At 37 years old, the heavily tattooed, free-speaking Jay Park doesn’t exactly fit the cookie-cutter K-pop idol mold.
Sixteen years into his career — which included a stint as the fan-voted leader of hip-hop group 2PM in the 2000s, an infamous departure, and equally incredible comeback in the 2010s — Jay Park is one of the few K-pop artists who have managed to stay relevant in an increasingly saturated industry.
Now, Park is back to dispel any doubts about his longevity with The One You Wanted. Out Oct. 8, the 20-track, collab-rich R&B album is his first in five years and the result of an even longer period of creativity.
"In Korea when people hear a song, they say, 'Oh, this sounds like Jay Park.' It’s like my music has become a genre by itself," he tells GRAMMY.com.
Much like his persona, Jay Park's road to K-pop stardom has been unorthodox. Born Park Jaebom to Korean immigrant parents, Park was raised in Seattle and never felt like he fully fit into the multiple cultures he was brought up around.
He never aimed to become an artist; it was initially just a way for him to express himself. "Hip hop and R&B just became where I found my identity," he adds, citing a deep admiration for artists like Michael Jackson, Usher, and Drake.
Once he began breakdancing, rapping, and battling his friends, his mother pushed him to try out at a locally advertised talent audition. "At that time, it was just me, and mom and my brother, having money problems. We couldn’t pay the electric and water bill," he told CNN, explaining why he went for it at all. He got through, after auditioning with a rap he wrote himself (and recalled word-for-word over video call). Unbeknownst to him, the audition was for K-pop juggernaut JYP entertainment.
For a while, it seemed like Park had made it — he debuted in 2008 as the leader and main rapper of heartthrob hip-hop group 2PM. The seven-member 2PM are credited with originating a particularly masculine image in K-pop, a break from the softer "flower boy" image that other boy groups held at the time. They released two mini-albums in 2009 and were preparing for a full-length release. Things were looking good.
Exactly a year after his debut, however, Park’s star trajectory came to a screeching standstill. Moving to Korea from the US as a 17-year-old had been difficult on Park, who wasn’t fluent in the language or expectations of him as an idol. Eagle-eyed netizens spotted comments from his old Myspace posts disparaging Korea and its idol system, and in 2009, before the group released their first LP, Jay Park left 2PM.
His departure split K-pop fandoms down the middle, with large swathes defending his perspective while others decided he no longer deserved to represent Korea in a cultural space. Online searches for Jay Park exploded in the next few months, his name even topping the 2010 Oscars to take the No.1 on Twitter’s trending list in March.
Park shies away from talking about that time in his life, simply repeating over the years that he had made mistakes. "I was very ignorant and not very open-minded," he says. "I was also young, you know? It was hard, but I'm glad I went through all those periods now because it taught me a lot."
Moving back to the US, Park decided to take some time for himself. A family friend gave him a job at his tire shop, which, though a far cry from his idol days, helped him recoup after igniting endless conversations about the expectations placed on idols.
While Park was laying low, the tide had turned in Korea; the majority of K-pop fans now felt that he was too harshly judged. Fans organized silent protests and boycotted products endorsed by 2PM members. Some reportedly paid for a plane to drag a banner with the words, "J, what time is it now?" across the Seattle skies, in a reference to his band name 2PM.
Others found his church address, and started sending him gifts — including a laptop, which he used to start a YouTube channel. Park chuckles at the full circle fan moment in our interview.
His first cover in 2010 — a take on B.o.B and Bruno Mars’ "Nothing on You" recorded in his bathroom — went viral, garnering more than 2 million hits on YouTube in 24 hours. The song got so popular that B.o.B re-released the song in Korea with Park’s vocals instead of Mars’. Korean news agency Yonhap reported the song sold 5 million copies in Korea.
The cover gave Park’s music career a new lease on life, and his return to Korea in 2010 was greeted by thousands of cheering fans at Incheon airport.
It is rare in K-pop that an artist makes a comeback after leaving a company as major as JYP Entertainment. "I faced a lot of backlash," Park said in a 2023 AFP interview, adding he was once "kind of blacklisted from the industry."
Park pressed on, releasing his first EP as a soloist in 2010, which included a rearranged Korean version of "Nothin’ On You." As a solo artist, Park could now move on from his pop image towards an edgier hip-hop sound. The transition came with "a lot of trial and error," Park recalls.
"I look back on my lyrics from 2010 to about 2013, I cringe so hard sometimes," he says with a laugh. "I wasn’t great at translating my English thoughts to Korean, so some lyrics have become memes now." He also felt taken advantage of as a newcomer. "I didn't know anything about how the industry worked, and I was young and naive and didn’t have any proper representation," he says. "So many times, people came to me claiming to work at wherever or represent whoever, and I would just believe them."
Still, Park's music was taking off again. Take A Deeper Look, Park’s rap-heavy first solo Korean mini-album, debuted at No. 3 in the Billboard World Album Charts in 2011. Park established his own record label, AOMG, in 2013 and a second, H1ghr Music, in 2017.
"The reason why I made my own labels is because I wish I had someone to share these experiences or lend a helping hand or guide me to ... what I need to do with this type of fame or when stuff goes wrong," he told USA Today.
The labels house mainly hip-hop artists like pH1, Sik-K, Loco, Ugly Duck, Hoody, and former GOT7 member Yugyeom. Together, the two companies have been widely credited for leading the hip-hop presence in an otherwise pop-dominated K-pop industry.
In the meanwhile, Park’s increasingly adult-themed releases like the trap inspired, sensual "Mommaev and the more mellow, groove-centered "All I Wanna Do" racked up hundreds of millions of views, further propelling him to the forefront of K-pop’s hip-hop and R&B scene.
His rapport was only getting better internationally as well. In 2017, Park became the first Asian American to sign with Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation.
In 2018, Park's first English-language EP under Roc Nation, Ask About Me, showcased his ability to move fluidly between genres, from the trap-inspired party anthem "Soju" featuring 2Chainz to the tropical house, R&B, and trap blend "Yacht."
In 2021, Park officially stepped down from both AOMG and H1ghr Music, and established a third label called MORE VISION, representing Korean artists like Chungha and Honey J. The process took longer than expected, he says, which is why The One You Wanted is his first full-length album in five years. (Park released an introspective and uncharacteristically vulnerable The Road Less Traveled in 2019 and a mini-album titled Jay Park: Season 2 earlier this year.)
It seems as if Park has taken the whole of his experience and channeled it into The One You Wanted. Park describes the 20-track album as "easy listening" and return to his R&B roots with features from Ty Dolla Sign, Chungha, IU and Hwasa. For Park, it’s a solidification of his self-styled genre.
Although far less reflective than his last full album, The One You Wanted still showcases his progression. "Some songs are from six years ago and others I wrote just this year," he says. "You can definitely sense how the sound is different, and my voice is different."
Park hinted at retiring in 2022, but seems in no hurry to do so now. "I’ve been wanting to retire since 2012," he laughs. "When I went solo, I had to hustle a lot to survive in this cutthroat industry. To try to find out what people are into without selling myself short, it was very strenuous."
"But right now, I feel like I’m still needed in the industry."
He is not talking just about his own music or his first world tour in six years — his label MORE VISION is also planning to debut two new K-pop groups by 2026.
For Park, it’s an opportunity to hand down wisdom from everything he’s learned since that fateful JYP audition. "Getting all that attention, getting criticized all the time or getting compliments all the time, it's not normal," he says. "I just gotta make sure while [the trainees] still think I'm cool, I can get them in the right mindset and the right balance of life."
The jury’s still out on the trainees’ opinions, but based on The One You Wanted, Jay Park is set to remain cool for a long time.