9 Of The Strangest Interactions Between K-Pop Artists And Western Artists You May Have Never Heard Of

There are many interactions and collaborations between K-Pop artists and western artists that most fans have heard of: BLACKPINK and Selena Gomez‘s “Ice Cream”, BTS and Halsey‘s “Boy With Luv”, and MONSTA X and Steve Aoki‘s “Play It Cool”, to name just a few. However, there may be several unexpected or downright strange interactions between artists from South Korea and other countries that you may have never heard of! Here are 9 examples of such instances.

1. SHINee and Jack Black

Not only was this interaction unexpected, but also hilarious! When Jack Black landed in Gimpo Airport in South Korea, he was met with a lot of excited paparazzi that he thought were for him. However, it turns out that they were taking pictures of the people behind him — none other than SHINee themselves!

remember when SHINee met Jack Black on airport
Q: what was ur first impression on Korea?
Jack Black: When i landed there were lots of paparazzis lined-up. I thought “it started again, the life of a rockstar”. Turns out they were taking pics of the people behind us, it was SHINee pic.twitter.com/ASpHeEIrpW

— luna HATE THAT… (@shineebananas) May 2, 2020

Jack went to ask one of the members, who turned out to be Jonghyun, if he was also a rock star, and the two ended up starting a conversation together, though Jack was wearing sunglasses and Jonghyun didn’t recognize him. When the American entertainer took them off and exposed his identity, however, Jonghyun got really excited and had the rest of SHINee to run over and meet him!

2. MONSTA X and Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg has done a number of collaborations with K-Pop artists, most notably “Hangover” with PSY and a remix of Girls’ Generation‘s “The Boys”. However, one you may not have heard of is a collaboration he did with MONSTA X — and not just any collaboration, but one for Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run called “How You Do”! The song is actually kind of a bop, and you can check it out here.

3. Girls’ Generation and William Shatner, George Foreman, & Henry Winkler

The stars of the reality-travel show Better Late Than Never (which was actually inspired by the similar Korean show Grandpa Over Flowers) ended up in South Korea and, upon arrival at a venue, were met with screaming fans. Like Jack Black’s experience, however, the fans weren’t excited for them, but for who was coming up behind them — four members of Girls’ Generation!

The two worlds collided with the older gentlemen attempting to learn the girl group’s iconic “Gee” choreography, and ended up dancing comically along to Bruno Mars‘s “Uptown Funk” together as well.

4. JYJ and Kanye West

Over a decade ago, a collaboration happened between JYJ and Kanye West with the production of “Ayy Girl”. It not only featured the American artist, but was actually produced by him as well! There’s debate over how good the song actually is, and you can check it out for yourself here.

5. TURBO and Will Smith

Going back to the late 1990s when artists such as TURBO were huge in the K-Pop industry, this duo actually collaborated with none other than Will Smith! Will himself actually asked TURBO to collaborate with him on a Korean remix of the song “Just the Two of Us” in order to promote his music on a more global scale. Considering that K-Pop was far from being popular internationally back in 1998, this was a pretty big deal!

6. Crayon Pop and Lady Gaga

In 2014 when Crayon Pop’s popularity exploded with the release of “Bar Bar Bar”, the girl group was invited by Lady Gaga to be the opening act for her summer tour! While K-Pop was starting to become more known about in the United States at this time, it still wasn’t as popular as it has become now, and the opportunity for Crayon Pop to perform on such a big stage was a huge honor for them.

7. Rain and Stephen Colbert

In May of 2007, Stephen Colbert came second in a Time magazine poll of the most influential person in the world. When he learned that he was beat by legendary K-Pop icon Rain, he started a mock feud with the idol!

After several playful jabs back and forth at each other, Rain ended up coming onto Stephen’s talk show, where the two of them had an epic dance battle. In the end, Rain came out on top after making a Dance Dance Revolution console explode with his moves!

8. G-Dragon and Missy Elliott

In 2013, G-Dragon was looking for someone to collaborate with an song he had created for his Coup d’Etat album, “Niliria”. As a fan already of Missy Elliott, he tentatively reached out to her requesting her to feature on the song, and she accepted! They ended up creating the song entirely through long-distance communication, until the two came together to perform it at the 2013 KCON, which was an absolute blast.

9. Wonder Girls and the Jonas Brothers

And finally, when Wonder Girls was at the peak of their popularity in 2009 with the release of “Nobody”, the were invited to be the opening performance for the Jonas Brothers’ U.S. leg of their world tour! They were one of the first girl groups to really blow up in popularity in the United States, and this was just one of their many times performing in the country.