YES LAWD!
There’s no party like an Anderson .Paak party which brought out Mario, Kaytranada, Dr. Dre, Janelle Monáe, Jermaine Dupri, and more for the multihyphenate maestro’s birthday bash at his acclaimed restaurant and lounge Andy’s in West Hollywood.
Other notable attendees included Cordae, Saweetie, ThunderCat, D Smoke, Freddie Gibbs, Baron Davis, Moses ‘Shyne’ Barrow, Rocsi and Anthony Anderson, and The Free Nationals who enjoyed immaculate vibes with a splash of silky swank at the bustling WeHo hotspot.
Powered by Jim Beam and On The Rocks Bartender Created Cocktails, the star-studded affair showcased signature sips, including the Jim Beam & Lemonade and an exclusive taste of the brand-new On The Rocks Whiskey Sour.
Fresh off another Grammy nomination (Best Dance/Electronic Recording for “No Cap” with Disclosure), Paak (who’s been mingling with MiMi) had plenty to celebrate ahead of his upcoming film and directorial debut K-POPS! arriving exclusively in AMC Theaters on February 27.
Inspired by pandemic-era stories he created with his 13-year-old son, Soul Rasheed, who also stars in the film, the music-driven project premiered to strong acclaim marking a defining new chapter in the hitmaker’s career as a storyteller.
Check out the trailer below:
While unpacking the film in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, .Paak revealed the quarantine origin story behind K-POPS!
“…my son was really into YouTube, and he was like, “I want to be a YouTuber,” recalled .Paak. And I was like, ‘All right, let’s do it. We’re going to be YouTubers!’ I go to his web page and it is video game tutorials. He wanted subscribers, so I was like, “Let’s try to do some skits!”
“We started messing around and I saw that he was such a natural at improving. And we were bonding so much. I started getting super into it. I was filming all of them and I was staying up super late to edit the videos so we could post them. Also around this time, my whole house was obsessed with K-pop. His mom is full Korean and I’m part Korean, too, but I didn’t know anything about my Korean heritage.”
“I’m always pushing for him to learn about his Black side. I’m like, “You know about BTS. What about BET?” I thought this could be a funny story: What if I wasn’t involved in my son’s life, he was raised in Korea, and I found out about him later and we have to learn about each other’s cultures.”
With Mariah on his arm, K-POPS! premiering this month, and the upcoming ‘Romantic’ World Tour with Bruno Mars, .Paak is primed for an epic 2026.
