An American Wants to Revolutionize K-pop?
By Zach Collier
VVS was recently announced as one of K-pop’s newest and most ambitious groups yet, boldly declaring they were going to change the sound of K-pop. What most people don’t know is that VVS is the brainchild of American expat Paul Thompson. Thompson moved to South Korea from California 11 years ago to teach English, but eventually founded MZMC Inc, an entertainment group based in Seoul.
MZMC has worked on several chart-topping tracks already, including the 2017 hit "Cherry Bomb" by NCT 127. He’s also worked on tracks from EXO, NCT, and Kang Daniel. Thompson plans for VVS to make their official debut in October of 2024. In an interview with Billboard, he described the group as a combination of “Ariana Grande’s ‘POV’ and Nicki Minaj.”
While many are skeptical of an American-helmed K-pop group, Thompson has been careful to build out an all-Korean staff and crop of songwriters, one of which is K-pop idol Yuju. YG Entertainment has also struck a deal with MZMC through its distribution division, YG plus.
It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out for VVS.