Raphael Saadiq - "Something Keeps Calling Me"

This year, SMTM has gotten a makeover of sorts. The new rolling points system (counted in dolla bills) has changed the competition by eliminating initial auditions and shifting the focus from crushing opponents to racking up an overall score. In Episode 3, the collaborative possibilities showcased how individual rappers can shine with the right material and direction, but also made for tense and entertaining reality tv without crazy drama. In a way, the change caters to the Korean ethos of teamwork and mirrors how the studio system shapes talent on their strengths. Notable acts include D.ark burning fire like early g-dragon, ODEE's smooth operator opener for team Nafla, fierce Black9, smooth Chow Yun Fat (I mean Cha Boom) and so much more.

Acknowledgement to Khiphopsubs who has allows us to watch SMTM by subbing and posting the episodes on their Facebook page.

Stoic "Flow Design" EK pulls out all the stops on a pseudo-satirical commercial throwaway track with a versatile performance that shouldn't be missed. And then pH1 countering with rap on a pop song instead of singing. And then follow all that up with YunB... Hilarious.


Other gems from the show were Superbee, Cha Boom, Dayday's "Next Level" 1st round performances in the head to head competitions.
"I'm on the legend level. I'm on another level. We on the next level."


Plus Nafla, EK and Bully
"Killin"


While the judges seem bored of competency and want artists to bring personality, expressing intent through control instead of manic showiness has been rewarded this season. If you are, however, going to bring energy to a repetitive trap style rap, then make it sharp like Coogie and Lee Dongmin.

Finally let's just marvel at how Superbee has transformed from a preeminent little s**t starter into a voice of restraint on SMTM 777.

Drake - "Passionfruit" 
as sung by Hayley Williams of Paramore


Paramore - After Laughter
As a whole and in the details, this is probably the best album I heard all year, so it was hard to pick a delegate. "Told You So" is xcixxorx pick, but you could draw a number from a hat and not be disappointed.


Little Mix ft. Stormzy - "Power"
From the get go, Edwards' vocals tell you what this song is about, and the rest never lets up.


Vince Staples - "Rain Come Down"


Big Boi - "Chocolate" ft. Troze
Stupid. Dirty. Fun.


Natalia Lafourcade - "Soledad y El Mar" (En Manos de Los Macorinos) 

While BTS broadsided kpop in 2017, an exponentially proliferating hurricane of Wanna One spinoffs banged relentlessly at the shutters. I was quietly enjoying a niche headspace of surprising b-sides and quirky r&b, so I didn't notice until tuning in for the year-end shows that the acts who have dominated airwaves for the last decade were missing from the stages - Big Bang (despite two solos), 2ne1, Shinee, f(x), CNBlue, Beast/Highlight, SNSD, Infinite, any rappers, etc. It felt like an evacuation had occurred, leaving behind only a bewildering void of melancholy. Thus, the news of Jonghyung's suicide shook me up more than I would have expected, his untimely death marking a hard stop at the end of an era.

In remembrance of where it all (re)started...
Shinee - "Replay"
"M.V.P"



KPOP COUNTDOWN 2017

Dean ft. SYD - "Love"
The escalation from verse to verse is about the sexiest thing I've heard since "Put My Hands On You".
"I got intentions baby
But, I'm getting restless babe
I need your blessing baby
I'll love/f**k you if you let me baby"

See also the SMTM collaboration tracks with Zico for some fun Dean production.

WINNER - "Really Really"
Best in Tropicali 2017

See also: "Fool"



Hotshot - "Jelly"


Hyuna - "Babe"

Nadia Rose - "Skwod"
Speaks for itself really...


Laura Mvula - "Phenomenal Woman", "Overcome", "Show me Love", "Ready or Not"
Celestial rays of angelic sound bathe earthy vocals in extraordinary compositions of empowerment and joy.


Adele - "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)"
I love Adele best in her cheekiest ("Right as Rain") rather than moodiest ("Rolling in the Deep") modes, and "Send My Love" is really the former in the guise of moody confrontation. A spare confessional blossoms into harmonic overdub, each added voice a layer of regret, coalescing into an insistent clamor of resolve, perhaps closure


Solange - Don't Touch My Hair (album)
Solange's emotive territory is much more intimate and mysterious space than Beyonce's public autobiographies. If Beyonce sort of Represents for the Other through the self, than Solange blurs the line between self and universal, Channeling .


Little Mix ft Sean Paul - "Hair" 
Overcoming Shitty Breakups through Female Solidarity and Makeovers!


Kacey Musgraves - A Very Kacey Christmas (album)
Christmas in 50's Hawaii, where Willie Nelson meets tropicana.


case/lang/veirs - "Honey and Smoke"
"Honey and Smoke" sounds like something David Lynch would like. Creepy and plaintive.


Drake - "Hotline Bling"
Not a Drake fan, but the combo of sad sack/Cosby dancing/Casio presets won me over hard.


Domo Genesis ft Anderson.Paak - "Dapper"
Remember Faith Evan's "Love Like This"? Well I'm pretty sure these guys do too. Domo Genesis' Mace impression provides the perfect half-baked counterpoint to Anderson.Paak's raspy feel good sing song.


Yemi Alade - "Ferrari"
Warm, afrocentric afropop.


Justin Bieber - "Company"
Easy, breezy tropicali put Beiber on the map, but "Company" is the easiest and breeziest.

2016 TREND LEGEND
+ Dance Pop or Korea's infatuation with EDM, a synonym for Electronica, a term the West Rejected
+ More and Darker 90's R&B in digital clothing
+ SM Kingdom
+ Girls, Girls, Girls
+ Hip Hop = BeWhy, Hash Swan
+ Sexy

Exo - Ex'act (Album)
In the past, f(x) consistently pulled off the dance/pop marriage - with credit rightly going to SM for overall concept. The direction in the case of Exo, leverages heretofore disparate strengths - boyish edginess, epic bombast, and urban soul - into one sophisticated persona. Ex'act is an ode to urban music that gracefully avoids retro pitfalls - embellishing essential characteristics yet preserving a sense balance. The moving parts feel very whole. Harmonic choral textures blossom into cold, digital dancefloor volumes and boom bap spaces. Lush pop melodies flower over familiar dance composition. References shade into each other fluidly.

1. "Lucky One" - modernized electro disco strung on a sexy Michael Jackson vibe
2. "Monster" - epic bad boy bombast emphasized by spare rubbery beats and elevated by a lush, worship-me chorus
3.  
4. "Artificial Love" - throbby, seductive UK house springs a trap that feels inevitable on the hapless
5. "Cloud 9" - late 90's swagger R&B, but looser, swoony and more romantic, this is "change in the pockets beats, daydreamy vocal scribbling." ref. Bobby Valentino
6. "Heaven" - chunky piano chords, cavernous hip hop beats and dense production pave the sidewalk for earthy chorus. ref. Mary J Blige 
7. "White Noise" - very groovy, slightly dirty, wonky house
8. "One and Only" - R&B confessional sprinkled with squee synths
9. "They Never Know" - minor key body roll gets to business with an instrumental two step chorus. ref. Silk meets Craig David.
10. "Stronger" - the improvisational quality of the composition makes this ballad an ideal show off piece. ref. Jodeci Unplugged. 

"London Night-o"


NCT 127 - "Firetruck", NCT U - "The 7th Sense"
"7th Sense" was a surprisingly knowing appeal to contemporary notions of cool, but LDN Noise's "Firetruck" rode all the perfectly timed drops to the more satisfying climax and a UK Funky house comedown.
Soca "Sobangcha!"

Heize ft DEAN - "Shut Up & Groove"
DEAN officially ruled the roost last year with various production projects and superb 130 mood:TRBL to set the mood for Korea's 90's to aughts R&B revival (admittedly a personal sweet spot), but modernized. There's so much to love on this bouncy duet, from the proggy arrangement, the splashing/crashing forward motion in the production, the gradual transformation from coy crooning to sing-song to pop rap, all layered with a lightness that reads as complete narrative. Relaxed and sweet, Heize has never sounded better than in conversation with Dean's heartthrob exclamations.


Crush - "Woo Ah"
A silky drip drop of controlled, plinky synth cascading into a seductively wonky slow jam and descending into a woozy refractory outro.


G. Soul - "Far, far Away"


Babylon ft. Dok2 - "Between Us"
Update to early/mid 2000's swag ballads with knee melting chorus, and backed by an equally impressive B-side. First heard Babylon on Zico's "Boys and Girls", a song which in retrospect should have made it onto last years list for sheer fun quotient.


Zico - "I am you, You are Me"
Unexpectedly wistful and romantic mid-tempo slow jam, delivered by one of Korea's more respected idol rappers (with a mid-song rap cameo played by himself). 



Vixx - "Milky Way"


Hyolyn ft Jay Park - "One Step"
The breathy vocals and daydreamy intimacy grew on me slowly and stealthily until "One Step" had somehow become the defacto mental soundtrack for waffle weekends. I suppose the topical likeness to Mariah Carey's "Underneath the Stars", a favorite from the Daydream album, reinforces the aura of self pleasuring diva vu.


Block B - "A Few Years Later"
Rubbery beats and arpeggiated interstitial melodies slide into each other on separate yet parallel temporal rails as a perfect mash up. This is pop songwriting at an ambitious and very subtle high.


Twice - "TT", "Cheer Up"
While Black Pink moderately filled the shoes of (finally) officially defunct 2ne1, I.O.I concluded a long string of forgettable releases with an overly frantic, "Very, Very, Very", and Unicorn penciled in for f(x) with very good "Blink Blink" (presaged by also very good "Huk" in 2015), JYP's girl group released the catchiest-catchphrase-iest girl group songs of the year including "Cheer Up" (aka "Shy, Shy, Shy") and unusual Halloween freestyle "TT". Twice has a lock on the cheer squad head cock and coy/cheeky insouciance they first promoted in "Ooh-Ahh", because the music supports their puffy sticker visuals with a strange confetti of cartoon sounds and fickle beat change mashups. It was hard to deny them attention this year, and therefore this spot gives way grudgingly before the same weird-cute aesthetic that was Got7's "Just Right".


Oh My Girl - "Liar Liar"
A satisfyingly straightforward counterpoint to Red Velvet's busy "Russian Roulette" in the bubblegum department.


Cosmic Girls - "Secret"
A standard girl group staple performs the magic trick of weightlessness, and exceeds its own charm quotient as the chorus ramps up subtly and takes off melodically into the stratosphere.


Winner - "Baby, Baby"
Doo wop soul


Snuper - Platonic Love
Nails the references.


HONORABLE MENTIONS

Nu-est - "Overcome", "Love Paint"
Reminiscent of awkward early Vixx, with overblown bishi concept videos


Luna - "Free Somebody" 


U-Kiss - "Stalker"
Sexyback fart beats meets Shinee meets Ne-Yo


Jay Park - "Aquaman", "Solo" (2015)
Cha Cha Mode


Seventeen SVT - "Check-in"

SMTM is about my favorite reality game show ever, pairing known hip hop artists with rookies or up and coming pro rappers for the title of best rapper. I started watching since Season 3 and am an avid fan of the personalities, dramas, and talents. While there have been some fun songs and performances in the past, notably by Bobby and Oltii, Season 5 has showcased a handful of truly notable stages where the producers really brought out the best in their contestants.

ONE - "Be Comfortable", SMTM5
Rapping about overcoming obstacles in a personal way is a staple K-pop trope and extremely effective with audiences, but, in a word, Boring. This performance was atypical in that the standard emotional rap was paired with a surprisingly sexy backing track and a breezy rather than tortured delivery. While this performance didn't bag One a win, the laid back combination of gentle beats, the producers' (Simon D!) r&b crooning, One hitting his stride finally without being outshone by Simon D (Simon D!), cleverly turned the anti-idol rapper bias on its head.


C Jamm and Reddy - "Wanted", SMTM5
To be frank, C Jamm was a solid contender during SMTM3, but he just wasn't that fun to watch - overly serious, closed off with harsh songs and a hard attitude. Not a lot to differentiate him from many other competent rappers flow-wise or visually. And Reddy, he's got a lot of style but a limited repertoire. Seeing C Jamm open up this time around feels like a gift. The pairing was a stroke of genius on the part of the producers. The beat is wicked and the rappers absolutely killed the performance like a pair of panthers.


BeWhy - "Forever", SMTM5
Compared to his previous appearance on SMTM, it is obvious that BeWhy has not only improved, but more importantly, found, committed and delivered his own voice. He adjusted his register and vocal tics to his advantage. He delivers shotgun style with a musicality that diversifies the monotone with layers of inflection. He uses complex time signature warps and shifts easily through difficult beats. He's cleaned up his mannerisms. BeWhy has got style now. Taking a notes from Kendrick, BeWhy served a rapper's rap performance that doesn't pander or alienate the audience. In "Forever" he moves progressively, effortlessly through cold and moody to jazzy freestyle - each zone a showcase of technique.


BeWhy - "Day Day", SMTM5
I didn't think anything could top BeWhy's "Forever" performance, but then THIS happened. In a similar way to One's "Be Comfortable" track,  "Day Day" subverts the oft told story of "overcoming/being true to oneself/making it" by taking elements that usually don't go together to re-frame familiar sentiments. Musically, the genre is unusual for the material (fun! funky! is usually reserved for party lyrics), but BeWhy didn't dumb down to cater to the happy vibe, nor did his flow take a backseat in delivering the emotions. To underscore the narrative, the arrangement and staging segued from BeWhy's typical introversion to an gregarious expression of joy - pure and celebratory and shared. I have "Day Day" on repeat in the car - a first for a song out of SMTM - because it feels inspirational. Preach to me BeWhy.