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EXCLUSIVE: Formerly-Disgraced Mega-Producer Dr. Luke Covertly Produced JENNIE’s “Weekend”

By ELIAS LEIGHT

When BLACKPINK’s arguably most popular star, JENNIE, released her second solo single earlier this month, it was met with adoration by fans. Despite no prior information on the song before its release, it quickly trended number-one on worldwide Twitter trends and stormed iTunes charts all across Asia. However, there now appears to be a reason for JENNIE and her label Columbia Records’ hush-hush on the song.

Rolling Stone has uncovered that formerly-disgraced mega-producer Dr. Luke covertly produced “Weekend” under a fake alias. If you can recall, Dr. Luke was accused of rape in 2016 by singer Kesha, his signed artist who had produced countless hits for. Although there have been no legal judgments in Kesha’s favor, the music industry virtually blacklisted Dr. Luke (everyone except Doja Cat), with him struggling to find anyone willing to take the burden of having his name in their credits.

The truth starts to crack when one takes a look at the track’s credits. The songwriting list appears normal until arrival on the last name: 닥터 루크. That same name is also credited as the song’s sole producer. Searching this “person” into Google leads to zero results for anything music-related, something very odd. Fans of the K-pop genre are accustomed to seeing the same ten or so producers credited for A-list releases, which makes a completely unheard-of producer being the mastermind behind one of the year’s biggest K-pop releases abnormal. Yet the puzzle is solved for any Korean speaker. “닥터 루크” is a direct translation of “Dr. Luke” in Korean.



Could this be a mistranslation? Odds are low, but perhaps. However, ASCAP/BMI’s, the industry’s two leading music publishers, Songview repertoire confirmed Dr. Luke’s involvement in the track. Through searching the website for “Weekend”, it is discovered that Dr. Luke is credited as a songwriter. His legal name, Lukasz Gottwald, appears as one of the song’s 5 writers.



The evidence is damning. Dr. Luke produced “Weekend”. And JENNIE/Columbia Records actively tried to hide it. Is this a sign that the non-Doja Cat industry is willing to work with Dr. Luke again? Will he keep hiding behind aliases? Does Columbia Records, or more specifically its CEO, Kris Jenner, not believe women?

Stay tuned.


Rolling Stone reached out to Columbia Records for a comment but did not receive a response.