This amount of pumped-uppery only happens three times. Beyonce dropped. MFBTY’s dropped. Or when my ride or die, favorite group, I’ll slap the taste our your MOUTH on the streets with the COPS watching if you EVER try to slander favs of all time dropped.
That’s right.
I could literally punch through a brick wall right now. The only thing keeping me from taking my fist to some brick and mortar right now is the fact that I’ve been crying since noon. I haven’t been able to explain that to my neighbors who probably have heard my sobs through the wall. I get a complaint and I’ll punch through THEIR wall.
SHINee’s back with their fourth Korean language album (fifth if you count Hello not as a repackage but as a separate CD) tittled Odd.
LOOK HOW FUCKING COOL THEY LOOK
Unfortunately I was not able to get my camera in time for the reaction video I should have shot (you would have seen the tears) but fortunately SHINee’s Odd is on the lips of many and they’ve done the job for me!
Whattup, Pres.
So to bring you up to speed with this R&B-pop-GOOD ASS MUSIC wonderous creation, I’ve got JREKML of K-Pop Youtube fame here to take you snippet by snippet through this AWESOME AWESOME album. Watch his reactions. No, trust me. WATCH HIS REACTIONS. They are so authentic. Why? Because this album is the TRUTH (am I convincing any of you yet?)
If you get through this video NOT wanting to either buy this CD or learn more about SHINee, then I…I don’t know…I don’t what to do with you. Plus, I love this dude.
There are levels to stannery. There always has and there always will be.
I, amazingly, manage to touch all aspects and levels. I can barely tell you much about Dragon Ball Z aside from character names, senzu beans and the fact that one fight will take up about 2 weeks of your precious time. I know even less about One Piece (OH THE SHAME!). I can look at my bookshelf and see it flooded with epics about hobbits and wizards and women who lead rebellions, conspiracy theories about Mary Magdalene, manga chapters, the sort. And you can look at my bookshelf and see my appalling lack of romantic comedies, Steve Harvey self help books and books along the lines of B-More Careful (BECAUSE NO).
Then there are times where I transcend levels. I become ethereal and ridiculous in my stannery. Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons (which I can meta like no one has ever meta’d before.) Naruto and Bleach and my undying love for Uiquorria. Beyonce. SHINee, dear God SHINee. I actually radiate pure maniac when it comes to such things.
Well, it is time to add another so completely deserving bullet on that list of things I am completely manic about.
My Fans (are) Better Than Yours, or as aptly acronymized (you guys are going to have to get used to me making up words) as
MFBTY
This should be no surprise; I’ve spoken highly about this group before. It was February 2013 when MFBTY released “Sweet Dreams” and it was February 2013 when I become obsessed. Manic, I tell you.
MFBTY is comprised of MCs Bizzy and Husband-Wife tag team Yoon Mi Rae and Drunken Tiger.
(Left to right: Bizzy, Yoon Mi Rae, Drunken Tiger)
These empyrean titans– legends!– in the Korean Hip Hop World came together to bless us with their first mini-album. We were graced with the aforementioned visual beast of a music video “Sweet Dreams” as well as my favorite favorite track BizzyTigerYoonMiRae.
Following the creation of Feel Ghood Music, we now have, two years later, Wondaland. Wondaland is the full length album–thank GOD–that blessed us with SIXTEEN tracks.
Now what’s special about this album has something for everyone, your neopolitan of KHip Hop/Pop albums. There is the upbeat, funky make you get out of your seat Bang Diggy Bang Bang. You’ve got Tasha (Yoon Mi Rae) and Tiger’s son Jordan’s adorably giddy Fart Dance. You’ve got theBucku Bucku banger featuring Rapmon of BTS, EE, and Dino-J. You have Tasha’s angelic vocals with Bizzy and Tiger’s addictive rhymes on Angel. Then you have the fire-filled Rebel Music which plucks at the heartstrings of any revolutionary. Love Game with with Son Seung Yeon’s BEASTLY AMAZING POWERFUL vocals. Then, if you really want your mind blown Hollywho feat DOK2 is SO THROUGH. All four MCs FLOATED on this track. You HAVE to listen.
I mean I could do this for each and every track. I seriously could. OR you could go buy it and check out the entire thing.
The moral of the story is, in a world completely taken over by the Hallyu Wave, we have a group that has managed to incorporate not on the thuggery and essence of hip hop along with the very thing that made Hallyu a WAVE, addicted melodies, upbeat tempo, funky lyrics and FEEL GHOOD MUSIC.
Tracklist:
Welcome to Wondaland (intro)
Hello Happy (feat. ????)
야야야/Hey Hey Hey (Half Time)
부끄부끄/Blush Blush (feat. EE, Dino-J, Rap Monster do BTS)
I asked a question a couple of years back, as to what Asian had sex too. I mean, I know what I, as a black person, would normally listen to (Hey Marvin, Hey Smookie and Teddy) and sometimes I think I know what White people would listen to (that is to say,the former statement culturally insensitive as hell, not taking into consideration that we don’t all listen to the same damn thing, but just go with the flow right now. Damn.) I remember finding the answer when I discovered DBSK’s “Before You Go.”
Now this isn’t a post necessarily about sexy music, but more about R&B because, if you’ve checked American tunes, there is a…lack of smooth tunes to groove to on the radio. If you’re missing that in your life, you can search the net for other countries. There is always the French Soul collective (Hello Monsieur Nov) or Adele or if you’re patient enough to wade through the NeoSoul scene here in states you’ll find something.
Or…
There is Korean R&B.
Wait.
I can hear you now. “Oh, here Jade go, again” but hear me out! These songs are SMOOTH. They are. They are. They just are. Hell, if someone were to slap some English lyrics on them, you all would be downloading them to your mix-tapes RIGHT THIS INSTANCE. I asked an expert (my Mom) and she’s a fan, so I in turn will try to put you on.
SHINee – Excuse Me Miss
SHINee’s lastest double CD effort was chock full of lucid tunes and smooth beats (plus it didn’t hurt that two of their tracks mirrored some of Jay-Z’s titles (Excuse Me Miss and Girls Girls Girls. No, I’m not playing, I’m serious.) Excuse Me Miss was smooth, charming and it took little effort to see each of the members approaching a young woman on some street in Brooklyn. It sounds authentically R&Bish and it’s something you wouldn’t expect from a POP band, but then again, SHINee is a contemporary R&B group, so me, as an avid fan, lack the surprise that others displayed.
Swings – A Real Lady
More of your R&B / Hip Hop mash up, but the video chick is a black woman so, you know, 5000+ to Gryffindor for that. Plus it’s just so damn smooth. Shout out to Swings, BEENZINO, Gray and Zion T for this track!
2PM – Dangerous
2PM is more of a techo-beat, rave, here comes my self-composed 6 counts of 8 chorography I made up while I was in my shower, raw energy dance party. They’ve done ballads, but personally, 2PM doesn’t have the vocal talent to pull them off all the time. Regardless of that, they are still a talented group and it was proven with Grown. If you listen to Dangerous and don’t want to 2-step all the way to the function with a red cup in your hand, you’re out of your mind.
SHINee – Symptoms
My favorite group in the whole wide world is back with a track that served as a B-side to their live promotions. (Sidenote: Most K-Pop groups will debut a single but for award and music shows, they’ll perform another one off the track.) Now, I’m not trying to show any kind of bias but when I first heard this song, my head almost popped off my head, rolled my car window down and tried to jump to safety. I was THAT affected. If I listened to it anymore I was going to explode in feelings. It was THAT good to me. This song is sexy, it is smooth, it is damn near addictive.
EXO – Growl
EXO are the new kids on the block. And by new kids I mean, the new kids who were trained under the same people who brought DBSK, Super Junior, SHINee and Girl’s Generation to international fame. It’s easy to say that there were high expectations for these kids. And let me tell you, they succeeded. This song has won a shitload of awards, including two awards for Song of The Year. And it’s not undeserving. The teaser for Growl sounded world’s apart from their single Wolf, the lead in for their record breaking album XOXO. Didn’t know what to expect but I’ll tell you this, this is a GOOD ASS SONG. From jump to the very end, good music. If there was a K-Pop song you HAD to listen to in 2013, it was Growl.
Also this guy… (you can’t NOT like T.O.P. Harlem Shaking. You can’t.)
So he’s been pretty busy. He has one of the highest grossing movies for 2013; Commitment, a story about the son of an ex-North Korean agent is tasked to kill North Korean spies in Seoul to save his younger sister.
He was voted by FUSE Magazine as the sexiest male entertainer of 2013.
And on Friday, November 15, to add to his groups mad rush of independent solo activities and music videos, T.O.P. releases his own HIGHLY HIGHLY anticipated solo endeavor, DOOM DADA.
Now before I introduce the video ( because I’m pretty sure you’re anxious to find out WTF is going on), let me give you some foreplay to this musical o’gasm you might have.
T.O.P, along with G-Dragon, is titled as one of BIG BANG’s rappers. For as long as I’ve followed BIG BANG, I can tell you that, as far as rappers go, T.O.P. has a particular swagger to the way he raps, and at no point in time has he ever hesitated to push the envelope. His voice is distinctive, his rhyme pattern is calm, yet excitable, and along with his devilishly ridiculous good looks, T.O.P. has established himself as a fearsome hip hop artist in not only South Korea, but worldwide. His sub-unit activities with G-Dragon never fail to entertain and have a crossover appeal that I have personally tested. It was successful. When you have aged and wizened American hip hop heads nodding along, you know you’ve probably listened to something special.
With DOOM DADA, T.O.P. is back again, hitting us with his distinctive style of deep vocalized hard hitting rhymes that go from slow and easy to fast paced and in your face. The video itself is like Kanye West meets Alfred Hitcock meets too many blunts to the head. It’s entertaining, yet, very unique compared to his BIG BANG counterparts. G-Dragon like very vibrant colors in his videos and music, espeically seen in Coup D’eat; Daesung’s was melodramatic that highlited his very soul-searing vocals. Seungri got what he wanted, a “club banger“, and Taeyang’s look like We Got Served got into a fight with Style P’s Good Times.
DOOM DADA on the other hand, is an acid trip in black and white. It’s addictive and you’ll press play more than once to figure out what the fuck is going on. Because we don’t know.
