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Last month, Vernon of the internationally popular K-pop group SEVENTEEN, logged on and saw that one of his biggest musical idols, Charli XCX, had tweeted about him. Fast forward a few weeks, and the 24-year-old rapper and singer had joined her new remix of “Beg For You,” produced by PC Music label head A.G. Cook and featuring Rina Sawayama. It was a near instantaneous link between like-minded artists that could only be sparked by the internet, where world-expanding connections can take place despite geographic location.
“I’m still having a hard time grasping this reality. I just really want to say thank you to Charli for acknowledging my existence,” he tells Teen Vogue from Seoul, laughing and looking fresh-faced with his tousled brown hair tucked into the hood of his black sweatshirt. “It's truly an honor to be a part of her music.” Vernon is also grateful to fans of SEVENTEEN, officially known as CARATs, who he believes got Charli’s attention through their enthusiastic tweets and manifested the collaboration. Since he first came across her 2019 self-titled album, he’s been recommending the British pop star’s music in interviews. “It was a whole new world for me, really,” he says of discovering Charli. He takes a long pause to gather the right words. “I feel vulnerability, but at the same time, invincibility in her music. There’s something really beautiful about it.”
It’s easy to see the similarities between Vernon and Charli XCX, who has helped bring the futuristic, frenetic electronic genre of hyperpop into the mainstream. In SEVENTEEN, the prolific 13-member boy group who co-produce their songwriting, production, and choreography, Vernon projects effortless confidence — even as he performs the deeply introspective verses that he pens in both Korean and English. Many of the lyrics he raps on SEVENTEEN songs reveal a fascination with technology, science-fiction, and the idea of alternate universes; there are references to video games like Cyberpunk 2077 and cryptocurrency (“GAM3 BO1,” a chiptune-inflected hyperpop track that he admits is influenced by Charli), finding connection through the internet (“Network Love”), metaphorically flying to the moon (“Rocket”), and looking for inspiration through global travel (“Check-In”).
As a solo artist, he’s collaborated with musicians like Korean American rap stalwart Tiger JK and the Los Angeles rapper Tobi Lou, but the “Beg For You” collab seems to break new ground. It sees the boundless Vernon forging a direct connection between avant-garde Western pop and K-pop: two worlds that, while usually not seen as overlapping, have a shared affinity for electronic experimentation and genre-mashing.
After getting the remix offer, Vernon reached out to his close collaborator Bumzu, a fellow Pledis artist who has co-written and produced SEVENTEEN songs since before their 2015 debut, and the two immediately started developing numerous melody ideas. Off a suggestion from Bumzu, they landed on a tune that nods to the folk song used in the Korean version of the children’s game “Red Light, Green Light,” which reached global audiences after being spotlighted last year in Netflix’s Squid Game. “I don’t think I’d ever feel this type of way again,” Vernon sings on the new remix, his emotionally naked words guarded by the digital sheen of Auto-Tune.
Bumzu sees Vernon as “someone who is most introspective and self-curious,” the producer writes of his friend and colleague over email. ”I’d describe him as a person who ‘does a lot of research about himself.’ If he hears me saying this, he’ll probably cover his mouth and laugh in embarrassment, but Vernon is a guy full of deep thoughts about his life, what he likes and enjoys, and what he would like to convey to best express himself as an artist. Especially when it comes to creating, he has his own unique and definite color.”
The description has some overlap with Vernon’s Myers-Briggs personality of ISTP, which he recently posted about on WeVerse. But while reflecting on the test, which is currently all the rage among Korean youths, he seems suspicious that any person could fit into neat categories. Instead, Vernon is drawn to things that don’t have a fixed definition or interpretation, like one of his favorite films, The Matrix, which has sparked endless conversations about social constructs and the nature of reality. “Every time you search about The Matrix, you learn something new. There are so many hidden messages,” he says, his eyes widening. “Maybe the hidden messages people talk about online [aren’t] really what [the filmmakers] intended, but [there’s] all this talk coming from one movie.”
“That's the kind of music I want to make, just having people talk about it even when it's not really something I intended,” he adds. “It's like an abstract art piece, you know what I mean?”
Born Hansol Vernon Chwe in New York City, Vernon was raised by a Korean dad and white American mom, both painters who emigrated to Korea when he was five. There, his parents took him to see Judas Priest and Guns ‘N’ Roses concerts as an elementary schooler, and Vernon began to nurture his own taste, beginning with the rap-turned-EDM act Black Eyed Peas. Later, music became an escape from his isolating middle school days, as he describes on SEVENTEEN’s 2017 song “Trauma.” He raps on the hip-hop track, “Basically had no friends / Boxed in, boxed in my own world.”
So when Vernon was approached on the street by a casting director for Pledis, an entertainment company that had launched groups like NU’EST and After School, he was open to the idea of becoming a trainee and joining a group of boys his age with a shared passion for music. Since the hours were long, his parents suggested that he leave school and transition to home school to focus on his training. ”I still don't really understand how they could have told me that, but it was a good decision in the end, so, I'm just really grateful,” he reflects.
Vernon opens up about his early life on his 2015 solo song “Lizzie Velasquez,” named after the American disability activist. Released on SoundCloud, it’s one of his first public songs, on which he describes adjusting to Korea’s hierarchical society and being judged for his “inherited appearance,” as he repeatedly asks in the song’s chorus, “What defines you?” When I bring it up, Vernon groans, grits his teeth, and covers part of his face in embarrassment. “Firstly, I was being so dramatic in that song, which is why it feels so cringe,” he says, laughing it off. “But my parents liked that song, and I know fans who like that song.”
His words then start to slow down as he reflects on how he’s grown since. “I think I've become more subtle, not only music-wise, but overall as a person,” he ventures. “I feel vulnerable when I feel like I've exposed too much of my emotions [...] But sometimes it's out of my control, the way I act.”
Though he’s focused on his growing instinct to protect himself, some listeners might notice how assured he’s gotten about following his own path. On SEVENTEEN’s 2020 song “Do Re Mi,” about going at your own pace in life, he raps advice for his fans, but perhaps also his younger self: “Break, break, break the illusion that’s plastered as if it’s reality / You define the world / Your future, too.” It’s a stanza about shattering the expectations that others have for you, about setting out to live a life that you build for yourself.
These days, Vernon keeps finding new ways to widen his universe. He’s been working on producing and even displayed his growing skills on “Bands Boy,” his trap-influenced electronic solo song from last November. “Producing is a much wider spectrum of music-making than rapping is, which is more fun,” he notes. “I get more creative freedom.” Another goal of his is to learn how to play guitar.
Yet, towards the end of our chat, Vernon hints that being a global superstar doesn’t mean the world is open to him in every sense. “I want to be able to do what people who aren't publicly known normally do,” he replies when I ask him if he has plans for the far future. After the call, he clarifies over email, “I’m happy and grateful as SEVENTEEN’s Vernon, but I also do want to expand my worldview and have more diverse experiences.”
For now, SEVENTEEN shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. Last year, all 13 members renewed their contracts with Pledis a year earlier than expected (a considerable feat for K-pop acts), and both of their most recent mini-albums, Your Choice and Attacca, landed in the top 10 best selling albums in the world, according to the IFPI. With the members continually mentioning how much they want to perform in-person again, touring in the near future is certainly a possibility, too.
But how does Vernon see success for himself? “If you're happy, you're successful,” he states simply. It’s a fitting statement for an artist who defines his own reality.
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