G-Dragon and a host of collaborators from Korea, America, and beyond reveal the stories behind his new album.
This feature is part of Complex's Coup D'EtatĀ Week with G-Dragon.
We celebrated G-Dragon's influential style in our digital cover storyĀ but remember: G-Dragon is a musician first and a fashion icon second. As one of Asiaās biggest stars, the 25-year-old is the rare K-pop artist with the autonomy and powerānot to mention the seven-figure publishing checksāto fully execute his musical vision, even while under major label YG Entertainment. Ā
GDās latest brainchild, Coup DāEtatāwhich was released digitally in two partsĀ last weekāis the result of that creative independence. Breaking out of the K-pop box, Coup DāEtat is an eclectic mix of hip-hop, dubstep, rock, electro, and pop. Itās also G-Dragonās most international release to date, with appearances from Diplo, Baauer, Missy Elliott, Boys Noize, and Sky Ferreira. And thatās not to mention G-Dragonās core team of Korea-based all-stars, including longtime producers Teddy and Choice37.
To document a global collaboration requires a global pursuit. So, for The Making of G-Dragonās Coup DāEtat, we called, emailed, text-messaged, Kakao Talked, and met face to face with all of the key players behind the albumāstarting and ending with, of course, the most important person in the process: G-Dragon himself.Ā
As told to Jaeki Cho (@jaekicho)Ā
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Before the Album
Starring (in order of appearance):
- G-Dragon
- Teddy (producer)
- Diplo (producer)
- Missy Elliott (performer)
- Lydia Paek (performer)
- Choice37 (producer)
- Kang Wook-jin (producer)
- Ham Seung-chun (producer)
- Dee.P (producer)
- Boys Noize (producer)
- Sky Ferreira (performer)
"Coup D'Etat" f/ Diplo & Baauer
Produced by:Ā Diplo & Baauer
G-Dragon:Ā āI received the beat quite some time ago. [Fellow Big Bang member] T.O.P and I actually did a record, āKnockout,āĀ with Diplo about a year ago. After that,Ā we did a song over the āBubble ButtāĀ beat. It was the very first version of āBubble Butt.ā Diplo says that heās looking to put out our version of the song as a remix sometime soon.
"The initial deal was for me to do a song for Diplo, and for him to give me a song. So, he gave me the beat for āCoup DāEtatā some time ago, but I didnāt really know what to do with it, even though I heard it multiple times. I kept telling myself, āOh, man. I have to do well.ā So after listening to it, I recorded the raps, and it was kind of sing-songy. I wanted to do something that could sound like rapping, but also singing. So I just ended up doing it the way it is. And you know, the meaning of āCoup DāEtatā is rebellion, itās overthrowing a government. Just perceiving the world, I wrote the lyrics with that in mind. I want to continuously instigate, whatever it may be.ā
Diplo: āGD is a phenom, bigger then the K-pop scene. He is fearless and punk.ā
"Niliria" f/ Missy Elliott
Produced by:Ā Teddy
G-Dragon:Ā āIām not sure what it means, but I heard in the old days, when people were farming, they sang a folk song called āNiliriaā in Korea.ā
Teddy:Ā āI had made the beat two years back. For me itās nothing new. I have a bunch of Korean samples and I have a bunch of ideas. They work better nowadays with trap music and 808s. I know on the other side of the world, theyāre always dying to hear something ethnic. Like M.I.A., or even what Timbaland did with Egyptian music and Indian music. I got those for days.āĀ
G-Dragon:Ā āAt first, Teddy just played with the beat for fun. When I first heard it, I thought, āWow, this is crazy.ā For a good year, I wasnāt sure how to interpret the rap with the beat. I would just listen to the beat over and over again. I thought about whom Iād want on this record. In YG, every few years, we would do these rap posse cuts. We were thinking if we should do something like that, but then we thought, āHow about we get a foreign artist on a completely Korean song?ā Then I thought, āOkay, itād be dope to have an A$AP Rocky or a Kendrick Lamar.ā But instead of getting someone thatās popping right now, I thought itād be more fun to have someone I liked in the past.ā
Not saying that the hot rap stars of now canāt rap, but theyāre more geared towards style. But rappers from an older era, I think theyāre just good at rapping, period. - G-Dragon
Teddy: āAt YG, one of our favorite artists has been Missy Elliott, from her music to her outside-the-box visuals. SoĀ putting Missy on it? Thatās meaningful.āĀ
G-Dragon:Ā āPersonally, I think Missy Elliott as a rapper is really fucking good. I think I like artists more from that era. Not saying that the hot rap stars of now canāt rap, but theyāre more geared towards style. But rappers from an older era, I think theyāre just good at rapping, period. Theyāre not geared towards swag; theyāre just really good at rapping, in the pure sense of rapping. So in a way, I get more inspired. It doesnāt matter if you have style or not, you have to be good at rapping first.Ā When we brought [āNiliriaā] to Missy's attention, things panned out easily.Ā ā
Missy Elliott:Ā āI enjoyed working with G-Dragon and I think our chemistry meshed as if we had known each other for years! He is a talented, cool guy and very fun to be on stage with!ā
"R.O.D." f/ Lydia Paek
"Black" feat. Jennie Kim
Produced by:Ā Teddy
Teddy:Ā āThatās been in my computer for two years. The original version has me rapping on the first verse and Lydia singing on the hook. I liked it, and I wanted to keep it for myself, since it was very personal. But then GD heard it one day, and went, āOh, shit. Let me get on this.ā [Laughs.]
When you have a girlfriend, there are many things that are irritating every day, every night. When you fight, it gets really annoying. You canāt do anything, so you end up just getting angry by yourself. Like punching the wall, or throwing your cell phone across the room. - G-Dragon
G-Dragon:Ā āItās a love song; itās a bit more personal. When you have a girlfriend, there are many things that are irritating every day, every night. Iām sure itās different for everyone, but when you fight, it gets really annoying. You canāt do anything, so you end up just getting angry by yourself. Like punching the wall, or throwing your cell phone across the room. You know those types of feelings.ā
Teddy: āAs soon as he took it, he did the second verse. I thought it was going to be hard for him to write the second verse and stay on topic, since the recordās so vague and personal. But surprisingly he nailed it.
āLike āR.O.D.ā the hook was a process. Sky Ferreira recorded a version. Lydia had the original version in English. Then the boss came in, and pointed out that this song needs to be bigger, and said we should make a Korean version of the hook. So GD and I wrote the hook one day, and I recorded Jennie myself two days later. I donāt know much about Jennieās personal information, but YG recommended that sheād be perfect for the song. Jennie heard Lydiaās demo like 10 times, and we recorded her version of the hook in less than five days before the album dropped.āĀ
"Who You?"
"Shake the World"
"MichiGO"
Produced by:Ā Kang Wook-jin & Ham Seung-chun
G-Dragon: āHam Seung-chun and Kang Wook-jin are both producers that work for YG. They worked on āWithout Youā off the One of a Kind EP, and [fellow Big Bang member] Seungriās latest EP, Letās Talk About Love.ā
Kang Wook-jin:Ā āOnce a month, all the producers in YG have a meeting with the founder and CEO, Yang Hyun-suk. We present him with all the demos weāve been working on throughout the month, and heāll decide which artist will use what record. Through that meeting, āMichiGOā was picked for G-Dragon.
Once a month, all the producers in YG have a meeting with the founder and CEO, Yang Hyun-suk. We present him with all the demos weāve been working on throughout the month, and heāll decide which artist will use what record. -Kang Wook-jin
āOnly a few days after the track was sent to GD, the guide was finished. There isnāt that much difference between the demo version and master version of āMichiGO.ā The biggest change thatās noticeable would be the pre-chorus part. The pre-chorus in the master version was actually the outro in the demo version. GD wanted something hype that he can dance to before the chorus, so we ended up making that change. As a result, I think thatās what makes āMichiGOā so unique and appealing.
āFor āMichiGO,ā we had GD in mind from the beginning. We wanted to make something thatās trendy, hip, and exciting. It was a really fast process. GDās recording gets done really quickly. More so than the recording process, we put a lot of emphasis on the mixing and balancing the synth and GDās vocals. As producers, we are both very happy about the final outcome of the record. It hints at both trap and a bit of dubstep, but it balances them in an odd way.ā
Ham Seung-chun:Ā āTo add to Kang Wook-jinās points, after the first round of edit, the song reached GD. While at the video shoot for the record, GD requested an edit on the record. If you listen to the hook, which goes, āDance, dance, dance,ā thereās a clap sound. This wasnāt there initially. Overall, the song came out perfectly.āĀ
"Crooked"
Produced by:Ā Teddy
Teddy: āThatās a song we worked on last minute. It was a rainy day. Myself, GD, Kush, [Big Bang member] Taeyang, and Choice were all in the studio. It was one of those critical sessions, when we had to brainstorm for that one big record, which always happens. I remember thinking, āFuck, again?ā DĆ©jĆ vu. It just never ends.
āAll of us were sitting there, talking and laughing. While they were fucking around and bullshitting, I started fucking with different chords. I played this one chord, and Kush and GD started singing. We didnāt end up keeping that melody, but thatās how it started.ā
G-Dragon: āāCrookedā was intended to make the audience go crazy during live shows. We purposely made the raps and chorus to sound extra catchy so people could easily sing and dance to it.ā
Teddy: āWe felt like the album had a lot of trap music, some R&B records, and some club tracks. But GDās like a punk rocker at the same time. He raps and shit, but he really loves that whole punk attitude. So we needed a track that could express that.ā
"Runaway"
Produced by:Ā Dee.P
Dee.P:Ā āI actually made the main guitar riffs of the track before I signed with YG. It was saved in my hard drive for a long time, along with many other demo tracks I made. One day, I was looking through my demo files and thought that this could fit GD's new album. So I started to brainstorm what concept I should go for.
āHearing GDās remake of "This Loveāby Maroon 5 on Big Bang's first album, I thought GD and alternative rock match well. I was also into electro music, so I wanted to combine alternative rock with an electro sound. I began arranging the song, and started to stack up a bass synth and a mid-range synth, with an electric guitar on top to make the main theme of the song.
[YG CEO Yang Hyun-suk] gave me a little bit of a hard time after he heard my track. He thought the theme lines were repetitive and boring. So I had to come up with a different theme on the second verse and the bridge. - Dee.P
āI spent quite some time to make the synth sounds blend with the guitar riffs. After that, everything went smoothly and I was able to finish it without any stress. But [YG CEO Yang Hyun-suk] gave me a little bit of a hard time after he heard my track. He thought the theme lines were repetitive and boring. So I had to come up with a different theme on the second verse and the bridge.ā
G-Dragon:Ā āāRunawayā is kind of like the song 'Who You?' Since I tour, I have to think about making records that could resonate during a live performanceāsomething that the audience could run around and jump to, and people could sing along to easily. Itās also something I enjoy personally. When youāre touring, itās great to have people vibing with you because you look cool, but itās always better, especially for fans, to perform songs that they could relate to and go wild. Itās something I enjoy as Iām doing it, and itās also more memorable. So I consider those factors as Iām making a record. When you listen to it, you can tell, itās more accessible than other records. Itās a record that a wider audience can enjoy.ā
Dee.P: āI always hear the record after he finishes it, because he writes the melody and I donāt have to direct him. After recording, he would give me ideas on the trackās structure and I would get inspiration to rearrange it to fit his melody.
āThis song was originally completed about two years ago. I was satisfied with the track and loved GD's melody and lyrics, but the album got delayed so I thought it was going to be on the One of a Kind mini-album. Somehow, the boss thought that it was better to be on the full-length album so I had to wait another year. When mixing and mastering was completed, I thought to myself, āFinally!āāĀ
"I Love It" f/ Zion.T & Boys Noize
"You Do" (Outro)
"Window"
Produced by:Ā Choice37
Teddy: āI went into Choiceās room, and I heard that beat. I really liked it. And my ass started singing with the auto-tune on. [Laughs.] I sing, but itās not for anybody to listen to. When I have an idea, I just lay it down. That day I just recorded the hook, then the next day I came into the studio and found out GD added a whole ānother section. He completed the song.ā
G-Dragon:Ā āI think thereās a certain code to my songwriting process. If you listen to āSheās Gone,āĀ āThat XX,āor even āObsessionā [by GD & TOP], theyāre like horror films. There arenāt actual mentions of me killing someone, but thereās a sense of eeriness, which I think I inject throughout my songwriting process. I always end up writing a song like that.
It depends on your interpretation, but the songās about murder. Well, I didnāt murder anyone. Iāve done something to a woman on the record and only the window knows what happened. - G-Dragon
āFor this album, that song is āWindow.ā It depends on your interpretation, but the songās about murder. Well, I didnāt murder anyone. Iāve done something to a woman on the record and only the window knows what happened. Itās about love, obsession, and trying to have someone and only the window knows the truth. I wanted to keep a creepy sentiment and keep the raindrops pouring.ā
Teddy:Ā āFor me the record was a love song. It was one of those sad, goodbye songs. And I thought GD and I were on the same topic, but when I asked him about the song he said, āIn the lyrics, Iām killing someone.ā [Laughs.] Choice and I were like, āThis is bugged out.ā
G-Dragon:Ā āI think itās a pattern for me. I do enjoy watching those horror films, too. Whenever I watch those types of films, I get inspired to write those types of records. Itās not something I would do, so whenever I write it I get a sense of vicarious satisfaction. Thatās why I insert a lot of fiction into my lyrics.ā
Teddy: āI didnāt want my voice on it. So the initial replacement for my part was supposed to be T.O.P. But then T.O.P. was working on other stuff. So GD just went ahead and recorded over my part.ā