“I’m just too blatantly honest. It’s the L.A. in me — I was born and raised around people that are very open with their opinions. I’ve got nothing to hide.” — Matthew Kim (BM), Netflix Tudum, April 2026
THE KING CARD STEPS INTO THE LIGHT
The DAZED Korea Summer 2026 Edition doesn’t just feature BM — it frames him.
In a pictorial preview that already has the internet’s collective pulse spiking, the Korean-American rapper, producer, and now-confirmed Hollywood actor arrives on the editorial page like a force of nature that refuses to be categorised.
Platinum energy. Razor-sharp instinct. A gaze that could stop a music video mid-frame.
This is Matthew Kim — known to the world as BM, the King card of DSP Media’s co-ed powerhouse KARD. And in 2026, the king is making moves on every board simultaneously.
FROM “OH NANA” TO EVERYWHERE
Cast your mind back to late 2016: a pre-debut single drops into an unsuspecting K-pop landscape, and suddenly there’s a group that sounds like nothing the industry has served before.
Built on reggaetón swing, dancehall pulse, and a genre-crossing confidence that made Billboard sit up straight, KARD announced themselves not with a whisper but a full-volume declaration.
The group’s brand of K-pop has been described as “undeniably trendy,” with their discography focusing on contemporary house and dancehall vibes — something Billboard referred to as being “pulled directly from Top 40 charts.”
In a world where K-pop largely meant perfectly symmetrical boy bands or girl groups glittering in synchronized formation, KARD threw a wildcard — literally. Their very name is an abbreviation of playing-card roles assigned to each member: BM as the King card, J.Seph as the Ace, Somin as the Black JokeR, and Jiwoo as the Color JokeR. Four members. Two men, two women. One genre-bending sound that made them the trailblazers of co-ed K-pop.
BIG MATTHEW: THE ARCHITECTURE OF AN ICON
To understand BM is to understand a particular kind of duality — the bridge-builder who exists between two worlds without fully belonging to either, and who has turned that in-between space into his greatest creative asset.
Born Matthew Kim, he grew up in and around Los Angeles before relocating to Seoul in 2011 to compete on the SBS singing reality show K-pop Star. Though he didn’t win, he was subsequently recruited by DSP Media and eventually debuted as the lead rapper in KARD — standing out as one of the rare mixed-gender groups in an industry full of boy and girl groups.
That LA upbringing threads through everything he touches. The swagger in his rap delivery.
The disarming honesty in his interviews. The refusal to soften his edges to fit a more comfortable industry mould. Kim has attributed his open communication style to his Southern California roots, describing himself as someone who says exactly how he feels — a rarity in an entertainment industry where public figures are expected to carefully curate every statement. But behind the candour sits a serious musician. BM began by writing lyrics and composing music only for his own parts, then gradually wanted to make the beats for entire songs, expanding his ambitions to shape the overall creative direction of KARD itself. That evolution from rapper to full-spectrum producer is the quiet backbone of KARD’s longevity — a group that has continued to evolve because its members refused to stop growing.
DAZED KOREA: THE EDITORIAL HOMECOMING
There’s a reason BM and DAZED Korea make sense together. The magazine has long been a home for artists who exist outside easy definitions — creatives whose identity is too layered for a single spotlight. When BM previously appeared in the pages of Dazed, he delivered a dramatic solo pictorial that showed a serious, introspective side — discussing his ambitions in production and his philosophy that downhill roads are always followed by uphill ones.
The 2026 Summer Edition marks a different chapter. This isn’t the emerging producer earnestly pitching his vision. This is a man who has arrived — who has turned every aspiration he once described in an interview into tangible reality. The editorial styling amplifies that shift: BM in front of a lens that understands how to translate presence into pages, his fashion choices doing what they always have — speaking volumes before a single lyric plays.
Fashion has always been a storytelling language for BM. Whether commanding a stage in body-conscious stage wear that underlines his physicality, or leaning into the architectural edge of luxury street styling, his aesthetic choices map the emotional temperature of each era. The DAZED Korea pictorial preview distils that into something cinematic — a man
“There’s something about a buzz-cut blond tennis coach. It works for Woosh!” — Matthew Kim, Netflix Tudum / Beef Season 2 Cast Feature, April 2026
DRIFT: THE ALBUM THAT MOVED THEM FORWARD
Before Hollywood came calling, KARD delivered one of their most critically celebrated releases in years. DRIFT, their eighth mini-album, was described by the group and their label as not a record of drifting without direction, but of KARD’s present confidently moving toward an unknown destination — creating their own path without being confined to existing frameworks.
The album blends reggaetón, synth-pop, house, and early-2000s nostalgia with an energy that earned it the tag of a “summer-ready release made for movement.” Title track “Touch” leans into retro-forward production — turning up the heat with early 2000s-inspired vibes layered with sleek, modern production, described as sexy, catchy, and dripping with confidence, with the music video matching perfectly — playful, sultry, and stylish.
The DRIFT era also took the group back to where their fandom breathes loudest: the live stage. The DRIFT 2025 US Tour saw KARD open in Los Angeles, delivering a set that moved through their full discography — from debut tracks to new favourites — proving why Hidden KARD, their devoted fanbase, keeps showing up tour after tour.
KARD at their best is not just a listening experience. It’s a full-body event.
THE HIDDEN KARD UNIVERSE: FANDOM AS CO-CREATOR
Ask any Hidden KARD member and they’ll tell you: this fandom didn’t grow, it organised. With social media fluency and a global spread that stretches from Latin America to Southeast Asia to New Zealand, Hidden KARD operates as something closer to a creative community than a passive audience.
The group has always rewarded that energy. BM in particular has cultivated one of the most authentic rapper-fan relationships in K-pop — rooted not in manufactured mystique but in genuine accessibility. His podcast Get Real, co-hosted with fellow Korean-American entertainers, became a space where the complicated realities of being an Asian-American in the entertainment industry could be discussed with the kind of frankness rare in idol culture.
His philanthropic instincts, converting internet meme culture into real charitable donations for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, turned a moment of viral humour into something lasting and meaningful. In November 2023, UTA (United Talent Agency) announced it was now representing KARD everywhere outside Asia — a signal that the group’s global ambitions had infrastructure to match.
WOOSH: HOLLYWOOD OPENS THE DOOR
And then came Beef.
Set to premiere on April 16, 2026, the second season of Netflix’s Emmy-winning anthology drama Beef cast BM in the role of Woo Shi, a tennis coach who runs a tennis shop at an exclusive country club — a character entangled with powerful figures whose polished exterior conceals calculated ambition.
In BM’s own words, acting presented a completely new kind of pressure — being on stage felt different from facing veteran actors like Youn Yuh-Jung in real time. Yet he also found that the emotional honesty he’d developed through years of music transferred directly: conveying feeling isn’t bound by rhythm when you strip it to its core.
Even with 15 years in entertainment and millions of social media followers, Kim remains reluctant to call himself a star — saying he has a lot to learn before he can truly be viewed that way. That humility, coming from someone who just made his Hollywood debut opposite Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, and the legendary Youn Yuh-Jung, isn’t performance. It’s the same instinct that has driven every creative leap he’s taken: the belief that the work isn’t done, that the best is still ahead.
That energy — hungry, present, honest — is exactly what makes BM one of the most compelling figures in K-pop’s 2026 landscape.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: KARD AND THE CO-ED FUTURE
KARD didn’t just make space for themselves in K-pop. They made the argument, through nearly a decade of consistent creative output, that co-ed groups could survive and thrive without conforming to a boy-group or girl-group template. In doing so, they’ve remained a reference point for a new generation of idol culture that values identity and authenticity over formula.
Somin and Jiwoo anchor the group’s vocal depth with a warmth that offsets the sharpness of BM and J.Seph’s rap lines. Live, the four generate a chemistry that is inseparable from the music — the kind of stage dynamic that cannot be manufactured, only developed over years of shared work.
The story of KARD is ultimately a story about endurance with integrity. About a group that survived the scepticism of the industry’s earliest doubters, the pressure of mandatory military service reshaping their lineup, the complexities of global touring, and the constant evolution of K-pop taste — and came through each challenge with their sound sharper and their bond tighter.
THE ERA WE’RE IN NOW
DAZED Korea recognises what the rest of the world is quickly catching up to: BM is no longer simply a K-pop idol who makes good music. He is a multi-disciplinary creative whose presence across fashion, film, music, and podcast culture represents the fullest possible expression of what a modern Korean-American artist can be.
And KARD, as a group, are not in a late chapter. They’re in the chapter where everything they’ve built starts to pay compound interest.
The King card is in play. And from here, the game only gets more interesting.
こちらからフィードバックがありますか？こちらからお知らせください。日本語でも大丈夫です。
피드백이 있으신가요? 여기에서 알려주세요. 한국어도 가능합니다.
CREDITS & RIGHTS
Published by: Kpoppie Magazine
Parent Company: Velocity Entertainment Inc Japan / New Zealand
Editorial Feature Written by: Kpoppie Magazine Editorial Team
Photo Credits: DAZED Korea / DSP Media (Pictorial Preview Images)
Artist Management: DSP Media (Korea) / UTA — United Talent Agency (Global, ex-Asia)
Talent Referenced: BM (Matthew Kim), KARD (J.Seph, BM, Somin, Jiwoo)
Netflix Beef Season 2: Created by Lee Sung Jin / Netflix Original Production
Magazine Referenced: DAZED Korea — 2026 Summer Edition
© 2026 Velocity Entertainment Inc Japan / New Zealand. All Rights Reserved.
All editorial content, commentary, and original writing contained within this feature is the intellectual property of Kpoppie Magazine and Velocity Entertainment Inc Japan / New Zealand. All artist images and related credits remain the property of their respective rights holders. This article is produced for editorial and journalistic purposes.