“Kings of R&B” Solid is having a reunion!

The all-Korean American R&B group debuted in 1993 and were dubbed Korea’s “Kings of R&B” for popularizing the genre in the country. After their rise in the ’90s and subsequent hiatus, the group made a long-awaited comeback in 2018 with their album Into the Light. Now, producer Jae Chong, rapper John Lee, and singer Kim Johan are coming together once more on this week’s episode of K-pop Dreaming to talk with host Vivian Yoon about how, during their short time in the spotlight, they merged American R&B with Korean music to ultimately influence the sound of K-pop today.

LAist’s new podcast K-pop Dreaming has put out Episode 5. Vivian discusses details about how Korean Americans were a way to introduce more of the R&B genre into Korean music. She goes down a small memory lane of different Korean-Americans like Girls Generation Tiffany Young, who was from Diamond Bar, CA, to other Korean Americans representing Asians and Koreans. The interview with K-pop R&B Solid takes you back to the ’80s and ’90s music. They go in-depth on how the trio got together and came to love music while carrying these genres and styles of music over to Korea. In addition, Jae Chong talks about how different Korea was at accepting new music as they represented LA hip hop, culture, and gear, which was not a familiar sound yet. The group was left to create their own album without company help, their struggles with the language barrier, and name the group Solid. Check out their stories and experience with K-pop down below.

EPISODE LINK: K-Pop Dreaming – Ep. 5: Solid

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