"It made us think about when we first started out and took us back to our younger days."

These were the words of Monsta X member Hyungwon as he described the experience of making a cover of 2PM's "I Hate You" alongside fellow boy group member Shownu for Spotify.

The 2PM members were tapped by Spotify to make a cover of the said song as part of the music platform's "My First K-pop Crush" campaign.

"We’re thankful to Spotify for giving us this opportunity to reflect back on our favorite K-pop songs and cover one of them for our fans. The idea of your 'First K-Pop Crush' and thinking about what first made you love music was sentimental and fun," Hyungwon remarked about his experience as reported by ABS-CBN News.

Shownu said that they've always looked up to 2PM.

"2PM is a group that we both admire and respect for their performances. We both remember listening to their songs and watching their performances when we were younger and being amazed," Shownu stated.

He went on: "Watching 2PM inspired us to work harder and become artists like them who are known for great performances and music."

Shownu highlighted that they chose 2PM's "I Hate You" for their Spotify cover as it would fit "our unit’s style really well." 

When asked what makes their version of "I Hate You" different from 2PM's version, Hyungwoon explained: "The original track is more powerful and wild in a sense, but we made our version fit our style better by making it more laidback. It’s in the UK garage style and we put more emphasis in making it sound more chill, but still sexy."

Hyungwon and Shownu debuted as a subunit of MONSTA X in July 2023 with the release of their debut EP The Unseen.

"For our unit, I wanted to show Monbebe (our fans) a new side of us that was different from what they’ve seen as MONSTA X. There’s no rap parts to our unit songs so I thought a lot about how we can arrange our parts and fill up the songs with just me and Shownu," Hyungwon shared.