…of Lady Kpop Rappers.

 

We see them in almost every recent K-pop group- a rapper, or sometimes two. They’ve spilled over from the hip-hop and urban scenes to pop, and their popularity and success are a sign that they are here to stay. Recent MVs and performances have led me to give everyone examples of the good, the bad, and the sexy of the lady Kpop rapper scene.

The Good

CL, from 2NE1, is skilled. Since their debut performance, 2NE1 has been a ubiquitous part of the k-pop scene first with Fire and later with "I Don’t Care." I was in Korea this past summer, and I swear to you, I couldn’t walk down the street without hearing one of their songs blasting from a shop on the street. I’ve always been really impressed with their whole attitude and appearance because they simply do it right. From singing to dancing to rapping, these girls have got it down.

 

CL is especially impressive because she has the skills a rapper needs.

 

- Attitude: Watching her in "I Don’t Care," I feel like I’m about to get punched by a bully the whole time. She smirks, she does that head nod thing, and you know that you better pay attention to whatever she’s got to say to you. The whole way that she carries herself screams “Look at me, I’m better than you,” and we love it.

- Dance: Her live performances are a testament to her dancing abilities, whether she’s bobbing around in Lollipop, or giving a chair a lap dance at her debut concert.

- Flow: Every rapper has to have a sense of flow. Nobody wants to listen to someone stand up on stage and mutter and stammer, and CL doesn’t come close to that- she’s got flow, she’s got skills.

 

Overall, CL is exactly what a good rapper needs to be. She’s not perfect, though. Her style is a little out there, and whoever dresses her seems to enjoy making her look ugly, which naturally, she isn’t. Overall, though, it fits her attitude, and she manages to pull it off… most of the time.

 

The Bad

 

Recently, F(x) has been everywhere-- "Chu~♡" and it’s performances are popping all over the place, and I’m already a little tired of it. I’m not a big fan of F(x) to begin with, but I did think their version of "Chocolate Love" was decent. Unfortunately, I watched the MV and a live performance of "Chu~♡," and I couldn’t stop myself from remembering how rap can go oh-so-wrong. Amber is what’d I call the bad.

 

- She’s got no flow. When she raps, she awkwardly squeezes every word out like it’s playdough, it’s halting and it just makes me want to give her the Korean version of hooked-on-phonics. It’s like she learned how to rap from Gollum.

- She can dance pretty well, but it doesn’t match at all with the image she’s supposed to be portraying. She is a little weird-looking, which can work real well, but then she’s doing all these cutesy dances, and it just doesn’t fit well at all.

- She just doesn’t have the attitude. Watching her in "Chu~♡," I couldn’t help but think that she was like a 14 year-old kid trying to smoke with the seniors in high school- working so hard to be something that she obviously isn’t. Being a bad ass is hard to pull off, and Amber just falls flat here.

I don’t think she’s unskilled- she needs to polish up her act, and come back with a better idea of what she wants her image to be, and then stick with it. Unfortunately, I can’t help but label her, for now, the bad.

 

The Sexy

 

When it comes to most music, I’m typically more of an indie fan, and so I tend to want to avoid mainstream stuff too much, and usually don’t listen to the really popular stuff until about 2 months after it’s been replaced as the most popular. I did it with 2NE1's "Lollipop," and regretted it, and then I did it again with "Abracabra," and could kick myself for it. When I first laid my eyes on the Brown Eyed Girls, I was a little shocked, kinda weirded out, and incredibly impressed. What kind of mad-man puts a murder scene, drugs, faux-lesbian hotness, and a hot-hips dance all in the same music video? Well, BEG does, and they pull it off like the beasts that they are. Their rapper Miryo blew me out of the water, and showed me for the first time that quality rap really can exist in Kpop.

This chick is a bad ass in every way. In "Abracadabra," the woman calls herself a Kaiser and then shakes a stick at you while wearing shoulder pads and looking like M. Bison. In another video ("How come?"), she yells at a man and waves a gun at him, commanding him “tell me you love me." Well, Miryo, I love you.

-She’s got style. In every MV, Miyro is a strange mix of masculine and feminine, pulling together a sometimes androgynous but always sexy look.

-She can dance. Did you SEE Abracadabra?

-Flow? This chick is slick as oil. She never stutters, never stammers, and never trips up- well, at least with her voice (stairs weren’t at rapper school). Even live, her rapping is always flawless, and whoever writes the music for BEG really seems to understand how to write for Miryo. Unlike a lot of rap in kpop, Miryo’s pieces add to the songs, and are essential to them. They’re not just a bridge, but especially in "Sign," she’s able to be an integral part of the their group without overbearing and without underbearing.

Miryo is the queen of the Lady KPop Rappers, and hell yeah, she is sexy.

There you have it-- the good, the bad, and the sexy of Lady KPop rappers. What do you think makes a good rapper?