.... yes, O Badass One, I'm about to utter some heathen words...
... but I'm actually rather intrigued by B.A.P.
There was a post I wrote about a year ago where I mentioned I was rather intrigued by the rapper BYG, mainly due to his uncanny deep vocal resemblance to the Badass One in the song "Going Crazy." I've kept an eye on this group since then, and despite how much I dislike their name (I remain baffled about whey couldn't think of a better string of words than Best Absolute Perfect, or whether they absolutely had to use an acronym that sounds like rice in Korean), this group has piqued my interest.
As a disclaimer, I'm not very big on following K-Pop. I can tell you all sorts of crazy detailed shit about the Badass One and his Kickass cohort, but when it comes to the other glossy synchronized groups out there, I know almost nothing. Once in a while, a song will fly onto my radar, but in general many of the songs I have encountered are too poppy for my tastes. Probably a by-product of having listened to so much rock music during my formative teenage years.
Which is why I was quite surprised when I discovered BYG's group for the first time. Their first hits like "Warrior" and "Power" boasted booming bass lines. I'm hesitant to use gender-connotative terms, but... how else do I describe it, I was struck by how "masculine" their sound was. I am largely drawn to rock music for the "heaviness" of the sound, and B.A.P's music, though strongly influenced by hip hop, also carries a similar weight.
And yet, I soon realized that this group wasn't interested in staying comfortable in just this style. They released several other songs, like ballads or light pop--most of which I didn't particularly love, though the recent "Coffee Shop" and all of its California footage was crisply done and made me yearn for home. I also was not a fan of the recent "Hurricane" largely because it sounded too similar to all the other poppy K-Pop songs that don't particularly jive with me. BUT... despite my ambivalence towards some of this experimentation, I am still duly impressed by how much they've been experimenting with pushing their range, especially considering how young the group is.
But the final clincher that got me has to do with BYG. For a brief period of time earlier this year, he opened a tumblr account and began posting clips of his personal musical compositions. In particular, I especially liked the creepy "Sacramental Confession." BYG has deactivated his account since, but there was something about catching a glimpse of the songwriter in action--and on Tumblr, of all places--that nailed it for me
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Edit 10/5/2013
Okay, I just had to come back to this post, because I found this blog-post about BYG that I thought was hilarious: Tortured Artist Bang Yongguk Returns To Instagram, Plays The Piano.
A choice excerpt:
"Unlike most K-pop idols –who only use social media to post fifty million stupid selcas of themselves– King Yongguk used his account to share things he was genuinely interested in, which often included a lot of obscure art references. Needless to say, most K-pop fans and their tiny brains were confused and frightened by the photos, and often voiced their discomfort in the comments section of Yongguk’s posts...
Using the clever and flawless username, ‘bangstergram,’ Yongguk rejoined Instagramland last night with a black & white video of him playing a few depressing notes on a piano. The video was simply titled, “3:00 AM,” indicating that the B.A.P beauty was up late composing music like any true tortured artiste would."And the comment that voices what everyone was thinking:
"He could bangstergram me any time he wants tbqh."
