Everyone in Blackpink has their role to play, and the longer the girl group has continued their domination, the more they’ve worked out the kinks of what works best for each member. During a recent appearance on Dua Lipa’s At Your Service podcast, Jennie opened up about that initial bumpy road when she was pushed towards being one of the group’s designated rappers, but didn’t have a true passion for it and found herself burned out as a result.
“I’ve never really said this anywhere, but I’ve wanted to. After our debut, we did like six songs where I would just rap like, seriously rap and along the way,” she explained. “I kind of got confused because I came to realize that there’s a big side of me inside that loves to sing, but I actually never had the chance to really explore that as a trainee because I got told that I should be a rapper, you know? So there was a phase where I would hate to rap. I was like, ‘This isn’t me like, this isn’t the journey that I envisioned in my head like, I don’t think I’m a rapper.’ So there was definitely a burnout.”
The answer came in response to Lipa’s curiosity about the artistic transformation Jennie seems to go through when performing songs like “DDU-DU DDU-DU.” “I know one of the reasons you became a rapper is because you spoke English, so you got assigned the rap parts and you’ve obviously really grown into that rap role in BLACKPINK, it’s something that the fans love you for,” Lipa told her. “You know, it’s like watching you become an entirely different person!”
While Jennie shifted into that role with Blackpink, she also learned about what she perceives as the essence of hip-hop from their producer Teddy. Last year, Jennie opened up to Rolling Stone about what hip-hop means to her, stating: “To me, it’s the spirit of cool — vibes, swag, whatever words you can use. Blackpink’s hip-hop is something the world hasn’t seen before.”
“We, four girls in their twenties from different backgrounds, are using Korean and English to weave pop music with a hip-hop base,” she added about the historically Black genre that originated in New York. “Maybe if the really cool rappers in America, who do ‘real hip-hop,’ look at us, it can seem a little like kids doing things. Our hip-hop isn’t the rebellious kind, but we are doing something very cool. What hip-hop is this? I don’t know! It’s just cool!”