Ok-Pop Idol CL Would Prefer to Reintroduce Herself | Cowl Interview

The night time belongs to Lee Chae-rin. When she finishes working, hours after sundown, she places her hoodie on and her earbuds in and begins her nightly drift. There’s a path close by that winds up and down Seoul’s central peak of Namsan; from the highest, you possibly can see town’s toniest neighborhoods sparkle all the best way to the horizon. Or so Chae-rin tells me. “That’s Gangnam, from ‘Gangnam Model,’” she says, gesturing into the space, however the glamorous black of her jacket sleeve and absolutely the lack of daylight work in tandem to make it tough if not not possible to see something through our video chat, regardless of my greatest makes an attempt.

You need to think about that it’s breathtaking, after which it’s important to think about Chae-rin gazing over all of it, listening to demos of songs she’s engaged on, or inhabiting the dependable solitude for self-reflection. No matter occurs, right here she is: Lee Chae-rin, age 30, within the silence of her personal non-public world, till day breaks, and he or she turns into CL once more.

Throughout city in Seoul’s stylish Mapo District, constructed of curvilinear sheets of glass and concrete, is the headquarters of YG Leisure, the corporate the place CL was created. In 2009, hoping to duplicate the meteoric success of YG’s good-looking foursome Large Bang (however with an all-female twist), the corporate plucked Chae-rin and three different aspiring Ok-pop idols out of obscurity and assembled them into 2NE1 (pronounced “to anybody” or “21,” relying on fan desire). CL was born, totally fashioned, at age 17, her neck dripping with umbilical chains. Chae-rin’s gamine options and pure expertise got a hip-hop makeover, her title was given an edgier-sounding chop, and an alter ego was born. “It’s a swap,” she says. Then, later, she provides it’s extra “like a masks, virtually, however with the angle and character too. It’s armor for me.”

CL is Chae-rin strengthened in leather-based, metal, and basis. Her fingernails are honed and augmented into weapon-grade claws. Her hair is a luminescent grey — much less like an overcast sky, extra like a dusty nebula. With out query, it’s honest to say that CL is essentially the most well-known Ok hip-hop artist alive, an icon of a younger style that refracts the aesthetics of hip-hop for a considerably distant tradition. She’s a byproduct of an more and more international music tradition — a radiant spark between colliding worlds.

In keeping with her discography, she’s each “The Baddest Feminine” (2013) and the “One and Solely” (2019). She dedicates her physique of labor to dangerous women in every single place — “dangerous which means good, ?” she as soon as defined. Her songs are pop poems that riff on themes of wealth, affect, designer trend, and the relentless pursuit of a great time, often in alternating Korean and English. In 2NE1, CL was the group’s chief and major rapper, who textured the band’s pop tracks with spitfire verses about how sizzling she was or the automobile she was driving. As a solo act, her confidence grew to become her commodity: The 12 months 2NE1 disbanded, CL appeared in a Vogue video, rapping her newest single over the autumn collections. The tune’s title, “Good day Bitches,” greeted CL’s Western viewers. “Good day Kitty getting hella previous,” she sang. Her model of braggadocio, borrowed largely from hip-hop after which spun into Ok-pop, emphasised the person in a style usually outlined by sameness.

A lot of that sameness is by design. As one in every of Korea’s “Large Three” companies, YG cultivates legions of attractive, gifted performers as its product, which might then be exported world wide. As a result of sensitivity of this course of, the Ok-pop trade shrouds itself in utmost secrecy. The trainee course of is broadly reported to be a grueling one, as youngsters are educated to be pop-performance gladiators throughout among the most adolescence of their lives. CL entered the YG household at 15; her eventual 2NE1 bandmate, Minzy, was 10. The remainder of CL’s time at YG is off the desk, interview-wise. At some point we’ll most likely all know, intimately, what a Ok-pop trainee undergoes throughout their remaking. For now, we are able to solely see the one that enters the machine and the one that exits it.

“It’s all gratitude,” Chae-rin-as-CL says, like a star, of fame and its problems. However she’s keen to speak (within the summary) in regards to the strain to bear double-eyelid surgical procedure, wherein an eyelid crease is surgically created the place there was none. (This eagerness was relayed through publicist, previous to our interview.) This process additionally, in essence, edits a distinctly Asian eye right into a barely extra Caucasian-looking one. “It was a factor again then, the place everybody bought double eyelids. That was the wonder development,” CL says now. However she preferred her monolids and customarily bristled at unsolicited picture recommendation. “I even wish to say I used to be unhappy and offended. I used to be like, ‘What the fuck? Why are all these folks telling me how I ought to look? How do I digest this?’” She grew to become extra considering make-up utility, in digicam angles, in ways in which she may manipulate the eyes of the viewers with out altering herself. Towards an onslaught of scrutiny, she projected confidence.

“You actually bought to inform your self, ‘You’re stunning the best way you’re,’” she says. You may inform CL is talking now: “If you wish to go work out or put a bunch of make-up on or do full-body cosmetic surgery, it’s as much as you. And I ensure I continuously remind myself of that.”

“Hey, you, get off my cloud; you don’t know me, and also you don’t know my fashion,” she raps, by the use of introduction, on her 2016 single “Lifted.” In an try to enter the American leisure trade, she moved to Los Angeles. “Lifted” was a celebration anthem celebrating one’s proper to expertise transcendence by any means needed, in addition to CL’s new co-management by YG and Scooter Braun, who manages the likes of Ariana and Justin. Towards the colourful American hip-hop scene, some reviewers wrote, CL’s model of hip-hop felt hole, although no person of their proper thoughts denies her expertise. Her lyrical punches are thrown powerfully however playfully, like these in a cardio boxing class.

She traveled to New York, to movie the music video for “Lifted”; town is “like Disneyland” to her. She made plenty of significant connections throughout her time in America, however can’t consider any important examples off the highest of her head. “I do know you wish to hear names,” she says, “however I’m going to consider it. None pop up.”

“No worries. For those who consider any, let me kn—”

“Truthfully, I really like speaking to John Malkovich.”

“John Malkovich, the actor?”

John Malkovich, the actor, with whom CL shared the display in Mile 22, a 2018 CIA thriller born of her Hollywood residency. CL performed an murderer named Queen. (In different phrases, a nasty woman.) “Once I was getting out of the label and taking a while off, we met, and he [became] my mentor. He was the one who instructed me it’s okay to be unhappy, typically. It’s okay to be mad. No matter I’m feeling, even when it’s not essentially a constructive feeling, it’s okay to embrace it and take my time. He wouldn’t say it like that, however he’d say it via his tales. He’s nonetheless my mentor. He performed a giant a part of my L.A. life.”

CL spent the misplaced 12 months of 2020 again in Seoul, the place Very Cherry, her “all-encompassing model,” is now formally headquartered — a symbolic return to her roots. The cherry is one thing of an icon for Chae-rin, which feels like “cherry” in Korean. She doesn’t get pleasure from consuming cherries, however she likes what they do for “the fruit world.” (What she means is: They’ve nice branding.) As of this writing, CL is making ready to launch Alpha, her first solo album since leaving 2NE1. Alpha’s which means is twofold, she explains: It’s in regards to the alpha-female character she embodies, nevertheless it additionally suggests a brand new starting; the songs will fill out CL’s superlative branding with private taste. Early in 2021, Chae-rin’s mom handed away, and CL expressed her grief in a monitor referred to as, “Want You Had been Right here”: a eulogy laid over a back- beat rhythm, and a touch of what’s to come back.

“I believe to some folks I’m a Ok-pop artist. To some folks I’m a pop star, to some folks I’m a sister or a buddy,” CL says of making music for a worldwide viewers. “I don’t wish to appropriate something, but additionally I don’t wish to put myself in a field. Folks may select, however I don’t wish to be one layer.”

CL’s Seoul Cycle

The megastar is, with out exaggeration, too well-known to look in public within the metropolis the place she lives. However when CL isn’t asleep, recording, or performing, you might be able to spot her at:

Olive Younger. 53 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu. 

“All of the Korean native make-up manufacturers in a single place. I really like purchasing there,” CL says. “I might get all of the eyeliners there and take a look at them. I often find yourself with two, however I really like testing them. Once I’m performing, it must be waterproof and all these issues.”

Her personal condo. Tackle unavailable. 

“I can’t actually exit to public locations in Seoul, so it’s powerful to advocate magnificence spots, however lately all of us do at-home care anyway,” she says. “I don’t know when you’ve heard about pigskin? It’s a Korean old-school treatment. Pigskin is pure collagen, so it’s a sort of masks Korean folks make and do. And when I’ve a shoot, I’ll combine manuka honey and matcha powder. That actually cleanses [my skin]. I additionally do an aloe therapy on my scalp 10 minutes earlier than I take a bathe each night time, which is nice for individuals who dye or bleach their hair lots.” 

Reissue Espresso. 509-29 Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-gu. 

“My buddy Oh Hyuk [vocalist and guitarist of Hyukoh] is actually into espresso,” CL says. “Final 12 months, due to [coronavirus] and all the things, this espresso store that he beloved closed, so he went out of his approach and made certain it continued to dwell. He invited me there and their espresso is superb.” 

Duomo Books & Cooks. 5 Jahamun-ro 16-gil, Jongno-gu. 

“It’s an Italian restaurant. I am going there after I really feel like consuming a home-cooked meal,” she says. “I do know the chef via my aunt. At any time when I really feel like good meals and good vibes, that’s one in every of my favourite locations.”

Photographer: Peter Ash Lee

Style stylist: Ye Younger Kim

Hair: Gabe Sin

Make-up: Ji Received Moon

Nails: Eun Kyung Park

Set design: Hyea Received Yoo

Manufacturing: Visible Park.

Click on right here to learn CL’s cowl story in Korean.