There’s more to Seoul than “Gangnam Style.” While Justin Timberlake pleased Brooklyn at the VMAs, his Korean counterpart G-Dragon (who rose to fame through his pop band Big Bang and whose solo career has been equally influential) was rapping a duet with Missy Elliott at LA’s annual KPOP convention. While we were happily stunned to see Elliott—who’s kept a pretty low profile these last few years—we were even more impressed by how smoothly the two cultures fused together for the premiere of their collaboration, called “Niliria.” The title references a type of traditional Korean folk song, which you can briefly hear in the first few seconds of the video; G-Dragon’s opening line translates to “Proud Korea” and he later sums up this powerful moment: “international diplomacy through a rap.” The song will be on G-Dragon’s second full-length album, Coup d’État, out 2 September 2013, which also features a song with Diplo.
Missy Elliott + G-Dragon: Niliria