Lionel Richie and Megan Thee Stallion Talk KPOPPED, Cultural Exchanges and Becoming ‘Besties’ with Patti LaBelle (Exclusive)

Are you ready to get KPOPPED?

On Friday, Aug. 29, Apple TV+ launched its newest docuseries KPOPPED, where western icons reimagine one of their biggest hits by collaborating with K-pop stars. Ahead of the show’s premiere, executive producers Lionel Richie and Megan Thee Stallion caught up with PEOPLE to spill all the exciting details of their experience.

“I like surprises. I like things that make people go, ‘What the hell? What is that all about?’ And we were sitting in my living room with Miky Lee, and Miky Lee was talking about, ‘We need to bring this K-pop thing to the world,'” Richie, 76, tells PEOPLE exclusively, adding that he wanted K-pop stars, “familiar artists” and “the magic of a little competition” to bring the show together.

He continues, “When Megan said yes, we’re off to the races. You couldn’t have heard me screaming it louder, because that’s what it takes, someone to wade into the water of this cultural exchange.”

When Megan, 30, got the offer, “It wasn’t a yes, it was hell yes.”

“I wanted to go over there and learn,” the “Captain Hook” rapper says of filming the show in Seoul. “I wanted to go over there and fan out, so it was a perfect opportunity to do some work but also have some fun, which is what I love to make my work feel like. It didn’t even feel like work. It felt like a vacation.”

In the eight-part series, also featuring PSY, K-pop stars like BILLIE, Itzy, KEP1ER, JO1, Ateez, STAYC, Kiss of Life and Blackswan join forces with western superstars like Megan, Patti Labelle, Spice Girls’ Mel B and Emma Bunton, Vanilla Ice, Taylor Dayne, Kesha, Eve, J Balvin, Kylie Minogue, TLC, Boy George, Jess Glynne, Ava Max and Boyz II Men.

Together, the groups must prepare and perform unique covers of their mega hits and a Seoul-based audience chooses the winner of the best new K-pop’d song.

Witnessing the cultural exchange firsthand, Megan and Richie agree LaBelle, 81, was the most fascinating to watch.

“I was like, ‘Ms. Patti, girl, what you doing out here? How do you feel?’ Me and Ms. Patti were, like, besties by the end of the whole experience,” Megan says.

Richie adds, “Listen, she takes charge… The Godmother of Soul was there on the scene. When I first got in the business, Patti was in the business about the same time I was coming in. She was immediately likable. You cannot not like her.”

While filming the show, the “Hello” singer realized Megan and LaBelle “remind me so much of each other” — and says their chemistry was “magical.”

“I really felt like we were related. As soon as we saw each other, it was just big hugs, kisses and we were locked at the hip the whole time,” the “Mamushi” rapper says. “And I was like, ‘Dang, I cannot believe the Patti LaBelle knows who I am and she likes me. I must be the bomb because if Patti LaBelle gives me the cosign, I’m the one.'”

Music aside, Richie and Megan wanted to highlight the cultural conversation.

“I knew at some point, we’ve got to wade out into the community,” Richie says of the initial idea behind KPOPPED. “And some of those faces that Megan gave us when she was trying certain cuisines, certain foods, I could do a whole other show on just Megan’s reaction to, ‘What the hell am I eating?'”

Megan adds, “I love learning, I love appreciating culture. I love understanding things that I’ve never seen in person before. I love to be immersed in something that I’m actually really interested in.”

During her trip to Seoul, the “Savage” rapper went to art museums, ate as much food as she could and felt pleasantly surprised by the nightlife.

“I wanted to eat. I’m eating whatever they’re feeding me because I’m like, ‘I’m not going to be able to eat this in America, so I might as well eat the craziest s— I can find out here, because I want to get the full experience,'” she says. “I went shopping in the streets. I went to a puppy cafe, and there are some turnt parts of Korea. I don’t know what I thought. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t what I was going through.”

She continues, “As I kept walking down the street, there was a bar, and they were playing hip-hop music, and I was like, ‘Well, what do we have here?’ I was just having a blast.”

When all was said and done, Megan had one major takeaway: “I was like, ‘Wow, this is what music is all about.’ It’s not just about a moment, it’s about creating memories for life.”

KPOPPED is streaming now.