Anderson .Paak Explains Why It Was So ‘Important’ For Him To Star In ‘K-Pops!’ Alongside His Son

Anderson .Paak is a singer, drummer, and now, director as his debut movie, K-Pops!, is in theaters. It debuted this past weekend, and at the premiere, he discussed hos meaningful it was to star in the moving alongside his son, Soul Rasheed.

.Paak told Variety:

“I could have pulled from a lot of things in my life, but it was important to do a family comedy where I’m sharing the screen with my son — for people to see Black families, for people to see joy and happiness.”

.Paak also told Rolling Stone about the personal significance of the film’s melding of Black and Korean cultures:

“I thought this could be a cool opportunity to do a movie that blended both cultures and showed how much we had in common. And I had fun with K-Pops! because I was able to put these unique experiences that I had growing up in a Black household and then later on being introduced to my Korean heritage through the mother of my two sons. I don’t know very many movies like that. Growing up, I had Rush Hour. That was about it. Something like this had never been done before. It was necessary.”

Furthermore, he spoke about his first time directing, telling Variety, “It was creative bliss, but it was also the hardest thing — I got my ass kicked. So much work. I said it’d be the first and last one, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

The inspiration for the movie came from seeing how much Rasheed was into both YouTube and K-pop, with .Paak saying, “I felt really inspired to tell the story — like, what if I didn’t know I had a son that could be next?” Rasheed added, “I was really into BTS.”