From musician to label founder and mentor to a new generation of artists, Jay Park’s place within the industry has evolved dramatically over the years. Yet, through every shift in role, one thing has remained constant: the unmistakable nature of his sound. As he brings his latest tour to London, he sits down with Wonderland China to reflect on the legacy he has built, and where he goes from here.
How much time can an album capture? For Korean-American artist Jay Park, his 2024 offering THE ONE YOU WANTED holds roughly six years. Some of its earlier tracks, including “100 Days” and “Foreign,” date back to around 2018, while “Mayday” and “Gimme A Minute” came later in the process. Songs were written, set aside, mulled over, and eventually completed. By the time twenty tracks finally came together as one body of work, they already contained different versions of Jay Park from different points in time.
Six years is long enough to deepen one’s understanding of the creative process, and to realise what it really means for a piece of work to feel completed. Jay has described THE ONE YOU WANTED as “the most polished body of work that I’ve put out.” For him, that standard can transcend personal preference: “It doesn’t have to be your taste in music, but you can’t deny that it’s of high quality.”
When he made his first full-length album, New Breed, in 2012, Jay was only beginning to write and produce his own music. “Those are my first songs that I wrote,” he recalls, “the first album that I produced.” Twelve years later, by the time he arrived at THE ONE YOU WANTED, he had written three or four hundred songs in the years between the two records. “With time, obviously you get sharper. I’m much more experienced, and that just translates to improving at everything.”
His network had expanded too: he knew who to turn to for a particular mix, master or arrangement. Questions that once had to be solved through trial and error gradually became part of his own creative method. Once the album was complete, however, the sounds accumulated across those six years found another life onstage.
Serenades & Body Rolls marks Jay Park’s first major tour in years. He had continued to perform at festivals, but it had been a long time since he had reorganised his catalogue through a full tour. As he prepared to set out again, what struck him first was just how much had shifted. “A lot has changed in my life and in my career, along with my discography – all the music that I’ve released, the artist that I’ve become.”
This chapter seems to place two sides of Jay’s expression alongside one another. At one end sits melody, emotion and the tenderness of intimacy embedded in R&B; at the other there’s rhythm, dance and the body, the kind of energy that has to be released directly onstage. Add hip-hop and rap to the mix, and it becomes clear that Jay has rarely confined himself to a single sonic identity. At this stage in his career, he can bring these seemingly disparate impulses into the same performance. “I sing, I dance, I rap, and I tap into so many different genres – it’s all about bringing different types of energy,” he says. One moment might be “conceptual and emotional,” while the next is “high-energy, dance-driven, and built for a party.” In that sense, Serenades & Body Rolls is an unusually fitting title.
An ever-expanding catalogue also brings with it a welcome, if difficult, question: which songs should make it onto the stage? From albums New Breed, EVOLUTION, WORLDWIDE, EVERYTHING YOU WANTED and The Road Less Traveled to THE ONE YOU WANTED, alongside countless singles and collaborations, no single setlist can contain the entirety of his past. The choice comes down to balancing three kinds of expectation: “It’s just a balance of, what do people want to hear? How do I cater to my loyal fan base? And then also, what do I want to show as an artist?” he pinpoints. Choosing songs, then, is more than arranging the biggest hits in sequence. What ultimately gives a show its shape is the sense of connection created once those songs are placed together.
“I think just the flow of everything. I want it to seem natural. I want it to seem fun. I want it to seem like a journey,” Jay says. “Coming to watch an artist for two-plus hours… It’s a lot of commitment.” He wants the experience to feel worth both the ticket price and the time people invest in being there. “Whether it be rapping or singing or dancing, of course I want to do it at a high level. And then also I want it to be fun for the viewer as well.”
The journey of a tour therefore carries more than one meaning. For the audience, the experience unfolds within two exhilarating hours. For Jay Park onstage, the journey is considerably longer. The songs come from different years: some were made when he was still establishing his identity as an artist; others came after he became a label founder; still others were completed only in recent years.
An album gathers six years of time into a single body of work; a tour opens those sounds up again. Songs from different stages of his life are brought together on a single night. The changes become audible; what has endured becomes clearer still.
Jay’s music is hard to define in just a few words. From R&B and hip-hop to soft, melodic love songs and high-energy performances, he has spent years moving between ideas, and knows his strengths well. “Sonically, my tone is my most distinct asset…” “At this point, people know right away whether it’s me or not.”
But how does an artist who moves so freely between creative forms and musical styles become increasingly easy to recognise? “It’s been a continuous evolution,” he feels. Through years of experimenting with different tones and sounds, he gradually established “what meets my personal standard” and, simply put, “what sounds good.”
Influences stretch far and wide, and always have. He’s drawn from Michael Jackson and Usher, Biggie, Nas or Jay-Z. Ginuwine’s dancing, Brian McKnight’s R&B and Dr. Dre’s hip-hop. Each offered different lessons in movement, emotion and expression.
What remains, ultimately, is the way he cultivates his disparate influences. Musical taste rarely comes from a single genre. What creates recognisability is the accumulation of experience and the choices made in the process of creation.
Jay remembers his younger self as someone drawn to intensity and chaos. He listened widely, tried different styles, and welcomed the feeling of many things happening at once; even disorder seemed to carry its own kind of vitality. With age though, that instinct has shifted. “Now that I’m older, in my everyday life, I’m much more calm and relaxed. I don’t seek out chaotic situations anymore.”
For years, the Jay Park familiar to the public has seemed inseparable from an energetic immediacy: singing, dancing, rapping, frequent collaborations and releases, alongside the repeated founding of new labels and music projects. Yet, when asked about the difference between the artist onstage and the person in everyday life, what comes first is how calm and relaxed the latter has become.
“On stage, I’m less self-conscious and more focused on giving people an experience,” he says. “Just channeling energy. The kind of energy only I can deliver.” The person who increasingly values quiet still opens himself outward when the lights come on.
Since founding his entertainment agency MORE VISION, what Jay has to think about extends far beyond an album or a performance. He has become more conscious of the company’s structure, its team and the way a label needs to operate. As an artist, many decisions ultimately led back to his own work; as a CEO, his perspective increasingly resembles that of a custodian.
Speaking about LNGSHOT, the first boy group formed and managed by the label, he says, “I understand that they’re young and they’re basically entrusting their future with us. So I don’t take that lightly.” He is equally conscious of the trust their parents have placed in him, and wants to “set them up for success, not just as artists, but as human beings as well.”
LNGSHOT will also join him on the Serenades & Body Rolls tour. Jay hopes the experience will offer them something that cannot be gained simply by remaining in a rehearsal room: seeing how an actual tour unfolds, encountering different cities and audiences, and experiencing the parts of a live show that can never be completely designed in advance. “It should be a meaningful experience for myself, LNGSHOT, and for the fans,” he says. “And that’s very valuable when it’s meaningful.”
Growth, maturity, achievement: all of them unfold over time. There is now a subtle sense of a circle being completed. Years ago, Jay himself was the young artist entering the entertainment industry, placing his own next step in the hands of the unknown. He later began again under his own name, released his own music, built AOMG and H1GHR MUSIC, and eventually founded MORE VISION. Today, standing on the other side, he is the one being asked to hold the expectations of younger artists.
Interview and shoot conducted by Wonderland China.
Talent – Jay Park
Photographer – Mok Jung Wook
Fashion Executive EIC – Shen Zhang
Talent stylist – RECYDE
Grooming – BLACKLIP
Set design – Choi Seo Yun
Casting director – Even Yu
Production – BL CREATIVE HOUSE
Executive Producer – Lee Kyung Kim
PA – Lee Jin Kyoung, Park Mi Jeong
Stylist assistant – Kim Jin Woo
Text – Lynch
