hearing in his left ear and had surgery that gave him hearing albeit disjointed; ChanYeon got cochlear implants for both ears and went through music therapy, but the all three members have different levels of hearing ability.

—Also, remember PopPopFest? That K-pop festival that was most-likely-almost-completely-confirmed as a scam that we covered at the start of this newsletter? Its website has been shuttered and it’s officially “postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.” I just hope fans will get their refunds. (@poppopfest)

—Korea’s popular photobooth company Photoism is officially launching in the States with a Brooklyn party that seems like it’ll utilize content with BTS’ Jin. More info via Eventbrite.

—Speaking of Jin, I reviewed and ranked every track off the BTS member’s new solo album Echo for Billboard. Let me know how your ranking compares:

—Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield gave Echo 3.5 stars out of 5. At the same time, Rhian Daly gave 3 out of 5 stars in her NME review, while Maria Letícia L. Gomes gave it an 8 out 10 rating for Clash magazine. The scores are, actually, remarkably low for a BTS project, but Korean outlets like Maeil Business Newspaper are still spinning it as “favorable reviews” and highlighting the complimentary sections.

—K-pop stars are being credited for helping spread the cute “cat shadow trend.” KnowYourMeme explains, “The trend spread further, gaining particular popularity among K-pop singers who did the pose en masse, posting photographs with the 고양이 그림자 hashtag. Members of LE SSEARAFIM, NMIXX, and ENHYPEN — these are just a few of those who have already taken part in the trend, while K-pop fans have been asking idols to take part in the trend on X and on South Korea’s Weverse app.”

—Bradley Simpson of The Vamps gave a shout to ATEEZ leader Hongjoong after the two began chatting. “I’ve been chatting to Hongjoong, such a cool guy, very very nice! Yeah, he’s lovely! He’s posted one of the songs from the album.’” (@atzpopbase)

—Red Velvet’s Irene and Seulgi removed a photo of a pearl oyster meant to promote their upcoming duo project. As AsianJunkie explains, “Okay, so long story short, Red Velvet sub-unit Irene & Seulgi are returning soon with TILT on May 26, and while there was never any doubt their concept was queer-coded, sapphic, GL (or however you want to label it), they’ve really leaned in with this comeback. There are a ton of teasers that have effectively built up hype, but I think the lead picture on this article basically sums up the theme of it [above]…unfortunately, the adult themes seemed to run into backlash when a picture of an oyster was included in their teasers, and it was criticized on The Qoo and Twitter for the sexual implications. Eventually, SM Entertainment seemingly got spooked and they removed that teaser image, which led to fans making a meme out of it. I truly don’t get how this is the line in the sand for the concept, as I’d argue it’s not even a particularly erotic or deep yonic symbol. It’s rather safe, yet enough to make pop music fans go insane, which is what it did.” (AsianJunkie)

—Despite being a member of LE SSERAFIM for only a few weeks in 2022 before bullying and school violence accusations from her past caught fire and she exited the group, Kim Garam already amassed more than 650,000 followers on her Instagram with just one post. (@garamonly)

—TWICE announced their upcoming fourth full-length album with an artistic teaser that some fans think rips off past visuals by JENNIE. (I think it’s more so a copyright-free baile funk beat?)