The new Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe is inspired by the real lives of its stars and co-writers, Randall Park and Ali Wong, right down to its music. In the movie, Park plays Marcus, a complacent thirtysomething rapper who’s too scared to break out of the local Bay Area scene with his throwback hip-hop band, Hello Peril. And in several concert scenes, Park displays impressive poise on the mic, as if he’s rapped a bit before. This is because he has: Though best known for his roles in “Fresh Off the Boat,” “Veep,” and Ant-Man and the Wasp, Park was once part of a playful ’90s Bay Area hip-hop group called Ill Again (sample rhyme: “I got flows similar to snot out the nostril/Art aficionados call me Pablo Picasso”).

So while Marcus’ band in Always Be My Maybe may be fake, their songs—which Park co-wrote with revered hip-hop producer Dan the Automator—are very real and very fun. As Park tells me over the phone, his intention was for people to walk away from the movie loving these songs about San Francisco gentrification, bouncing back like tennis balls, and punching Keanu Reeves, who plays a ridiculously pretentious version of himself in some of the film’s best scenes.

Pitchfork: At what point in the process of creating Always Be My Maybe did you know you were going to write original music for it, too?

Randall Park: Early on, when Ali and I were working on the script, we were trying to figure out what these characters did, what was their thing. And because we’re old friends, she knew that I was in a band: She used to go to the shows, and the band was fairly similar to the one you see in the movie—except we were a lot younger. At the time, we were a bunch of guys without much ambition just having fun, so it made sense to put that in the script. And it was really important that the band sound good, because [Wong’s character] Sasha sees potential in Marcus, and he has to be worthy of the fact that she has had a crush on him all these years. If the band really sucked, it would not be good for the story.

Where did the name Hello Peril come from?

I wanted it to be an Asian-American band, and the name is a take on the historical term “yellow peril,” which is basically the Western fear of the Far East taking over. The concept of yellow peril has repeated itself throughout history, and it felt like something Marcus would have named the band, because he’s a community guy and he knows his history. Ali and I both have a background in Asian-American studies, but we didn’t sit down and say, “Let’s have an Asian-American studies type of name for the band.” It naturally worked itself into the story.

What bands did you look to when creating Hello Peril’s sound?

One of my favorite bands was the Roots, and that’s one of the touchstones for Hello Peril in that they play instruments. In terms of the Bay, one of the band members, Quasar, who presents the branded tennis balls in the band meeting scene, is played by the legendary Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born. I was always a fan of his and his entire crew. Also, the entire Hieroglyphics camp, which was founded by Del the Funky Homosapien, was very influential. It was really important that we captured that ’90s Bay Area vibe, and that’s part of the reason why we got Dan the Automator, who’s from that era and from those camps, to produce Hello Peril’s music. We gave him the perimeters: They’re a live band, and there are four instruments, and you can’t go outside of those four instruments. He came back with these beats that were just perfect.

How did you first meet Dan the Automator?

I had met him eight months before we even started talking about working on the movie. I went to a show for his project with Prince Paul, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Dan had us come backstage before the show and asked me to do an intro for their set. He said, “We will make you an official Handsome Boy Modeling School graduate.” So they gave me this fake mustache, and I did this absurd intro, and they loved it. Once we got to finishing a draft of the script and we were ready to talk about producers for the music, my first thought was Dan.

The most memorable Hello Peril song has to be “ I Punched Keanu Reeves ,” which runs over the end credits. How did you go about writing a song about beating up Keanu?

That song came way later in the process. We already had a cut of the movie and we kind of scrambled to get that song together. Basically, I wanted to write a tribute to Keanu, because he’s such a big part of all our lives and because he actually agreed to be in our movie. My mind is still blown that he wanted to do it. The song’s called “I Punched Keanu Reeves,” so we had to get his permission. I sent him an email with some of the lyrics and asked if it would be OK, and he was totally down. He even gave some suggestions.

What kind of suggestions?

In the original version, most of it was just a tribute to Keanu and there was one line that referenced the love story with Sasha. He’s the one who suggested we actually bring that part out a little more. It was really important to him that the music be about their love story and less about him, because he cares about the project more than himself. So I expanded on that part in the second verse and it made the song really special. Keanu is just an amazing person, and I’m so glad that song exists.

Now that you’ve written these songs, do you have any plans to revive your old hip-hop group, Ill Again?

Oh, no way, no. This is a one-off for me. It was so fun, but I have no interest in pursuing music. I don’t have the energy to. I’m too old.

So you’re done making music, but is there anything you’re listening to at the moment that you’d like to shout out?

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been really getting into BTS. I went to their show at the Rose Bowl because my wife is a huge fan, though I wasn’t very familiar with their music. I couldn’t believe the number of people there and how they were all of different races and ages, and how good the songs were. I’m Korean, but my Korean is pretty bad, so I didn’t understand most of it—but neither did a lot of the people there. They were singing along to these lyrics that they probably didn’t fully understand. The group’s positivity and sincerity was so refreshing to me. I’m big into them now. We bought a ton of merch, and they’re playing a lot in our house. I never thought I’d be into any boy band ’cause I’m a hip-hop guy, but I love them.