Bad Bunny Is Mesmerising On ‘K-POP’, Travis Scott And The Weeknd Are There Too

Travis Scott just dropped his new single ‘K-POP’, featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a Bad Bunny song featuring the Weeknd and Travis Scott instead. 

I hate to say it, but I think Bad Bunny just upstaged Travis Scott and The Weeknd. Maybe that’s because Travis hardly even features on his own song. As for The Weeknd, well, he’s there being his usual self (read: cringey). 

Collabing with The Weeknd isn’t new for Travis. The pair have worked on ‘Pray 4 Love’, ‘Power Is Power’, ‘Skeletons’, and ‘Wake Up’. Back in 2017, Travis Scott remixed Farruko’s ‘Krippy Kush’ which featured Bad Bunny alongside Nicki Minaj and Rvssian. 

Bringing Bad Bunny into the fold is a smart choice. Both Travis Scott and The Weeknd could use some good press at the moment. Travis Scott is still dodging Astroworld conversations and The Weeknd just had a wild run on social media following his show The Idol.  

‘K-POP’ is the lead single from Utopia, Travis’ upcoming album. It’s also his first since the Astroworld disaster, though he’s featured on tracks alongside Pharrell Williams, Trippie Redd, Don Toliver and more. The new album is already shrouded in controversy as Travis announced he was going to celebrate Utopia with a performance in front of the Pyramids of Giza, for some reason. This didn’t go down too well with Egypt’s Musicians’ Syndicate, who said they’d revoke his permit. 

Clearly, Travis is going through it. So, what better way to fight off bad press than by linking up with Bad Bunny? The Puerto Rican rapper has been the most streamed artist globally on Spotify for three years in a row, racking up a staggering 18.5 billion streams in 2022 alone. He’s undeniably one of the biggest forces in music right now, so any song featuring the rapper is bound to succeed in some form.  

But can Bad Bunny save Travis Scott and The Weeknd on ‘K-POP’? Turns out he can, because it feels like it’s his song. 

The beginning of ‘K-POP’ feels like a familiar Travis song. He mumbles his way through a beat that sounds similar to the start of ‘Goosebumps’. It’s safe territory for him, which makes sense given it’s the lead single of his comeback album and it’s better to stick to usual sounds. We know Travis Scott is known for saying as little as possible about things recently, but damn, his verse is the least memorable out of the three. To be honest, I was just waiting for Bad Bunny to show up, and I was not disappointed. 

Bad Bunny bursts onto the track, injecting a vibrancy that only he knows how to. I don’t even speak Spanish, yet I was most interested in what Bad Bunny was saying on this track. Bad Bunny knew exactly what he needed to do on this track, and he did that in spades. If anyone ever wants to know how to bring energy to a song, just call up Bad Bunny. It worked for Travis. 

Bad Bunny is a hard act to follow on ‘K-POP’, and as a result, The Weeknd’s verse is initially jarring. The tempo shifts as he croons about standard musician fodder: drugs and sex. Lyrics like “Mix the drugs with the pain/Let the waves lead the way/You in Cannes and Saint Tropez callin’ out my name” could come from any track in The Weeknd’s discography — he’s not exactly treading new ground here.

I will say, when The Weeknd picks up the pace he does compliment the song quite well. However, his bars are a little bold for someone who just got torn to shreds on having potentially the worst sex scene in TV history on The Idol. “We gon’ fuck ’til we seasick/Get her wet, that tsunami, ‘nami, ooh, yeah” feel strangely, nauseatingly, familiar. 

Besides Bad Bunny, the star of the song is its infectious production. Producers Boi-1da, Illangelo, Jahaan Sweet and BYNX knew their task: capitalise on Bad Bunny’s popularity with a sound that immediately makes you want to move. The song is bound to be a hit. 

Just one question though — why is it called ‘K-POP’?

Image credit: Instagram / Spotify