The makers of KPop Demon Hunters have revealed that the hit song from the film, ‘Golden’, drew inspiration from Eminem, Drake, and Lil Wayne.
The animated movie has become Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time. It focuses on a girl band, Huntr/x. They lead double lives as demon hunters and face off against a rival boy band (and secret demons), the Saja Boys. The movie’s success has resulted in songs from the film becoming chart hits. ‘Golden’ went to number one in the UK and US charts, becoming the film’s most popular track.
Participating in a recent oral history of the film for The New York Times, several members of the creative team broke down what it took to make the worldwide smash hit.
In the piece, director Maggie Kang remarked: “This concept is so wackadoo, the songs had to be fantastic for it to be accepted. And it was important for us that the songs served the story but then, as stand-alone pop songs, could be on the Billboard charts.”
Her co-director, Chris Appelhans, said of the hit track: “’Golden,’ our references were a Biggie track called ‘Juicy.’ There was Drake, Eminem, Lil Wayne. Those were songs about starting as nobodies and finding yourself through music.”
When it came to recording the track, they knew they had a hit on their hands, but songwriter Ejae, who is also Rumi’s singing voice, had one reservation.
“We did like eight versions of ‘Golden.’” said Kang. “The last one came in, I was in a car in Vancouver going to the airport. I heard the first tingly notes and I knew, that was it. Not even the lyrics yet, just the track. When we asked Ejae to go as high as she could with her voice, she was like, I hope I don’t ever have to perform this.”
Ejae confirmed: “It’s not a comfortable register for me. I can hit the notes, obviously. But it would be impossible to sing live. There’s no breathing [room] — 90 percent of it is Rumi singing. That’s unrealistic as hell.”
Recently, Kang revealed that KPop Demon Hunters originally had nothing to do with K-pop, and that “the movie instantly became larger in scale” once the genre was introduced.