Chinese singer and producer Jackson Wang dropped his fiery new single “Cruel” on Thursday and announced a Sept. 9 release date for his highly anticipated 10-track album “Magic Man.”
“Cruel” is the second single from the forthcoming album to be digitally dropped following “Blow” in March. Earlier this month in Thailand, Wang gave a live performance with Thai rapper Milli to debut “Mind Games,” another track on the upcoming album. “Magic Man” is produced by Wang, Daryl K and Henry Cheung.
“It really set the precedent for where the narrative of the album needed to go and sound. We were working on many records before this one, but we were struggling to find a clear direction. ‘Cruel’ is like a manifestation of the environments and hurdles we had to overcome at the time. Every time we felt we were getting close, something slips past us and it all felt so far away. Once ‘Cruel’ came into our hands, it all made sense for us, it was like a beautiful mental breakdown,” Wang said.
He added that “‘Cruel’’s grunge, and raw sound is exactly the perfect representation of the distorted and warped story that I am trying to unfold. It is the opus to a wild yet beautiful symphony.”
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The Hong Kong-born artist participated in the creative and movement direction of the song’s music video and also blueprinted the choreography alongside Vinh Nguyen. Rich Lee, who has previously worked with artists such as Billie Eilish, Eminem and Lana del Rey, served as director.
Before the pre-release of “Blow,” Wang shared his mixtape “Lost and Found,” which features eight previously unreleased songs, in March.
In May, Wang and his fellow Got7 members made their highly anticipated comeback following their JYP Entertainment exit with their self-titled EP and the music video for “Nanana.”
Feature Image via Team Wang
