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South Korean rapper PSY, who this week released his first album since becoming an international sensation more than three years ago with the smash hit "Gangnam Style," says the pressure to live up to that success caused him to take his time with his latest project.
"There were many thoughts going around in my head, including thoughts like, 'If I write like this, it would be not as good as Gangnam Style,' and 'If I write like this, the international audience will not understand,' so it took me a very long time to organize all those thoughts into one," PSY said at a news conference in Seoul on Monday, a day before "Chiljip PSY-Da" made its debut.
"Chiljip PSY-Da" — which means "This Is PSY's Seventh Album" in Korean — comes about a year and a half after the release of his single "Gentleman." It's his first album since 2012, when "Gangnam Style" swept the world with addictive music and dance moves and made PSY a global superstar.
"Gangnam Style," featured on the album "PSY 6," recorded 2.46 billion views on YouTube, becoming the most viewed YouTube video ever.
PSY's new album includes songs of various genres, including dance music, hip-hop and punk.
He said he tried to include many emotions, including happiness, anger, sadness, joy, love, hatred and greed, as he had done in his past albums.
"Because this is an album that retains my continued desire as a lyric writer who wants to try things other than love songs in a movie-like way, there are several genres," he said.