BLACKPINK's Jennie: "This isn't the journey that I envisioned in my head like, I don't think I'm a rapper"

Speaking on episode three of the third season of Dua Lipa: At Your Service on BBC Sounds, BLACKPINK’S Jennie discusses her journey from trainee to global mega star, opening up about how she felt about rapping at the start of her career.

"After our debut, we did like six songs where I would just rap, and along the way, I kind of got confused because I came to realise that there's a big side of me inside that loves to sing, but I actually never had the chance to really explore that as a trainee because I got told that I should be a rapper," Jennie reveals." So there was a phase where I would hate to rap. I was like, ‘This isn't me like, this isn't the journey that I envisioned in my head like, I don't think I'm a rapper.’"

"Starting my career in Korea as a K-pop artist has restricted so many sides of me where it wasn't just allowed to be shown because I'm a K-pop idol, and I was scared to express myself," she continues. "As things grew over time, I was able to express myself and people would see it as breaking boundaries rather than doing something that I'm not allowed to do. That's when I realised, I want to break more boundaries for people in my culture to understand that you can express yourself as however you want."

She then goes on to add that performing the song "Tally", helped her become more comfortable expressing herself outside of being seen as a "K-pop idol", because it was going against the norms of her culture.

"The song Tally was one of the first songs that we actually say the F-word and at first when I started performing the song, I couldn't even say it out loud. I was like, ‘Oh, like what do people think, this is like not right’, you know?". Witnessing BLACKPINK's fans, which they call Blinks, enjoying the song, gave her confidence to lean into that side of self-expression.

"More fans were loving the song and I was connecting with Blinks, like while I was on stage when I was singing that song, they were like ‘yeah, do your thing’ and they were the ones who gave me my confidence and support to really enjoy the song," she adds.

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Jennie recently made her acting debut in HBO's The Idol, which was co-created by Sam Levinson and Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye. The series only lasted five episodes, and came under fire due to a series of cringe sex scenes, and a plot that didn't really seem to go anywhere.

The BLACKPINK member was cast as backup dancer Dyanne, and starred alongside Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan, Suzanna Son. She also featured on the track "One Of The Girls" alongside Depp and Tesfaye.