Rookie K-pop girl group aespa under SM Entertainment released their new single “Next Level,” a remake of the original soundtrack from the movie “Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw.”
“The lyrics tell a story of aespa and their personal avatar counterparts, ‘ae,’ going on an adventure to ‘Kwangya’ to find ‘Black Mamba,’ who is disturbing aespa and ae’s Synk, descending the world into chaos,” according to a press statement.
The four-member act is composed of Korean members Karina and Winter, Chinese member Ningning and Korean-Japanese Giselle.
During a press conference on May 17, Karina said aespa is composed of eight members including their avatars.
"We learned about the concept for a long time since we can go on with our activities after learning and understanding the concept. Now we've fully grasped it,” she said, Yonhap News reported.
She added, "We do some activities with them, and since they are built based on our data, we connect well without putting in too much effort."
About “Next Level,” Ningning said, “(The song) depicts how we head out to wilderness to solve the issue of disconnecting with our avatars due to Black Mamba. It tells the story after (our first single) 'Black Mamba.’”
While “Next Level” is a remake, Karina said, "We tried to show a more groovy and energetic side. We also considered how we can put in our colors since it's a remake of a movie soundtrack.
"We were loved with 'Black Mamba,' but since we are still rookies, we want to continuously show our growth (with the new single)," said Giselle.
The music video for “Next Level” was released on May 17 and as of writing, it has garnered 15.31 million views on YouTube.