Jaden Smith is still a teenager, but he’s already gained renown as an actor, musician and fashion icon. And in 2017, it looks like he’ll add one more title to his growing résumé: K-pop singer.
Last week, 18-year-old Smith took to Twitter and confirmed that he’ll be “dropping a K Pop single in the next 4 months.” This came moments after he confirmed that he, sister Willow and Odessa Adlon have formed a band together.
And Yes I Will Be Dropping A K Pop Single In The Next 4 Months.
— Jaden Smith (@officialjaden) April 20, 2017
Smith followed up the news with another tweet, saying he’d release two music videos in the next month.
Though it may seem like it’s a bit random for Smith, this isn’t the first time the Hollywood scion has interacted with K-pop. As early as 2013, Will and Jaden Smith visited YG Entertainment when they were in South Korea to promote their film, After Earth, and met popular K-pop stars, including G-Dragon and CL.
Last December, Jaden Smith brought up G-Dragon on Twitter, saying the BIGBANG member is his “inspiration.” The Korean rapper responded positively and ended with the promising, “Let’s do something.”
@officialjaden good seeing you!always pleasure.Lets do something?–?
— G-DRAGON (@IBGDRGN) December 7, 2016
One of Smith’s final tweets of 2016 confirmed that one of his “goals for 2017” is to be a K-pop star.
People See Me And Ask Me If I Wanna Be A K Pop Star As If I Haven’t Made My Goals For 2017 Clear.
— Jaden Smith (@officialjaden) December 29, 2016
Smith’s Twitter revelation came the same week that two American-based K-pop groups received a lot of attention from K-pop’s international fandom; EXP Edition, a four-member boy band formed as part of a grad school thesis, and CoCo Avenue, a hip-hop and R&B female duo, each released songs in Korean accompanied by K-pop-style music videos. Neither group contains any members of Korean descent; CoCo Avenue features two African-American women, while EXP Edition has three Caucasian members and one who is half-Japanese.
Despite these new acts attempting to break in, the Korean music industry is still largely filled with homegrown artists. The past decade has seen an increasing amount of K-pop acts incorporate members from around the globe to up their competitive edge in the international music market. Popular acts like EXO, Got7, f(x), TWICE and Blackpink contain multinational members — although all are of Asian descent — while NCT is a burgeoning project group with an aim to localize K-pop. Racial diversity is still limited in K-pop, although in 2015 the industry took a major leap when BP Rania introduced the African-American K-pop girl group member Alex Reid.