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The housekeepers suing Smokey Robinson for sexual assault have now filed a police report, leading the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to open a criminal investigation on top of the bombshell civil claims filed against the 85-year-old Motown legend.
Lawyers for four anonymous housekeepers, who alleged in a $50 million lawsuit earlier this month that William “Smokey” Robinson Jr. repeatedly raped them over the course of nearly two decades, confirm in a Thursday (May 15) statement to Billboard that criminal authorities are probing the claims.
“We are pleased to learn that the LA County Sheriff’s Department has opened a criminal investigation into our clients’ claims of sexual assault against Smokey Robinson,” say attorneys John Harris and Herbert Hayden. “Our clients intend to fully cooperate with LASD’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him.”
Robinson’s lawyer Christopher Frost says in his own statement to Billboard that the housekeepers’ claims are “manufactured “ and motivated by “unadulterated avarice.” Frost notes that police did not launch a criminal probe unilaterally; rather that the Sheriff’s Department is required to investigate because the women filed a police report.
“We welcome that investigation, which involves plaintiffs who continue to hide their identities, because exposure to the truth is a powerful thing,” Frost says. “We feel confident that a determination will be made that Mr. Robinson did nothing wrong, and that this is a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the Plaintiffs were previously able to create.”
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Robinson, who’s currently on a legacy tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of his album A Quiet Storm, was accused in the May 6 civil lawsuit of forcing housekeepers to have oral and vaginal sex in his Los Angeles-area bedroom dozens of times between 2007 and 2024.
The singer’s wife, Frances Robinson, is also named in the lawsuit. The housekeepers say she did nothing to stop her husband’s abuse, despite knowing that he had a history of sexual misconduct and had previously struck settlements with assault victims.
The lawsuit also says the Robinsons paid their employees below minimum wage, and that Frances Robinson created a hostile work environment replete with screaming and “racially-charged epithets.”
Smokey and Frances Robinson have fiercely denied the housekeepers’ claims, saying through Frost on May 7 that the “vile, false allegations” are merely “an ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon.”
After working with Jack Antonoff on her last two albums, Lorde surprised fans in April when she announced her fourth studio LP, Virgin, and the producer’s name was nowhere to be found in the credits.
But in a Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (May 15), the New Zealand pop star finally explained why she chose not to work with her longtime collaborator this time around. Calling Antonoff a “positive, supportive” teammate, she revealed that she simply felt like it was time to make a change.
“I’m very vibes-based,” she told the publication. “I just have to trust when my intuition says to keep moving.”
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For Virgin, Lorde’s intuition led her to Jim-E Stack, who executive produced the album alongside the “Royals” singer. She also worked with producers Fabiana Palladino, Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, Dan Nigro and Dev Hynes of Blood Orange on the record.
Her partnership with Stack and Hynes will extend to touring when she embarks on her Ultrasound trek in September, with both collaborators serving as opening acts along with The Japanese House, Nilüfer Yanya, Chanel Beads, Empress Of and Oklou. “Very proud and excited to be bringing my most talented friends in support,” Lorde said when she announced the tour on May 8. “Come see what’s under the skin.”
Dropping June 27, Virgin will arrive four years after Lorde’s last album, Solar Power. Both the 2021 LP and 2017’s Melodrama were produced by Antonoff, with whom the “Green Light” artist famously had a close friendship.
“When I came to New York, we had only written together maybe a couple of times, and we were very obsessed with each other on a creative level and as buds,” Lorde told Billboard of her dynamic with the Bleachers frontman in 2018. “I was sort of doing nothing in New York, and we did this thing where for five days in a row, we just kept having dinner every night, just getting to know each other.”
“We still FaceTime almost every day,” she added at the time. “When you work with someone, you sometimes think, ‘Maybe it will just be for this time, and we say we’re going to keep in touch but we won’t.’ But we really … I’m like, ‘Hey, dickhead, what are you getting me for Christmas?’”
The two stars were so close as friends and collaborators, they often found themselves faced with rumors that their relationship had turned romantic. Both parties, however, denied the speculation on multiple occasions, with Antonoff tweeting in 2018, “normally i would never address rumors but i resent having the most important friendships and working relationships in my life reduced to dumb hetero normative gossip … im not seeing anyone. lol.”
The next month, Lorde told fans on an Instagram Live, “Jack and I are not dating … I love him. He’s awesome, but we’re not dating.”
See Lorde on the cover of Rolling Stone below.
YG revealed he was the victim of sexual abuse when he was a teenager on his poignant “2004” single in March. Now, the Compton rapper is opening up to about being sexually assaulted by a 30-year-old when he was just 14 years old.
“I kept it inside for a long time,” he told ABC News on Wednesday (May 14). “My family’s first time hearing about that was when the record came out.”
The 35-year-old said he played the candid track for some of his male friends and was surprised to hear that many could relate after enduring similar experiences growing up. “90 percent of the people that I played it for — the men, the males — they all got similar stories. That was the conversation everyone was having,” he said. “It was like, ‘Yeah, I was sexually abused.’”
When the encounter took place over 20 years ago, he thought it was “lit” and didn’t realize he had been sexually assaulted. “It wasn’t a thing that I did some with an older woman — it’s lit,” YG explained of his thought process at the time. “You go through life and you see stuff and you learn stuff and it’s like, ‘I got raped.’”
“2004” came together when J.LBS (J Pounds) pushed YG to open up about something he had never talked about before on a record during a studio session. “He like, ‘You gotta talk about something you ain’t never talked about. You gotta dig deep! What’s something that you ain’t never told somebody that nobody know,” he recalled. “Then I was like, ‘Bop twice my age.’ And everybody was like, ‘What?!’”
YG hopes his honesty influences peers and fans to tell their own stories. “Especially coming from an artist — somebody like me — it’s unexpected,” he added. “People put me in a box… They look at us like we gang members, we animals, we not human, but it’s like, bro, I’m human. I go through real-life stuff.”
While “2004” came as a shock to many of YG’s fans and friends, it’s only the tip of the iceberg as far as his personal story goes, and he’s planning to delve deeper into his life with the arrival of his The Gentleman’s Club album this summer.
“People say I live a dangerous life — I talk about that and I give it to you straight like that,” he said. “Now me going through this growing stage of my life, it ain’t hard for me because I’m telling my truth.”
This year marks a chapter of change in YG’s life, who was baptized for the first time with his children in March. “2004” arrived with an accompanying music video, co-directed by the rapper himself, which boasts over 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Watch the full interview with YG below.
If you or someone you know is struggling and in need of help in the wake of sexual assault, please contact RAINN at 800-656-4673 or at online.rainn.org.
“Forever,” Prince famously declared in the pastor-like open to his carpe diem chart-topper “Let’s Go Crazy” – “that’s a mighty long time.” “Live now,” the Purple One urged us in song, “before the Grim Reaper comes knocking on your door.”
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FOREVER is also the name of the fourth project and third studio album from EKKSTACY, the Canadian alt/indie musician who knows a little something about getting crazy and living like there’s no tomorrow. Yet on the new LP, out Friday (May 16), he’s entered a new chapter: fundamentally changing his recording process, embracing a new band-centric sound and turning out his most energized and confident work to date.
“I wish I could have stayed there longer,” EKKSTACY – born Khyree Zienty, but known to friends and fans as Stacy – says over Zoom from Vancouver. He’s talking about Mexico, where he and his girlfriend have just spent a long weekend to celebrate his 23rd birthday and recharge for what should be a big year ahead. Now he’s back home, about to go to Los Angeles to shoot a fifth music video from the LP, and ready to talk about a record that he had “so much fun” making, with a lot of the credit going to his new producer, Andrew Wells.
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“I love that fool,” Stacy says of Wells, whose impressive writing and production CV includes Fall Out Boy, ROSÉ, Meghan Trainor, 5SOS and Halsey. “We just clicked. Our first session we did two songs, full songs, first day we met. I was like, ‘Alright we just gotta do it with him.’” The two met before EKKSTACY and his band went out on a two-month tour last fall, Stacy having written and recorded acoustic demos for most of the songs. FOREVER was done when he returned from tour, in short order. “With Wells, it was so easy,” he recalls. “Andrew is just so good at producing. We’d be finishing the songs in like an hour, hour and 20 minutes. It would be done.”
That hit-it-and-quit-it energy is felt throughout FOREVER, and it is in marked contrast to the way EKKSTACY used to craft records. Through his come-up — including the 2021 aura-defining EP NEGATIVE and its breakout single, “I walk this earth all by myself,” followed by his debut album, 2022’s misery — Stacy’s music mirrored that of some of his early influences. “I used to listen to a lot of Current Joys and programmed, like Linn drums and lo-fi guitars, sh-t like that.” Comparisons to bedroom pop acts with a surf bent, like Surf Curse, Current Joys and The Drums, were inevitable; Stacy even collaborated with The Drums’ Jonny Pierce on a 2021 single. “But then I got into a lot of emo,” he says. “I got into Remo Drive, and blink, and then a lot of Nirvana. I got to the point where I was, ‘Okay, I can’t make this anymore. I have to do something else.’ I was tired of the computer-indie sound, you know? I wanted to go full band.”
Stacy says he’d already reached the point of burnout on his old sound by the time he made his last record, 2024’s self-titled EKKSTACY. While it arguably won him more mainstream attention than ever, due in part to features from The Kid LAROI and Trippie Redd, he recalls that album as going through the motions. “By then I was inspired by other stuff. And I just didn’t think I had the tools to just do what I wanted really, so I just stuck to what I knew, and I was tired of that. It was kind of just beating a dead horse. I had really done everything I could do in that space, but I just had to make a whole ‘nother f–king album of it. And I was just like, ‘This f–king sucks, dude. F–k this.’”
He doesn’t mince words. I talk to a lot of young artists who, perhaps understandably in this age, are guarded in conversation. Not so Stacy, who lets it rip with very little filter, on everything from music to drinking and drugs to girls to – you name it. He has no qualms telling me, a decades-long New Yorker, that he “hates” our city, having spent some time here last year, before quickly adding, “It’s just not for me, I’m not built for it.” He dismisses his first full-band recording, last year’s one-off single “Mr. Mole,” with, “Sh-t’s ass, I f–king despise that song.” And when I point out that he’s never done the most high-profile tracks from the EKKSTACY LP on tour – “alright” (with LAROI), “problems” (with Trippie), and the uncommonly sunny, buoyant “bella” – he bluntly replies: “Yeah, and they never will be. I don’t like those songs. They’re just so – cringe-y, to me.” Fair enough.
But back to what Stacy does like and is proud of. FOREVER offers the most thrilling one-two punch opening of any EKKSTACYrecord: the power-pop explosiveness of opener “if I had a gun” reminds me of a sped-up take on the old INXS chestnut “Don’t Change,” and its energy would no doubt be approved by the Paulson brothers of Stacy faves Remo Drive. It’s followed by “forever,” on which another of his heroes, blood-pumping Canadian countrymen Japandroids’ influence can be heard in a rousing, shouted, “Hey! Hey!” Later, the album’s standout rawker “she will be missed” offers a frenetic stop-start feel that isn’t far afield from blink-182, who EKKSTACY opened for last summer, a career moment.
EKKSTACY
Michael Donovan
But there’s more than just one flavor to FOREVER. There are gentle acoustics on “messages” and “one day I’ll wake up from this.” “wonder” serves up gauzy Beach House feels (Stacy is an unabashed fan of ‘00s and ‘10s indie) while “shoulders” — a C86-styled track that opens, “It’s summertime / You made it out / Soon I’ll be ashes / In the ground” — might earn a Morrissey thumbs up. There are two forays into shoegaze-adjecency: the dreamier “head in the clouds” and “stain,” maybe EKKSTACY’s heaviest track to date. “Yeah, I really love My Bloody Valentine,” he explains. “I was just listening to them a lot when I was in Poland. I’ve always loved that sound and so I just wanted to see what I could do with it.”
Other benchmarks for Stacy on the new LP include more guitar playing than ever. He shares guitar credit on some tracks with his bandmate and right-hand man in live shows, Erez Potok-Holmes, but he has sole guitar credit on most songs. He’s also using his voice like never before. While he is blessed (and cursed, maybe) with a sweet, melodic timbre that will never allow him to be truly screamo, on songs like “she will be missed,” he pushed himself with Wells’ help. “I wanted to really sing,” he says. “On my older records I’m not singing as hard as I can, and I’m really maxing my sh-t on this album. I’m at the top of my range a lot, but in a good place, where I’m really projecting.”
What hasn’t changed throughout EKKSTACY’s musical eras has been the angst. He was a SoundCloud rap-era teen, an acolyte of XXXTentacion and Lil Peep; the faded emo trap of his early single, 2020’s “Uncomparable,” wouldn’t sound out of place next to Juice WRLD. When Stacy turned a sonic corner and leaned into lo-fi indie, then came the real gloom with titles like “it only gets worse I promise” and “christian death” (a fan favorite). His brand was equal parts self-deprecation (“I just wanna hide my face”), melancholy and worse (“wish I was dead” “I want to sleep for 1000 years” and “I want to die in your arms”). If angst was your thing, and for millions it is, EKKSTACY was your man.
The disaffection is tempered a bit on the new album, but still presents throughout: “What’s wrong with my head / How long can I take it” he wonders on “what’s wrong with me”; “I’m so sick /I’m so tired of everything” on “one day I’ll wake up from this”; and “can’t put the bottle down” on “stain.” On the wiry, propulsive post-punk of “sadness,” Stacy’s entire lyric is a recitation of generally not-good things: “Drinks, pills, nicotine chills, death, sadness and fear.” “I was just kind of describing my thoughts, and everything that’s around me,” he says of the compact song.
Stacy’s candor about his drinking and drug use is refreshing. I am no expert on addiction, but I believe I am safe in saying that, in general, honesty is the best policy, and the artist makes no bones about his penchant for hard partying, mostly with alcohol but with no shortage of pills and powder. “My thing is – I’m an alcoholic,” he admits. “It’s just straight-up, I am. I am an alcoholic and I’m functioning. Sometimes it gets really bad and there’s been times when it’s like, I can’t function, and I go into psychosis, and I start doing really crazy sh-t. And then sometimes it’s like I’m fine, and I just drink every f–king day, but…if I could shake that? If I could snap my fingers and not drink anymore, I would. But – I don’t know – the thing about drinking for me is that I just have so much time on my hands. And I have nothing to do really, so it just creeps up every day. I’m like, ‘Well, sh-t, I guess I’m gonna drink this bottle of vodka that’s on my f–king counter! [laughs] I don’t have sh-t to do tomorrow!’”
And, of course, there’s the road, which has tested the most disciplined of sober souls. Time and again it has roped Stacy back into wild living, nowhere more so than in Germany, where he enjoys an outsize popularity and has toured extensively. “I can’t explain it, but I love it there!” he says. “I feel like a god there [laughs] – I mean, no, I’m just f–king around, but I just love it.” Godlike treatment often means getting offered a lot of things that can be hard to turn down. “I did [coke] hardcore for like a week in Germany,” he recalls. “And for me, coke is like – I liked it, but I didn’t love it as much as people say they do. I’m a really anxious dude. Like really bad, I’ve always been like super anxious. So I would wake up and just be almost on the verge of psychosis, every morning. So once I ran out of Xanax, I really couldn’t do coke.” (We commiserate on the wonders of Xanax, and why it’s the wildly popular – and widely abused – drug that it is.)
But Stacy’s most recent visit to Deutschland may have been a breaking point. “I was just doing a lot of drugs and partying really hard,” he says. “And when I got home from it, it kind of transferred to me in Vancouver, like I was doing drugs at the club and sh-t, and I was just like, ‘Dude, I can’t do this.’ I remember I woke up one morning after doing a lot of coke, and I was just sweating and f–king freaking out in my bed. I opened all the windows in my house and laid in front of the window for like two hours, and I was having such a bad panic attack. ‘Cause I was on a bender for like a month.”
Stacy offers even more detail on his use of the anti-seizure medication Klonopin, along with a ton of alcohol (“I was going f–king mental. For like, a good month.”) before getting around to how he moved past this dark period. It happened during his Vancouver panic attack. “I called the girl I’m dating now,” he remembers. “I’d talked to her for like year, before we even met. I called her that morning, when I was losing my sh-t. I had really liked her for a long time, but I had never met her, ‘cause she was hesitant to come meet me. She’s pretty shy, and she’s just smart.”
During our talk, he mentions a Russian girl he used to crush on, who inspired him to get the Cyrillic любовь (“lyubov” or “love”) tattoo splayed across his chest – just one piece in a mural of ink that covers much of his body. Another woman, a fellow musician he declines to name, was dating Stacy in the early days of FOREVER, and helped him find his songwriting mojo. “She’s an incredible writer,” he explains. “And at the beginning of the record, I was kind of like, ‘F–k, like what the f–k do I write?’ Watching her write, it blew my mind. And helped me write a lot of songs. She would talk to me about writing. She’d say, ‘You take it so serious! You just gotta write.’” But no one has impacted his personal trajectory quite like his current girlfriend. “I called her that morning and I talked to her on the phone for hours and hours, and I was just like, ‘I need to meet this person, dude.’ So I don’t know, I just kind of threw the drugs away that morning. I still had some problems with pills for like a few months after that, but the hard sh-t I stopped.”
EKKSTACY
Michael Donovan
It’s been a wild ride. Is it any wonder that at times on FOREVER, Stacy longs for a less complicated time? On “seventeen” he looks back six years to a more carefree point in his life, singing, “I’m not who I used to be / And I hardly know this new me…I kinda miss being 17.” He echoes the sentiment on thoughtful closer “keep my head down”: “I was young once / I miss it so much / Where did that go?” Simpler days. “Everyone was just happier,” he explains. “No one had jobs, and we were just kids, doing everything for the first time. The best day ever back then was all of us sleeping at one of our homies’ houses and getting hammered. And that was literally just peak life. And going skating.” At only 23, he says he doesn’t feel “old” as much as just “jaded,” and weary of the nonstop bacchanal. “I’ve just seen – so much has happened – I don’t even know what else I can feel,” he says. “I feel like I’ve just done enough partying, bro. Like, I feel like I’m ready to just be with one person. And this person I met is honestly like the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”
As for the year ahead, FOREVER feels like a record built to give EKKSTACY his most high-powered live show to date. Joining Stacy and Potok-Holmes on his upcoming summer tour will be two new band members, bassist and fellow Vancouverite Hannah Kruse, and drummer Sean Friday (Dead Sara), though he says they just may be “temporary.” And just possibly, Stacy won some new fans last year when he joined $UICIDEBOY$’ annual Grey Day arena tour, sharing a bill with the New Orleans punk-rap mainstays, as well as the acclaimed hip-hop adventurer Denzel Curry and others. It was a good look for an artist hoping to expand his audience, even if he had to warm to the experience. “At first I felt like I was such an outsider, that it was like, ‘What the f–k am I doing? No one f–king wants me here?’” he recalls. “But then we slowly started socializing with everyone, and it was sick, it felt like a little f–king society in there. And it was fun, after I started meeting fools, it was really nice. I made some really good friends.”
All that talk of psychoses, blackouts, anxiety and booze-and-drug benders has led more than a few observers in the past to worry about EKKSTACY’s health and future. But he’s quick to point out that he’s always been knee-deep in sad songs. As open as he is about his stresses and the potential pitfalls of self-medication, he’s equally quick to tamp down reading too much into depressive lyrics, and put off by the idea of commodifying mental health as a talking point. Not every tortured musical poet is necessarily going through it 24/7, nor considering self-harm – even an artist who once recorded “wish i was dead.”
“I’m just like – bruh, I was just a kid, talking like that,” he says. “I was just a kid, 18, 19. My brother is 19 now and I look at that fool like he’s a child. I just want people to f–king feel me. I want them to know that I’m just hanging out, and that I’m just normal. That I get f–ked up and hang out with my friends, and skateboard, and live normal as f–k. And I still stress about the same sh-t that everyone else stresses about.”
That said, FOREVER does feel like a marginally more hopeful record than Stacy’s past work. Even if some of the new record lingers on the past, its very title – also the name of Stacy’s upcoming tour — seems to anticipate many days to come. It’s certainly more forward-looking than NEGATIVE or misery. On the moving final track, “keep my head down,” he offers, “I won’t stop saying that things will be better soon / Put my head out the window I don’t have time to be blue.” When I observe that the lyrics suggest he may be in a better place, Stacy, true to his no-BS self, quickly retorts: “I don’t think I am in a better place. I think I am calmer, but I’m still f–king scared. But I’m definitely more mature, and just chilled out, than I have been in the past. But I’m still nervous.”
Nervous, but apparently in a great creative place – he says he is eager to work on another album – and in a relationship unilke any he’s been in. He’s even contemplating becoming a dad. “It’s on my mind,” he admits. “I want to get married and have a kid.”
So yeah, Prince, “forever” is a mighty long time. Maybe, like EKKSTACY, we just take forever day by day.
Snoop Dogg has responded to the comments Warren G made on the Ugly Monkey podcast April 29, during which the “Regulate” rapper said he would like Snoop and his stepbrother Dr. Dre to hit him up more often.
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“Snoop and Dre get down and they doing things,” he said at the time. “And it’s no diss to neither one of them or anything like that, but it’s like, y’all could call Warren to come do a cameo or come hang out or something. I don’t want no money or nothing from nobody, just call me to be around.”
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Warren also mentioned not being able to get backstage during Dr. Dre‘s headlining Super Bowl LVI halftime performance in L.A.
Snoop and Warren go way back to their neighborhood in Long Beach, Calif., where they started the rap group 213 with the late Nate Dogg. Warren was also the one to introduce Snoop to his mentor Dr. Dre during the early ’90s.
So when Charlamagne Tha God of The Breakfast Club asked the Doggfather what Warren G means to him, the rapper answered, “Warren G is probably the best friend that I got that only me and him understand each other. Like, the passion Warren G has for me and had for me as an artist in the beginning is like Don King — like a promoter that promotes a fighter, like believing in Snoop before anybody else.”
Snoop then added that their friendship has been able to grow and evolve as they’ve gotten older and have become parents. “When he lost his mom, I didn’t understand, but I was there for him,” he said. “Then when I lost my mom, I didn’t understand and he was there for me. There’s been certain situations where we have become super close behind tragedy and behind love.”
However, he believes the two friends never fully addressed how their respective careers have turned out. “The music industry is trifling, it’s crazy,” Snoop continued. “You think about how he brought me to Death Row, but Death Row didn’t sign him, so there’s a lot of animosity and frustration and anger in him off of that. Not at me, but at the situation at whole.”
Added Snoop, “As an artist, if you’re pushing for me, you want for me to do this. But as an artist, I’m feeling f–ked up because they left my homeboy. These are things that we’ve never had a chance to fully get a understanding on because its pain.”
Watch Snoop’s interview with The Breakfast Club below.
Forever yours, faithfully. Steve Perry and Willie Nelson unveiled their new duet version of Journey‘s “Faithfully” for charity on Wednesday (May 14). The former Journey frontman and the country icon turn the band’s classic 1983 single into a wistful, meditative ballad as Nelson warbles, “Highway run in the midnight sun/ Wheels go round and round/ […]
Dragon Pony is a four-member Korean rock band bringing fresh energy and musical depth to the scene. Signed under Antenna, they debuted on September 26, 2024, with the EP POP UP, delivering raw emotion and a genre-blending sound. Their name comes from the members’ zodiac signs — leader An Tae-gyu is a Dragon, while the others were born in the Year of the Horse — symbolizing strength, balance and unity. Each member actively contributes to songwriting and production, creating music rooted in honest storytelling and rock’s dynamic edge.With their debut EP’s title track, they announced themselves with an anthem of self-expression and bold ambition. Since then, they’ve played major stages like the Busan International Rock Festival, launched a nationwide club tour, and even sold out a show in Taipei. Their latest EP, Not Out (March 2025), signals further growth and ambition, as the band sets its sights on global stages and future collaborations.
Dragon Pony is not just a band to watch; they’re a force redefining what modern Korean rock can be.
Please introduce Dragon Pony. What kind of team are you, and what kind of music do you pursue?
An Tae Gyu: Hello, we are Dragon Pony. The music we make is all about sharing candid stories and emotions, built on band sounds and loaded with raw, passionate energy. We’re not stuck to any one single format or genre — we just want to make good music that feels right to us.
What’s the meaning behind the name “Dragon Pony”?
Pyun Sung Hyun: In Korea, your zodiac sign is determined by the year you were born. An Tae Gyu was born in 2000, so he’s a Dragon. The rest of us — Kwon Se Hyuk, Ko Gang Hun and I — were born in 2002, the year of the Horse. That’s how we came up with the name “Dragon Pony.” Dragons and horses are both strong, powerful creatures, and we thought that the energy fit perfectly with the rock sound we’re going for.
How did the members meet and form the team?
Kwon Se Hyuk: Pyun Sung Hyun, Ko Gang Hun and I went to the same high school. Ko Gang Hun and I passed Antenna’s audition together, but I had no idea that Pyun Sung Hyun had auditioned too. A few months later, when I heard a new trainee was joining us, I was shocked to find out it was him. Eventually, An Tae Gyu came onboard. As our leader, he’s done an amazing job bringing us together, and that’s how the four of us formed Dragon Pony.
What message did you want to convey through your debut album or title track?
Ko Gang Hun: The title of our debut album and lead single POP UP reflects our sudden entrance into the music scene as well as our drive to make ourselves known. Since it’s our first release, it sends a clear message: “Let’s show the world the kind of music we do best.” If you listen to the entire album, you’ll get a good sense of the sound Dragon Pony is bringing to the table.
How did it feel to be onstage for the first time?
An Tae Gyu: We played our first show at Club FF in Hongdae, Seoul. I was super nervous since the crowd was way bigger than we expected. There was this mix of anxiety and excitement as we waited to see how the audience would react to our music
What do you think is Dragon Pony’s unique musical color?
Pyun Sung Hyun: Dragon Pony is a band where all four of us take part in writing, composing, arranging and producing, which lets us explore a wide range of musical styles — and that’s definitely one of our biggest strengths. We’re all huge fans of ’70s and ’80s hard rock, and that influence runs deep in the sound we create. If you listen to “To. Nosy Boy” and “Waste” from our latest EP Not Out, you’ll quickly understand what makes our music unique.
What is the most important element for you when working on music?
An Tae Gyu: For me, the melody and lyrics are the most important. As a vocalist, I’m the one delivering the song directly to the audience, so I naturally focus on those two elements.
Pyun Sung Hyun: I think music should leave a lasting impression — and for me, it’s usually the melody that stays with me. That’s why I try to write melodies that really linger in your ears.
Kwon Se Hyuk: The melody and lyrics are the backbone of any song. You can change the chords and shift the vibe, but changing the melody or lyrics transforms the whole song. So when I start working on a track, I always begin with those two elements before building everything else around them.
Ko Gang Hun: I prioritize sound above everything. When I listen to music, the first thing that hits me is the texture of the sound. So when I’m writing, I focus on crafting fresh, distinctive sounds that grab your attention right away.
What aspects of stage performance do you pay special attention to?
Ko Gang Hun: Since performances happen live, right in front of the audience, I think their reactions and energy matter the most. That’s why we put a lot of thought into the overall flow, the performance itself, and how we deliver the message — so the audience can really enjoy the show and connect with us.
Are there any genres or concepts you’d like to try in the future?
An Tae Gyu: As a newly debuted band, each of us has different genres and concepts we’d love to explore. But for now, we’re focused on sharing music that really shows our unique color to the public. We’re also interested in incorporating classical instruments into our band sound and creating something fresh, fun, and different to listen to.
Do you have an official fandom name? If so, what does it mean?
Pyun Sung Hyun: We recently decided on the name of Dragon Pony’s fan club — it’s called Poyong. The name combines the “Po” from Pony and “Yong,” which is the Korean word for Dragon, symbolizing the bond between us and our fans, where we support and embrace each other. In English, it’s written as “For Young,” which also reflects the idea of sharing the passionate moments of youth that the four of us in Dragon Pony hope to bring to our fans.
How did you feel when you met your fans for the first time?
Kwon Se Hyuk: When I first met our fans, it just felt surreal. We had a club show before our debut, and the fact that people came to enjoy our music even though we hadn’t yet officially debuted was so surprising and we were all really grateful. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.
Is there a comment from a fan that stuck with you?
Ko Gang Hun: Before our debut, a fan said, “See you next time,” and I thought it was just a polite goodbye. I didn’t expect them to actually see us again. But when they did, it was incredibly touching and unforgettable. More recently, someone said, “Seeing Dragon Pony gave me a dream,” and that really stuck with me. It reminded me of why we need to keep pushing forward.
Any memorable episodes from social media or fan sign events?
An Tae Gyu: We’ve only just started doing a few fan signing events, so everything still feels new and a little awkward. At a recent one, we did a live acoustic performance with our songs and some covers — something we don’t usually get to do. The fans really enjoyed it, and since it was our first time performing live at a fan signing, it was a fun and memorable experience for all of us.
What are some goals Dragon Pony hopes to achieve in the future?
Pyun Sung Hyun: The bigger the goal, the better—and we’ve got a few big ones. First, we want to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. We also hope to perform for fans in more countries, so going on a world tour is definitely on our list. One day, we’d love to headline major festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella. Now that I say it all out loud, we’ve got a lot of dreams — which just means we’ll have to work much harder to make them happen.
Is there a dream stage you’d like to perform on?
Kwon Se Hyuk: Like Pyun Sung Hyun said, we’d love to perform at Glastonbury, Coachella and even the Super Bowl halftime show one day. In the end, our dream is to headline every festival that invites us!
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?
Ko Gang Hun: Recently, Coldplay came to Korea for some concerts, and watching them perform was just incredible. I really admire how they’ve stayed together and kept making music for so long. If we ever had the chance to collaborate with Coldplay, it would be a dream come true.
Where do you see Dragon Pony in five years?
An Tae Gyu: Since we’ve only just debuted, we feel still young and inexperienced, and we have a lot to learn. But five years from now, I think we’ll be more mature and confident in ourselves. If we keep working hard, we’ll be performing at bigger venues and maybe even going on a world tour. We’re curious and excited to see how far Dragon Pony will have come by then. Please keep supporting our music until then!
If you had to describe Dragon Pony in three words, what would they be?
Pyun Sung Hyun: I’d like to express Dragon Pony through the three elements of music — rhythm, melody, and harmony. They’re the most basic yet essential components, and just as these three come together to create music, the four of us come together as one to make the kind of music we love and do best. That’s why I think these elements best represent Dragon Pony.
Are there any inside jokes or phrases trending among the members these days?
Kwon Se Hyuk: Among the members, we often say, “That’s kinda true.” It’s a meme that’s been trending among Korea’s MZ generation.
An Tae Gyu
Image Credit: Yujin Kim
What role or position do you each play in the group? I’m An Tae Gyu, the vocalist and leader.
What do you consider your personal strengths? I think my strength is the bright, positive energy I bring. Whenever we perform, I genuinely enjoy being on stage and I think that energy naturally gets passed on to the audience. That’s something I’m proud of.
What was the most difficult moment before debut, and how did you overcome it? I developed vocal cord nodules during my trainee days. Back then, I hadn’t debuted yet, and I didn’t really know how to use my voice properly or take care of it—I just pushed myself too hard during practice. I struggled with it for a long time, so I kept going to the hospital and worked on useful techniques to sing without straining my voice. That experience taught me how crucial it is for vocalists to manage their condition, especially vocal health. Even now, I make it a top priority.
If you were to give each other nicknames, what would they be? How about we give each other a “boy” nickname? I’ll go with Shy Boy for Pyun Sung Hyun. The way he talks and his expressions totally fit the name.
Do you have any personal stage routines or superstitions? I always do some stretching before performances. It helps loosen up my body and relax my throat, which makes singing on stage feel a lot more comfortable.
Kwon Se Hyuk
Image Credit: Yujin Kim
What role or position do you each play in the group? I’m Kwon Se Hyuk, the guitarist.
What do you consider your personal strengths? Perseverance and tenacity are my strengths. I think having that kind of character really helps in making good music.
What was the most difficult moment before debut, and how did you overcome it? I actually failed the Antenna audition the first time. It was a company I really wanted to join, and I’d put in a lot of practice, so the rejection hit me pretty hard. But like I said earlier, I’m persistent. I sent them another email to reintroduce myself, and thankfully, they appreciated that and gave me another shot—and that’s how I was able to become a trainee.
If you were to give each other nicknames, what would they be? Ko Gang Hun looks really tough when he’s playing the drums, so I’d call him Tough Boy.
Do you have any personal stage routines or superstitions? I like playing games in my free time, and squeezing in a quick game before going on stage helps me relax. It’s a fun way to ease the tension.
Ko Gang Hun
Image Credit: Yujin Kim
What role or position do you each play in the group? I’m Ko Gang Hun, the drummer.
What do you consider your personal strengths? I have a steady personality. I don’t really have big emotional swings, and I’m not easily influenced by external circumstances. That helps me stay focused and keeps me working toward my goals without easily getting shaken.
What was the most difficult moment before debut, and how did you overcome it? During my trainee period, we had monthly evaluations, and the pressure to perform well was one of the hardest parts for me. There was a time when I kept receiving only negative feedback, and it was really tough. But I didn’t give up—I pushed myself to practice even harder and also kept writing songs. Eventually, I started getting positive feedback, and once that happened, it felt like I was naturally able to pull myself out of the slump.
If you were to give each other nicknames, what would they be? An Tae Gyu’s always uplifting and positive, so Joyful Boy feels just right for him.
Do you have any personal stage routines or superstitions? I have this habit of checking out the audience before we go on stage. Since their energy plays such a big role in a performance, I naturally find myself scanning the crowd to feel the vibe before we start.
Pyun Sung Hyun
Image Credit: Yujin Kim
What role or position do you each play in the group? I’m Pyun Sung Hyun, the bassist.
What do you consider your personal strengths? Honesty is my strength. I’d rather be genuine than put on a facade, and that mindset naturally carries over into our music. I try to keep our lyrics as candid and unfiltered as possible.
What was the most difficult moment before debut, and how did you overcome it? Joining the company and living with others as a trainee was a completely new experience for me. It was tough to adjust at first. But I was able to get through it by being honest about my struggles and working together with the company to find ways to improve.
If you were to give each other nicknames, what would they be? I think Kwon Se Hyuk’s pretty cute, so I’d call him Cute Boy.
Do you have any personal stage routines or superstitions? Before going on stage, I make sure to check how everyone’s doing. Since we’re a band, staying in sync is really important, so I try to keep an eye on the team and help us all stay focused.
Dragon Pony
Image Credit: Yujin Kim
Lastly, please share a message for Billboard readers and your global fans!
Dragon Pony: Being selected as Billboard’s Rookie of the Month is truly an honor and an incredible experience. We’re deeply grateful and will continue to work hard to live up to the support we’ve received. We’ll keep growing and aim to reach the Billboard charts in the near future. Please continue to show your love and support for Dragon Pony. Thank you, Billboard!
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