In Rotation: sunkis

If you grew up in a certain era, the opening chords of Troop’s 1989 rendition of "All I Do Is Think of You" trigger an immediate Pavlovian response. You expect the matching suits. You anticipate the rain-soaked choreography. When Bay Area-bred Chinese-American artist sunkis flips that exact sample on his new single "Pretty Eyes," he doesn't just lean on the nostalgia. He drags the groove into a modern, transatlantic bounce. sunkis has been bubbling just under the mainstream radar for a minute now. He dropped the bilingual joint "Trust Me" back in 2021, quietly racking up half a billion streams across platforms. Then he delivered a Mandarin remix of J.Tajor’s "Like I Do" that sparked a massive dance wave, getting K-Pop heavyweights like Seventeen and TXT hitting the choreo on TikTok. Now operating out of LA's Koreatown, he is actively bridging Mandopop and American R&B, building a catalog that translates across oceans. "Pretty Eyes" is where the vision fully crystallizes. He tapped producer J White Did It—the architect behind massive club anthems for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion—to handle the boards. J White isolates those classic Troop synths and piano loops, anchoring them with a heavy, swinging bassline. sunkis slides right into the pocket. His vocal delivery is smooth and direct, singing about the lost art of the romantic pursuit—that exact moment when you lock eyes and map out a whole future in your head. Then the UK trio FLO steps into the frame. They trade verses and layer the hook with their signature pristine, Y2K-era vocal stacking. The contrast between sunkis's featherweight tone and FLO's dense, intricate harmonies creates a genuine friction that keeps the track moving. Blending C-Pop sensibilities with traditional American R&B is a tightrope walk. Usually, the result sounds like a sterile boardroom compromise. sunkis avoids the trap entirely. He operates as an R&B student who happens to make massive viral pop records, treating the genre's history with respect. The industry is finally catching up to the wave. "Pretty Eyes" just landed on Spotify’s YAMS and Apple Music’s R&B Now playlists this week. The cross-cultural translation is already complete. Check it out below.