(INTERVIEW) JUNNY Talks About Releasing “Invitation”

July 19, 2023

In 2020 Junny was the final winner of the “8bar relay” challenge held by Codeshare and TikTok. Anyone was free to freestyle to the 8 bar beats and the winner of this project was able to release the song that was already titled ” Invitation”. His video now has 3M views and after 3 years Junny is now able to release the full song.

It’s amazing to see how this started as a TikTok challenge in 2020 and now it’s officially being released this upcoming month. Can you tell us a bit about how you’re feeling and what the journey has been like?

JUNNY: It’s been a long process! I’ve gotten requests for a full version for a while now, still to this day actually, and now I’m finally releasing it for the people who have been patiently waiting for so long it feels so good. There has been a lot between the first time uploading the TikTok challenge to now but hopefully, the full version does not disappoint and will show that this song will age like fine wine.

What encouraged you to hop on the 8-bar relay challenge and how did you feel the moment you found out you were the winner of this project?

JUNNY: I just liked the beat and the producer was a friend of mine so I offered to be a part of it. I really had no thoughts when I was participating in the challenge except to just make the nicest verse I can and thankfully a lot of people enjoyed it!

Did this open verse challenge have the same process techniques you would have for your songs or was this more of a on the spot in the moment?

JUNNY: It was definitely on the spot, the lyrics were almost freestyle and written as I was coming up with the melodies and I think I was just in the zone. When you’re in it you know you’re in and I felt that from the get-go.

This song features GAEKO, one of Korea’s legendary rappers. What was it like working with him? Do you have any favorite moments/memories?

JUNNY: It’s awesome because I referenced one of his songs in the lyrics of the challenge in hopes that he will listen to it one day and to have him feature on the song it feels like it came to a full circle. I let him know about it too and he was amused lol First time meeting him I was just starstruck because I was a fan since high school.

Although this song hasn’t been officially released, you’ve sung this song at a couple of your concert shows, fans have been waiting 3 years for this song to be released so hearing it performed live must’ve been surreal for them. What has the atmosphere of your shows been like when singing it live and having fans hyped up and singing it with you?

JUNNY: It just feels good to release the song finally and now they can listen to it properly so next time when I perform the song they can sing it louder lol It took a while but it’s finally here.