Jung Kook’s worldwide hit “Seven” (feat. Latto) and “3D” (feat. Jack Harlow) all come to you with a little help from friends: producers Andrew Watt, Cirkut, and BloodPop, plus collaborators Latto (“Seven”) and Jack Harlow (“3D”). Now that “3D” has been announced, let's take a look at the artists Jung Kook’s been working with.

Andrew Watt

Andrew Watt won Producer of the Year, Non-Classical at the 2021 Grammys. Consider who else has won the same award over the past five years: Pharrell Williams (no introduction necessary), Finneas O’Connell (Billie Eilish’s brother and sole producer) and Jack Antonoff (responsible for most of Taylor Swift’s recent work)—twice. Andrew Watt just might be the most enigmatic of all the big-name producers.

 

Watt began his career as a guitarist playing rock music. His big break came when he played in the band backing Justin Bieber’s Believe tour. Watt and Bieber talked to each other about their tastes in music and bounced ideas off each other, eventually leading Watt to write and produce “Let Me Love You” in 2016, a collaboration between DJ Snake and Bieber. The song was a huge success, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Other notable songs Watt’s worked on include “Havana” by Camila Cabello in 2017, “Break My Heart” by Dua Lipa in 2020, “Peaches” by Bieber in 2021, and “Hold Me Closer” by Elton John and Britney Spears in 2022. He also made most of the tracks on Miley Cyrus’ lauded 2020 album Plastic Hearts. Watt’s worked on every one of Post Malone’s albums since he debuted in 2016, too; most of Austin, Malone’s most recent album, comes to us courtesy of Watt.

 

One thing that makes Andrew Watt so special is that he isn’t just a favorite young producer of pop stars, but of big names in rock, too—where he got his start. Watt’s hands graced both Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man (2020) and his album Patient Number 9 (2022). He also acted as both producer and guitarist on Eddie Vedder’s Earthling (2022) and Iggy Pop’s Every Loser (2023). With connections to the biggest pop stars and rock legends out there, and the work he consistently pumps out to a high standard, it’s fair to say Andrew Watt is one of the best producers working today.

 

Cirkut

Henry Russell Walter, better known as Cirkut, is the mysterious producer behind a number of hits. Among songs he’s been involved with are “Roar,” “Part of Me,” and “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry, “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, and “Sugar” and “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5—and those are just the ones that reached all the way to number one on the Hot 100. He was also awarded the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album (since renamed to Best Progressive R&B Album) in 2018 for producing the Weeknd’s Starboy.

 

Cirkut got his start with music through his love of hip hop and electronic and debuted in 2008 with a group called Let’s Go to War. He soon realized, however, that his interests didn’t lie with the outward-facing world of the stage. It was around that time that he and fellow band member Adrien Gough worked on the song “Mmm Papi” for the Britney Spears album Circus, leading them to realize that producing could be the path for them. The two were already in touch with the Weeknd when he was still an indie artist and helped write and produce the track “High for This” off his legendary debut mixtape, House of Balloons.

 

Cirkut later met the famous producer Dr. Luke, signed with his company Prescription Songs, and the two started working together as co-producers. He put out countless hits from then on, working with artists like Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, B.o.B, One Direction, Pitbull, and Shakira. He began working as an independent producer from 2018, famously discovering and helping to debut Ava Max and building up an impressive portfolio, including the Sam Smith and Kim Pertas collaboration “Unholy” and the song “Star Walkin’” by Lil Nas X. Cirkut also worked with Andrew Watt on “Hold Me Closer,” and the two collaborated again on “Seven” (feat. Latto), their biggest hit to date.

 

BloodPop

Michael Tucker rose to prominence in 2010 at the young age of 20 for releasing bubbly electronic tracks like “Heart” and “Dreams” under the name Blood Diamonds. He was inspired by both the music of M83 and, as a video game design major, indie games like Braid. He found even more opportunities at his disposal after collaborating with Grimes on his song “Phone Sex,” which was hugely popular on release and came on the heels of Grimes’ Visions album. He took his career even further by remixing artists like Kendrick Lamar, Sky Ferreira, and Ellie Goulding, and producing Grimes’ “Go” and Tinashe’s “Bet.” It was here that he started using the name BloodPop and became a major full-time songwriter and producer. The most impressive things on his resumé during this period are the five songs he produced off Rebel Heart by Madonna and his work on big hits off Justin Bieber’s Purpose like “Sorry” and “I’ll Show You.”

 

Then Mark Ronson and Lady Gaga came into his life. Gaga wanted to follow up her album Artpop with something that would catch her fans completely off guard. To flesh out Gaga’s new sound, executive producer Ronson hired musicians he’d worked with previously on projects for Amy Winehouse and Rufus Wainwright. He also introduced Lady Gaga to BloodPop. BloodPop shaped the new album to be just the right balance between analog and modern. He went on to co-produce every track on what would eventually be named Joanne. He held onto his connection with Gaga, later overseeing the entirety of Chromatica, Gaga’s masterpiece.

 

Lady Gaga performed “Hold My Hand,” the theme song to Top Gun: Maverick, at the Oscars earlier this year. But before she started singing, she gave BloodPop a shoutout: “I wrote this song with my friend, BloodPop, for the film Top Gun: Maverick, in my studio basement. It's deeply personal for me, and I think that we all need each other. We need a lot of love to walk through this life.” You can’t talk about the second chapter of Gaga’s career without mentioning BloodPop. If one of the most avant-garde electropop artists can transform into a classic pop star while still sounding very much contemporary, no doubt a producer of BloodPop’s caliber is behind the change.

 

Jack Harlow

Jack Harlow was just 12 years old when he was already selling his own rap CDs at school. After graduating from high school, he released his first commercial mixtape, 18. His streaming catalog doesn’t go back any further than that release. He’s since gone on to release his mixtapes Gazebo and Loose, and popular tracks like “Cody Banks” and “Sundown.” It was around that time that Harlow signed on with Generation Now, a label under Atlantic Records, in Atlanta—the same one Lil Uzi Vert signed onto after the success of his 2015 mixtape, Luv Is Rage, and where he remains today. Harlow had another success with his 2019 mixtape, Confetti, and expectations were running high for his proper debut.

 

Then he dropped “WHATS POPPIN.” Young hip hop lovers adored the track and it went viral on TikTok. With a remix featuring Lil Wayne, Dababy and Tory Lanez, it went all the way to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also hit number 13 on the 2020 Year-End Hot 100 chart. Earlier that year, Harlow made it to the Freshman Class list of up-and-coming rappers put out annually by hip hop magazine XXL. That year’s list featured other artists who would go on to become stars, like 24kGoldn, Polo G, and Lil Tjay.

 

In 2021, Harlow featured on Lil Nas X’s smash hit “Industry Baby,” giving him his first number one on the Hot 100. By 2022, he was back on top of the chart with his new song, “First Class.” After that point, Harlow was beginning to be celebrated in the hip hop scene as a representative of a new generation that challenges the traditional, rigid expectations of masculinity often associated with white artists.People really took to Harlow after he featured on Lil Nas X’s track and voiced public support for the rapper. The way Harlow walks right up to female artists in a friendly way and actively targets women as listeners is a lot different from the days of Eminem. The way he flirts with Black women was even the target of a joke on SNL.

 

Harlow isn’t some TikTok rapper just looking for fame without the skill to back it up but he also doesn’t accept every aspect of rap culture as set in stone. He once said he wanted to make a track he could feel confident playing with a girl he’s into sitting with him in the car that he met, and now he’s collaborating with Jung Kook.

Article. Seo Seongdeok

Latto

The excellent melody and the voice infused into the UK Garage production, Jung Kook’s “Seven” (feat. Latto) was the song Latto definitely proved why she was featured in the track. She can rap to literally any kind of beat and her performance is a perfect fit with the way Jung Kook’s singing completely takes over the irregular rhythm inherent to the genre. And the song’s subject matter is right in Latto’s wheelhouse. She’s always been adept with creative turns of phrase and making the most out of slangs and explicit language, but here she flows with really suggestive lyrics without being terribly explicit.

 

What makes Jung Kook and Latto’s collaboration feel even fresher is how unexpected it is, leading to an outrageous amount of streaming and sales and, in turn, a Billboard Hot 100 number one. It’s an important accomplishment for both of them. Perhaps most notably, Latto landing number one with “Seven” sent shockwaves through the hip hop world. And why? Because 2023, the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop, was already halfway through without a single rapper having had a number one on the Hot 100. And things were even more dire where albums are concerned. The Billboard 200 hadn’t gone this long without a rap album at the top of the chart since 1993. It took until July for Lil Uzi Vert to break that album dry spell and Latto to lift the curse on the Hot 100 with “Seven.” The popularity of the song led to Latto being the first rapper to sit atop the chart this year, as well as the first number one of her career.

 

Latto’s name was relatively new to Koreans, but she was already the talk of the town in the hip hop world. She’s put out a steady stream of music since 2016, with her 2019 single “B*tch From Da Souf” giving her a major boost in popularity. Buzz around the song never seemed to die down, with a remix coming out later that year in December. Joining Latto for the remix were Saweetie, who got her start right around the same time as Latto had, and Trina, a rapper who’s long been an important figure among rapping women in the South. According to Latto’s website, the two versions of “B*tch From Da Souf” were streamed over 200 million times on Spotify and Apple Music alone.

 

Even with all her success, Latto’s career took another huge leap forward in 2020 when she signed on with major label RCA Records and released her first album, Queen of Da Souf. She tasted success once again with “Muwop,” a single she wrote with assistance from Gucci Mane, hip hop’s resident villain rap star. But Latto didn’t stop there either. She was also part of XXL’s Freshman Class for 2020, a list of the most notable new rappers that’s carefully decided every year. Her placement on the list had the media, music critics, and listeners very much focused on her.

 

As her resumé shows, Latto is hugely skilled and has enough star power to command a room. Among women in the mainstream hip hop scene, it had largely been a two-party system: Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. Their stardom transcended gender boundaries but there was no end in sight for the drought of equally influential female rappers. Fortunately, new talent like Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls started to appear and heralded a new age of rapping women. And Latto was right there as part of the new generation, now seen as one of the leaders of the future of women’s hip hop.

 

“Seven” proves how skilled Latto is when it comes to rapping about something sexual through the clever use of metaphor. Her lyrics are fresh and her performance thrilling for listeners as she seems to specifically call out prudes in her rap. Of course, Latto has other specialties beyond dirty talk. She manages to show off in a different, better way than a lot of other rappers, who become wrapped up in one-dimensional boasting.

 

Latto also stands out thanks to the wide variety of beats and genres she uses. Her Atlanta heritage gives her a strong foundation of trap and ratchet music, but she doesn’t seem to have any interest in chasing trends. Her 2021 song “Big Energy,” for example, is a ’90s-throwback pop rap song and samples Tom Tom Club’s classic post-disco track “Genius of Love,” while her track “Lottery” (feat. LU KALA), released back in February, is unquestionably a disco song. And “Put It On Da Dance Floor Again,” a single she put out earlier this year with Cardi B, showed she’s as tough as ever, sending a warning to phonies and flaunting her wealth in a hardcore drill song far removed from your typical club bangers.

 

Before the remix with Cardi B, Latto released the original “Put It On Da Floor” solo with a diss toward Nicki Minaj after their public feud on social media. Latto has called Minaj her single biggest musical influence and has been a fan ever since she was young, but no amount of respect will prevent her from fighting back relentlessly if she goes too far. Latto’s hardcore side is just as important to her image as her ability to blur the lines between pop and hip hop in a sexy way. It’s not surprising that she’s also known as Big Latto—her presence in the hip hop scene just gets bigger and bigger.

Article. Kang Ilkwon