Dear Gossips, 

“BLACKPINK in your area!”

It’s the day Blinks have been waiting for – BLACKPINK summer has officially begun! Stage one of the comeback has kicked off. 

For those of you still getting familiar with K-pop after fan activism has made mainstream headlines for disrupting white supremacist attempts at silencing protestors and the Black Lives Matter movement, in K-pop, any time artists release new work, it’s officially referred to as a “comeback”. It’s been 14 months since the last BLACKPINK comeback, a longer time than usual in K-pop, and Blinks have been impatient. Especially since, despite their massive worldwide popularity, the group has yet to release a full-length album. We’re now on our way. 

 

“How You Like That”, their first single since “Kill This Love”, dropped today. Another single is expected in July or August, and the album is coming in September. 

The gradual rollout works for me. Because we need the time to process “How You Like That” – the song, the style, the choreo, the everything inspo from hair to makeup to clothes. Like check out all the good sh-t that’s happening in this one look alone on Jennie: 

That custom cape is sickening. And the half blonde hair transitioning sharply into black, with long diamond stripes pulled back into a ponytail is exactly the energy I need right now. Although I have to say, I’m very, very, very tempted to cut a blunt fringe right now and take my hair shoulder length because Lisa, even though I love them all, has always been my BLACKPINK bias. This clip pretty much sums it up: 

 

She’s cute, she’s hot, she’s playful, she’s a punk, she can be soft and she can f-ck you up, Lisa is all of this always and in this video she’s dialed up to full. “How You Like That” is already the “biggest premiere in YouTube history”, just edging out BTS’s “On” which set the previous record in February, and I’m writing this as North America is still waking up. Korean artists are dominating on all platforms. Let’s stop talking about them like they’re niche. 

If you’re new to this then, let Lisa, Jennie, Jisoo, and Rosé take over your weekend, your playlists, your closet, your makeup kit, your life. It’s BLACKPINK time. 

 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey