Lee Dongggi, one of the pioneers of Korean pop art, has revealed his thoughts on collaborating with BTS's J-Hope.
 
On July 30, J-Hope Bar, a J-Hope fan club in China, published an interview with Lee Dong-ki, who created the cover art for J-Hope's solo song “Chicken Noodle Soup” (Chicken Noodle Soup/feat.Becky G).
 
When it was released in 2019, “Chicken Noodle Soup” became the third song by a Korean solo artist to hit the Billboard Hot 100 after Psy and CL, and became a global hit. The cover art by Lee Donggi was also a big hit.
 
“J-Hope's company contacted me first, and I listened to the song he was recording at the time, which was fun and well-crafted, and I came up with more than 20 ideas. I met with J-Hope in person to get his opinion, and we worked on it in secret for two to three months.”

Lee is best known for creating the art character Atomaus in 1993, which is a composite of images of Mickey Mouse and the Atom. Atomaus, who appears on the Chicken Noodle Soup art cover, is an adaptation of his previous work “Smoking,” in which smoke comes out of his eyes and mouth, and the smoke is made to look like noodles at the same time.

Lee commented on the meaning of the collaboration, “Working with J-Hope gave me a lot of fresh ideas. 'Chicken Noodle Soup' is based on the idea of moving freely between past and present, East and West. This is both a common thread and an inspiration for my work. The elements in this work reflect J-Hope's ideas. It was an opportunity to rethink the radical and experimental nature of hip-hop culture.”
 
J-Hope performed on stage for the first time since the release of “Chicken Noodle Soup” at the BTS 2021 MUSTER SOWOOZOO performance on June 14th. At that time, Lee Dong-ki's art cover was reproduced in the form of a large three-dimensional relief on the stage background, which once again attracted the attention of fans.
 
In response to the prejudice against pop art and Asian hip-hop music as non-mainstream, Lee said, “I don't think it matters what people define. Most important artists in history have generated and acquired new meanings through conflict and tension with the institutionalized mainstream. The mainstream is always looking for young blood, and that young blood is always in strange places.”
 
Lee Donggi says RM and BIGBANG's G-Dragon, TOP, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, and Fred Mercury as examples, “Pop music and contemporary art have always been close. They will continue to influence each other and collaborate in various forms in the future.”