By Hasan Beyaz
There’s a looseness to KUN’s new single “Jasmine” – a kind of smoky, unhurried soul that lingers in the air like a memory you can’t quite place. With its velvet basslines, dusky textures, and devastatingly romantic sentiment (“Only you could kill me with a smile”), it plays like a love song from another decade, polished down to something soft and lived-in, easing us into a groove that feels deliberately out of sync with the digital noise.
That restraint feels telling. After rising to fame as the lead vocalist of the chart-topping group Nine Percent – and later earning solo acclaim with streaming hits like “Wait Wait Wait” and “Afterglow” – KUN could have stuck with glossy precision. Instead, he’s choosing a different kind of intimacy.
His recent singles “Deadman” and “Jasmine” flirt with classic soul and vintage rock, led by guitar grooves and unfiltered vocal runs that push into new territory.
This new chapter isn’t about reinvention, so much as revelation – stripping back the polish to show something more instinctive, more human. “I just wanted to do something that felt more honest,” he exclusively shares with us. “Not too polished – just something that really reflects where I’m at.”
In many ways, it’s the natural evolution of an artist who’s always blurred the lines between sound, image, and story. A singer, producer, director, and fashion icon, KUN has built a career on instinct – from self-directing his 2023 ART LAB LIVE concert series to fronting campaigns for Prada, Gentle Monster, and Mugler. He’s also just headlined the 2025 Head In The Clouds festival and took the stage at LA’s Fonda Theatre recently for a special ‘One Night Only’ show.
But make no mistake: this isn’t some late-arriving bid for credibility. It’s the result of quiet, long-form creative work – years of refining, questioning, evolving. KUN has long operated at the intersection of music and visual identity.