Pop

Over the past four months, three little syllables have taken over the world: “ah-pah-tuh.”
They started out as the chant of a popular Korean drinking game, but ever since October, they’ve become better known as the hook of ROSÉ‘s international smash with Bruno Mars, “APT.,” a youthful, dynamic pop tune that’s currently on its 12th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 with a music video that just became YouTube’s fifth-fastest to surpass a billion views. The lead single off her debut solo album Rosie, the track has both solidified the BLACKPINK member as a bonafide solo star as well as helped secure yet another imperial era over pop culture for the Silk Sonic musician, with his “Die With a Smile” duet with Lady Gaga once again resting at No. 2 on the Global 200 this week after spending eight weeks at the summit before “APT.” came along.

But before millions of people could hardly get the three-part incantation out of their heads — and before Mars himself was even involved in the project — “APT.,” like most runaway hits, started in a small room of collaborators who had no idea that lightning was about to strike. Producer Rogét Chahayed, a classically trained pianist who in the mid-2010s made the pivot to producing pop and hip-hop hits such as DRAM and Lil Yachty’s “Broccoli” and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” still remembers how effortlessly the song came together with ROSÉ in the fall of 2023 once all-star collaborators Omer Fedi, Cirkut, Theron Thomas and Amy Allen decided to throw propriety to the side and lean into the unadulterated silliness of “APT.”

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“We didn’t overthink this — it happened so quickly,” Chahayed tells Billboard more than a year after that initial session first went down in Los Angeles. “Every now and then, the world needs a song that just sort of breaks the rules.”

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When the group left the studio that day, the hitmaker says they had no idea what “APT.” would become — not just on the charts, but in terms of ROSÉ’s trajectory as well, with the song eventually being picked by her team to lead the rollout for one of the most highly anticipated K-pop solo album debuts in recent memory. Chahayed didn’t even learn that the project had turned into a duet until he heard about it in passing from mutual friend and frequent Mars collaborator D’Mile at a Fourth of July barbecue last year, something he still didn’t fully let himself believe to be true until he heard the “Grenade” singer’s cut of “APT.” later on.

“Sometimes you just gotta keep working, put your head down, you don’t see it coming, then boom, you have a song with Bruno Mars,” he says now, laughing incredulously.

Hooked on the experience, Chahayed is hoping to write and produce more K-pop songs in the future and is planning a work trip to Korea later this year. But for now, he’s still drinking in the success of “APT.,” and to celebrate its ongoing momentum, Billboard caught up with the producer on how all of the pieces fell into place for a song that’s deeply unserious to have a commercial run that’s anything but.

From bonding with ROSÉ in the studio to challenging the norms of pop music, see Chahayed’s recollections on “APT.” below.

How did “APT” come together?

I had been asked if I wanted to do a session with ROSÉ, and I was like, “Yeah of course, I would love to work with her.” We got a really good room together with Cirkut and Omer Fedi, who I produced the track with. Then we had Theron Thomas and Amy Allen in there to help us write. We started off with a different vibe — it was a little more R&B, and slower. After like 20 minutes of trying to do that, we were like, “We should try something a little more upbeat or fun.”

Right around that time, [ROSÉ] was talking about this drinking game she played in Korea and showing Amy how to play it. It kind of looked like patty cake or something like that. Theron was like, “What is that? That’s so cool, we should put that in the song.” She explained how the game starts — they say that “Gaaame, start!” — and we were like, “We should make that the intro.” Then [the writers] just started saying ‘APT’ over the drum beat. Me and Omer were thinking about the music, and we were like, “We should just do some simple brass hits, one-note things,” ’cause it felt very open and cool. Then we put those chords in the pre-chorus and the hook.

It felt really different and special, but I think off the top I was just like, “This is very unconventional and strange — in a good way.” When we left that day, we didn’t really know what we had. We were just kind of like, “This is really cool, but what is this?” [Laughs.] I think Rosie felt the same way.

Did the room have any reservations about releasing a song with such an unorthodox chorus?

Yes. [Laughs.] Rosie sort of felt like, “Did I really just put a drinking game that I grew up playing into a song? What am I thinking, what am I doing?” I sort of felt the same way, even though most of the big songs I’ve done — “Broccoli,” “Sicko Mode” — those are also all weird songs as far as the chords and the sounds. In many ways, it’s risky. It’s bold to want to do something like that and be like, “Is the whole world going to think this is cool, or is this just ridiculous?”

That’s the magic of being in the room with certain people. You can just think really big, and the fact that everyone was really open to it and wasn’t like, “Oh this is silly, this is dumb, we can’t do this …” Every now and then, the world needs a song that just sort of breaks the rules and defies a proper structure and a proper hook. You can’t really plan it, though. You can’t go in the room and be like, “Let’s make something weird and big.” It’s chemistry. It’s like scientists accidentally spilled something in a pot and it became this crazy formula.

What was your reaction to hearing Bruno’s version of the track?

I knew we had something really good already, but what he added to it was just unbelievable. He beefed it up a lot, helped [ROSÉ] with some of the verses and the hook. It just became a monster.

Having him come into Rosie’s world and be down for keeping the song basically the way it was with the drinking game in there … It’s really cool that somebody as big as him and as legendary as him is putting this international stuff on the map. It’s a huge move for the culture, for many cultures — for K-pop, for American pop music, everything. It’s just a global worldwide smash.

I definitely messaged him after the song had come out like, “I’m so excited about this song, thanks so much for everything,” and he told me congrats. I hope to work more with him in the future.

What was ROSÉ like as a collaborator?

Rosie is such a sweetheart and such a nice person. I didn’t know what I was walking into. I was like, “Am I walking into a situation where there’s going to be a whole entourage around and all these people telling us what to do?” In a lot of sessions, especially with K-pop, there’s a formula … a method of making big stars and big songs. But she literally just came in with one of her friends. Once I saw her, I was like, “Oh, she’s totally normal, totally nice.” You know she’s a star when you look at her, but the aura that she gives is just very genuine.

I grew up playing piano, and she plays the piano as well. During the session we took a break, and she was telling me about this beautiful piano duet from this Chinese movie she liked (Jay Chou’s 2007 film Secret), and I pulled up the sheet music on my iPad and we played through a few pages just for fun. It was a really sweet moment to bond with her through that – I’ll never forget it. She’s one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met, and so talented. She works really, really hard.

Was the pressure on knowing that ROSÉ was working toward an incredibly highly anticipated debut solo album?

I think we were all feeling the pressure in the beginning, especially when we were making the first [R&B-inspired] idea that didn’t work out. Sometimes having something like that happen in the beginning of a session, it’s like, “Ugh, are we failing? Are we not going to be able to work together after this?”

Coming from something like BLACKPINK, which is all massive, incredible songs and hits and worldwide stardom … You sort of have to forget about it when you’re in the room and be like, “At the end of the day, we’re five human beings working in a room together trying to have fun and make something happen.” The rest is just kind of up to God, up to the universe.

Why do you think this particular song ended up doing so well commercially?

There’s something about the simplicity of the melody; it almost feels like a lullaby or something. I have a 2.5-year-old niece, and she can sing the song so perfectly, and she can’t even really form sentences yet. Most of the big songs I’ve been a part of have this simplicity that’s so catchy and so genius in that way, [which makes it] something you’re going to remember forever.

I think the reason why this song is so big is because we had fun making it. If we hadn’t had a good time making it, if we’d been stressed out, if we had gone back and forth 100 times with A&Rs and labels and this and that, you may have heard or felt that in the song. But it was just a fun ride all the way through, and I think [ROSÉ] coming from that vulnerable, honest place, it just panned out and worked out for all of us.