G-Dragon’s “Coup D’Etat”

South Korean rapper and K-pop idol G-Dragon’s (real name Kwon Jiyong) newly released music video “Coup D’Etat” is visually stunning with apparent symbolism, but lacks strong lyrics to match the tone of his self-deprecating and reflective view of fame. In essence, the lyrics and video explain his internal “coup d’état”—his persona of G-Dragon, plagued with rumors and press that comes along with being one of Korea’s most popular rappers, versus who he actually is behind closed doors. 

Listening to the lyrics alone, one would never guess that G-Dragon is discussing his internal struggle when he’s rapping verses such as, “In this game/I am the ‘hood’ to the ‘winker/You are the ‘lo’ to the ‘ser’,” “I’m the best at self-admiration and being cocky/I’m shameless/I’m so fresh so clean/I compete with the laundry house” and “…My flow so sick/Keeps on going to the intensive-care unit.” If anything, the lyrics sound as if he’s both bragging and making fun of how cool he’s perceived to be. But when watching the music video, those seemingly egocentric lyrics tell the story of G-Dragon’s “death” and the rise of his real self, Kwon Jiyong.

Throughout the music video, G-Dragon experiences several “deaths,” caused by the paparazzi, his fans and his own mistakes. One of the first scenes in the video is of a child looking at a grave—it’s realized that the child is in fact G-Dragon and he’s looking at his own future death. A series of scenes follow that show a visual representation of his decline that each have one recurring factor in common—the idea of blindness. In his first death, females whose eyes are covered by red hats surround G-Dragon—these females represent fans and fellow celebrities who adore and love him, but don’t see him for who he really is. G-Dragon then appears, a bloody wound in his chest, signifying his death.

One particular death that correlates with his vain yet destructive lyrics is the scene where G-Dragon sits bored in a kitchen, surrounded by boiling pots overfilling with money. The lyrics, “If time is money/I’m so poor/Hong Kildong [fictional Korean book character who stole from the rich to give to the poor]…Keeps on going to the intensive care unit” shows that making money is easy for him, but then the scene cuts to one of his previously bored state now acting in a psychotic manner, symbolizing that the life of glamour and fame brings him to his demise.

If dying from self-centeredness isn’t bad enough, his final death shows him surrounded by blindfolded reporters, people who only know him as G-Dragon but not as Kwon Jiyong. The media’s one-dimensional perspective that they have on the popular idol is too much to handle, and he has to break free in order to rise as Kwon Jiyong. He’s shown ripping apart layers of his outer self—G-Dragon—in order to reach his true self. He breaks the wall separating his death from the real world, thus entering it as a new person.

If the lyrics to “Coup D’Etat” weren’t so vapid and simple, the effect on the music video would be stronger. But sadly, singing about his constant swagger (“Head, shoulder, knees and toes/Swag check, mic check/One, two, three, four”) is something that G-Dragon takes pride in and just wants to share to the world. He even sounds bored as he raps during the slow-paced, bass dominated song, his energy greatly mimicking his attitude in the kitchen scene of the music video. But then again, maybe the conceited lyrics serve as a purpose to his “death” as the popular and beloved rapper and perhaps his future material will focus on his transformation back to Kwon Jiyong.

“Coup D’Etat” music video
“Coup D’Etat” lyrics