BTS’ j-hope and Becky G just linked up on “Chicken Noodle Soup”–which heavily samples Webstar’s 2006 hit of the same name.
The aughties anthem featured The Voice of Harlem and Love & Hip-Hop’s Bianca Bonnie (known as Young B at the time). The newfound duo puts their own spin on a point dance that the original popularized. Lumpens, a frequent BTS director, accompanies the song’s video with an excess of thumping hydraulics and monster trucks falling from the sky.
The collab opens with a twist on a familiar refrain:
I let it rain, I clear it out
I let it rain, I clear it out
I let it rain, I clear it out
I let it rain, I clear it out
Then they launch into the titular hook:
Chicken noodle soup
Chicken noodle soup
Chicken noodle soup wit' a soda on the side
Chicken noodle soup
Chicken noodle soup
Chicken noodle soup wit' a soda on the side
As a joint track between two of the most popular artists in K-pop and Latin pop, the multilingual banger incorporates Korean, Spanish, and English-language lyrics.
j-hope reminisces on coming up in his underground dance team, according to a Newsweek translation:
From Gwangju, a gang from a little somewhere
Geum-nam Chung-jang Street, that’s my Harlem
Joined Neuron, bounce with ma team
Went crazy for dance, workaholic, every day
In fact, he listened to the original “Chicken Noodle Soup” when he was learning how to dance.
Becky sprinkles a little braggadocio into her Spanish-language verse:
Chicken noodle or chicken with spaghetti
None of these women have the flow that Becky has
Latin American I’m from here
Saintly little face but freaky
j-hope recently went on Korean streaming platform VLIVE to give a bit of backstory to the team-up. “This track has been around for a while,” he said, according to Soompi. “I’ve been working on it for a long time. When I was working on Hope World, this song was going to be a B-side on it. Also there was another artist I was going to do it with, but it didn’t work out so I ended up releasing Hope World while feeling a bit sad about this song.”
He revealed that he started working on a new version of the track with Becky before the Billboard Music Awards. When they finally met at the May 1 ceremony, he felt worried. “It was really awkward. I didn’t know what to say,” he said. “After we talked for a bit, RM came over, and I introduced him as our leader. The members came over and we took a photo together, and then she left. But after meeting with her, I was so regretful because I wasn’t able to communicate well with her. I was worried, and I said, ‘I don’t think Becky G is going to collaborate with me.‘”
Spoiler alert: the collaboration ended up working out, and the two filmed the music video together–presumably on his much buzzed-about trip to Los Angeles last month. “Since we filmed it as one shot, we couldn’t make any mistakes,” he said.
As for the whole BTS crew, they recently got back to work after taking an extended break. The world’s biggest boy band will perform at KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball on Dec. 6.
Watch the music video above, and read all the lyrics to “Chicken Noodle Soup” on Genius now.
