NLE Choppa Angel paints. 1 interview for Fast X

Whether you’re a fan of Fast and Furious movie franchise or not, chances are you’ve got at least one of the franchise’s hit songs from its 20-plus-year history on your playlists. From hip-hop and pop to reggaeton and rock, Fast Saga’s music is both eclectic and instantly iconic. Songs like Ludacris’ “Act a Fool” have been nominated for Grammy Awards, while Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s emotional tribute to Paul Walker, “See You Again,” is the sixth most viewed music video of all time on YouTube, with almost six billion views.

The latest film in the franchise, “x fasthits theaters May 19, and the powers behind the film enlisted some of music’s heavy hitters to its title track, “Angel Pt. 1”: NLE Choppa, BTS’s Jimin, Muni Long, JVKE, and Kodak Black. Choppa is the youngest artist on the track at just 20 years old (he wasn’t even born when the first film in the saga, “The Fast and the Furious,” was released in 2001), and yet the hip-hop star Memphis Rising. , TN, has already surpassed 5.5 billion global streams with his music just five years after he first burst onto the scene.

Choppa uniquely understands what makes a Fast and Furious song a Fast and Furious hit. His song “Speed ​​It Up” appeared on the “F9” soundtrack in 2021, and now “Angel Pt. 1” marks two major milestones for the rapper: It’s the first time his song has been chosen as the lead single for Fast and Furious. film, and allowed her to work with K-pop royalty: BTS’s Jimin. “I knew what he was doing was going to progress to something big, but sometimes God really doesn’t let you know how big it’s going to be,” Choppa told POPSUGAR about this pivotal moment in his career.

Below, read what NLE Choppa had to say about “Angel Pt. 1,” including the qualities he thinks make the song fast and furious and what it was like to make a song with Jimin.

POPSUGAR: What did the Fast and Furious franchise mean to you growing up?

NLE Chop: I was a big fan, of course. “Fast and Furious” was one of those movies that I grew up with, so just to be a part of this series, I’ve been a part of it in the past. . . but a lead single is like that, and to be able to watch something from a young age and see it arrive at your doorstep when you grow up, it’s like God foreshadowing your future for you.

PS: As someone with multiple songs contributed to the Fast saga, what qualities make a Fast and Furious song a Fast and Furious song?

chop: I feel like every song I’ve heard from Fast and Furious, that they really fell behind, that really stood their ground, is a song that represents triumph, the struggle between the underdogs. It represents something that is motivating or something that is overcoming. And those are the best songs. It gives you the opportunity to motivate yourself. It gives you the opportunity to go to the gym. Gives you a chance if the lease is due. You feel it. And that’s what makes the best songs, when people can relate to them on every level.

PS: “Angel Pt. 1” sees you collaborating with BTS’s Jimin, Muni Long, JVKE, and Kodak Black. While the response to the song has been overwhelmingly positive, what’s your message to people who see this lineup as “random”?

chop: To be honest, I feel like it’s a random choice of who’s on the song. But if you delete all the names that are in this song, like you delete my name, if you delete Kodak, you delete Jimin, Muni Long, and just throw it in as “Angel” and let it out, people will listen. and realizing that everyone played and contributed a part to this song and made a great song. Sometimes you have a song with five strong artists and it sounds like a mixed bag, but on this song, they all had a part. It’s like a basketball team: everyone played well and made the most beautiful song we can do.

PS You have 18 million followers on your social media accounts and billions of streams, but “Angel Pt. 1” is introducing you to an equally passionate new fanbase in BTS ARMY. How has Jimin’s fans’ response to “Angel Pt. 1” been?

chop: They’ve loved it, and one of the things that I emphasize is how grateful I am to be a part of this. I feel like a lot of hip-hop artists don’t realize how beautiful the K-pop scene is, but I’m one of the few who is grateful for it. I’ve actually been saying for a while that I wanted to work with BTS and to be able to work with just one of the BTS guys, on the Fast and Furious soundtrack, something so big, I feel like it’s a beautiful thing, and it’s one of those things I prayed for. So every time you hear BTS in my mouth or Jimin in my mouth, there will be a thank you behind it, because I’m thankful to know how big that scene is and thankful to know how big the impact they have on K-pop is. in general.

PS: How is creating a song for a franchise as big as Fast and Furious different from making your own music for your albums?

chop: Just knowing how conscious you have to be about the purity of the song, not only showing the kind of artist you are as a person, but also knowing that the whole world is about to hear it. So, [I asked myself,] “What is it about NLE Choppa that you want everyone to take away from this song?” and that was just [that] I could step up and make a song of the caliber that can impact everyone and relate to the whole world. My verse was mainly speaking to people who are family oriented, speaking to people who want to go through triumph, speaking to people who have God first in their life, and things of that nature. So just knowing that the whole world is going to hear him, and he just wanted to talk to them.

PS: What is your favorite Fast and Furious song (besides your own)?

chop: “See you again”, of course. You know, it’s one of the biggest hip-hop songs in the world. . . it says a lot . . . At the end of the day, “See You Again” will always hold its own weight. But I feel like that was the goal with Fast and Furious this year, to try. . . to do something that gives you that same “see you again” feeling, and I feel like they did it.

PS: What was it like filming the music video for “Angel Pt. 1”?

chop: It’s honestly one of the best music videos I’ve ever been a part of. Everyone has their moment of stardom. Whatever part you’re looking at, you see the star in them, you see the star in the person. And that’s what made this song collectively great, it’s like everyone could be a star on the song, and everyone was a star.

PS Are you excited to hear “Angel Pt. 1” for the first time on the big screen when “Fast X” is released?

chop: In fact, I’m trying to do something where I take a lot of kids to the movies, since I work with schools and stuff in my town. Taking these deserving kids to a movie with me, that would be great.

“Angel Pt. 1” is streaming now on all major streamers, and you can hear it in theaters when “Fast X” opens on May 19. NLE Choppa’s new album, “poplar 2“It’s also airing now on all the major streamers.

This interview has been edited and abridged for clarity.