Anderson .Paak on his Vans collab, brands that make him 'cringe,' K-pop and more

Anderson .Paak, aka DJ Pee .Wee, aka one-half of the Grammy-winning duo Silk Sonic, is an artist with many talents and ventures. 

One of his latest is his third collaboration with Vans—the Southern California native had a hand in designing the clothes and shoes. as well as directing the campaign video that launched the Vanderson collection, which hit stores on June 24. The video features "Black-ish" star Marsai Martin and .Paak’s family members, including his son, sister, nieces and nephew.

Beyond his collaboration with Vans, the eight-time Grammy winner launched his own record label, APESHIT, in November and has recently begun DJing with vinyl records under the moniker DJ Pee .Wee. One of his most recent shows was an opening set at Spotify Beach at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June.  The 36-year-old is also making his way into the K-Pop scene. Two weeks ago he was the drummer during a live performance of BTS song “Yet to Come” and .Paak is even co-writing and directing his own K-pop-inspired film called “K-POPS!” that will star him and his son.

.Paak sat down with Ad Age during Cannes to talk about his creative journey, his experience working with brands, and more.

This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.

What do you look for in a brand before working with it?

A check. (Laughs). No, it's honestly just gotta be me, man. It has to be something that I don't cringe over and feels right for me. A lot of times I want to make sure that it's going to a good cause. I also have a foundation, so a lot of these companies want me to help endorse their product or different things like that and I don't see why not if we can all make it work and we can also make it work for a greater cause. Everything I do just has to be fun for me still. 

Vans, in particular, was something that I came up with since I was a kid in SoCal [Southern California]. Vans were everything. It was a dream to be a part of that partnership and be one of the first musical ambassadors for them. I have my own shoe now and they really helped to boost that kind of entrepreneurship side, now I'm designing shoes and I never really thought that could be [possible] coming up when I was working at Vans. 

What’s something a brand will do to make you cringe?

Sometimes brands don't really have knowledge about what's going on at the ground level and then they hire these people that maybe think they do, but they have no clue and they want to get the artists to do all kinds of [stuff], pretty much jumping through hoops and all these different things and they want to push and push. That's probably the biggest pet peeve that makes me cringe where it's like, ‘We want the urban vibe, we just love it.' And like, ‘Is there any way we can get Bruno [Mars] involved in it?’ So it's like just relax, man. 

Did you work with Vans on the retail side?

Yeah, I was stocking and working, putting on shoes, and trying to get free shoes until I got fired. 

How long did you work at Vans?

Like two weeks. 

If you had to give advice to a brand that wanted to work with you what would it be?

They have to do their research. It's not hard to see what I'm into. The thing about artists that's different from maybe people that are just maybe nine to five is that a lot of our history is out on the web. A lot of our growth and things that you would like to know about us are already out there. So with everything, when people do their history and they learn about the artists before just coming at them with a check or anything like that, yeah then they would know like, 'Oh, he would never do this, or this might be something he's into.' So I would just advise that, learn about what they’re [the artists] are into before you just come up and offer them a check. 

Should artists themselves think of themselves as brands?

Every artist is different. Some people are really good at treating themselves as though they're a brand. Somebody told me when you become an artist and…when it becomes your living then you automatically are an entrepreneur and you have people that handle the artistic [side]. You have people that handle the business [side] or you handle both if you can handle that. But if you're just a dude that's doing music for yourself and just to express [yourself] and you don't care about any of that stuff, then you don't have to think of it as a brand or anything like that. Just do whatever makes you feel good. But I got kids to feed. My whole thing is trying to maintain the balance. As much as I want to believe, the hippy vibes and everything, I am a brand and I am a business at the end of the day that a lot of people depend on, including my family. I hire a lot of people that are depending on this business to thrive and to continue to work. So I have to stay inspired, stay healthy and that's all about keeping a good brand as well. 

How do you maintain your fan base as you expand your work?

I don't know how I maintain a fan base. I'm just blessed to have one, honestly and they keep getting older, they keep getting younger, they keep getting weirder and I love it.  I just love that they're able to trust wherever I go, wherever I'm taking it and they're down to take the journey with me. There are a lot of people that sell a lot of records, but they can't fill up a room and it's really a blessing to have a fan base no matter what they look like.

Speaking of your artistic journey, you have Silk Sonic, DJ Pee .Wee, and your own label now. In terms of your creative process, how do you know when is the right time to branch out into a new venture?

I just take it day by day. With the label, I was really inspired by this group DOMi & JD Beck, and I just wanted to stop everything and help them succeed in any way I could and be a part of their journey. They were one of the few young people that loved hanging with me and I couldn't like get rid of them. I just really believed in them and it really made me want to get going on the whole label thing because I just see so much for them in the future…I just want to have the platform, to be able to make dreams come true and timing is everything. With my team and the people around me, I'm able to have people work on different things when I can't. But I'm really hands-on with everything and honestly I just get bored and I have to keep my mind occupied. 

If I'm doing just one thing too much I'm just going to get sick of it. I think that's just naturally how I am. I'm still a kid that's playing drums and singing and rapping at the same time. So even that itself is like doing a lot of different things. Naturally, I want to have my hands in different things and that's where my inspiration comes from, learning stuff from scratch and seeing how I can become better at it. 

How did you get into K-pop?

Through my wife and kid. My wife's from Gangnam, (South) Korea and my son is just a little Blasian [Black and Asian] kid…I'm just a guest in their world sometimes and when go on tour and I come home and he's already grown—he's a real mama's boy, both of my sons are. They have a real tight bond, so they listen to a lot of the same music and they're really into K-pop, really into BTS and because of them. I got into them and they really put me onto that. I was able to see like, 'Oh this is sick.' This reminds me of like, you know, New Kids on the Block or like New Edition, Boys II Men, or even like the Beatles, because in a sense I can hear a lot of the American influence in their music, R&B, and even trap.

They [BTS] got American kids going crazy and they're filling up arenas in America. So, that reminds me of like when the Beatles came out here and they were like doing blues and rock which was Black music, but they had all the American kids going crazy and wearing bull cuts and stuff. Everybody has an interpretation of how they do Western music and they make it their own. BTS is another very exceptional group that does that and has taken it to another level. And I never thought I'd be cool with them, but they reached out…and they asked if I wanted to play drums for their live taping. I was super down for it.

What can fans expect from your K-POPS! film coming up?

The film's going to be hilarious…I'm directing it. It's going to be me and my son. It's going to be just an awesome journey in how I was able to find out about my Korean side and how Blacks and Asians can collide and K-Pop and hip hop, the whole thing. 

How much does nostalgia play into what you do as an artist given your work with vinyls and Silk Sonic’s music has a '70s vibe? 

I would hate to describe myself as retro. I get nostalgic, but it's like when I'm watching Ninja Turtles or something, it's just more so I do what I like to do and I like what I like. I used to DJ vinyl when I was in high school and I didn't see why it couldn't still go down and still exist. I also like to do things my way and in a different way I could probably learn Serato [DJ software] and all that stuff, but I like using vinyl and I like where it's brought me to and how it's made me appreciate music again. I like having the artwork and seeing the grooves and everything. It got me a new friend and partner with Eddie Mac, a lot of the vinyls are his. When we work its like Cus [D’Amato] and Mike Tyson. I love impressing him and I love seeing how vinyl makes the audience move and I love to see how young people respond to it. When they see me pulling out vinyl it’s like 'Dang! They trip out.