Daniel K's First Solo Music Video Is So Epic, It Was Worth The Wait
There's another K-Pop heartthrob in town, y'all! Kang Daniel's "What Are You Up To" music video is garnering him some much-deserved attention and I think it's clear why. The project is a damn masterpiece. Daniel (who now seems to officially be going by the moniker Daniel K) was once part of the eleven-member K-pop group called Wanna One but has since ventured off on his own. So far, the move has been major. "What Are You Up To," the lead single off his debut solo album Color On Me, proves he can hold it down as a solo artist and is setting him up for a shiny individual career.
To be clear: Wanna One didn't split up due to hurt feelings or any kind of drama. Simply, their contract was up. Along with Daniel, the group included members Park Ji-hoon, Lee Dae-hwi, Kim Jae-hwan, Ong Seong-wu, Park Woo-jin, Lai Kuan-lin, Yoon Ji-sung, Hwang Min-hyun, Bae Jin-young and Ha Sung-woon. Wanna One was formed on the survival competition show Produce 101 and quickly earned a massive following. Lucky for Daniel, a few (thousand? million?) of those fans are Kang Daniel-biased and have followed him onto his solo-adventures.
Unfortunately, nothing with value comes easy, and Daniel reportedly endured a bit of some legal challenges while he prepared to launch his new career. According to E!, Daniel claimed LM Entertainment breached their contract and sold most of his management rights to a third party company. However, his legal representatives released a statement on May 10 explaining Daniel won in court and that his exclusive contract with LM was suspended, meaning he is now able to "pursue independent activities as a celebrity."
Bless.
A month later on June 9, Daniel jumped on Instagram Live to get his fans hyped for his new music. Soompi translated his message as the following:
I am now completely in the preparation stage [for my solo debut] and am working on making music. For this [new album], I am participating in writing both the lyrics and the music, and I have been thinking a lot about how I can deliver better music and messages to you guys. Please look forward to it a lot.
Look forward to it they did, and boy did Daniel deliver. Fans dutifully waited for the release of the music video by following a special countdown Daniel created on his website. And you guys, it's finally here.
Get a load of his music video for "What Are You Up To"
If there are any haters out there who thought Daniel didn't have what it took to put together the team needed to pull off an epic comeback, this video proves them completely wrong. The song is catchy AF, the visuals are stunning, the colors are so beautiful and incorporated in the most creative ways (that mountain of yellow paper is wow), and the choreography is obviously on point.
Based on the sheer volume of views this video has received in such a short amount of time (which is hard to say with any certainty because Daniel broke the view counter with the sheer amount of fans tuning in), Daniel's solo career looks bright AF. I can't wait to see what else happens, Kang! Congratulations!
