Though I didn’t love their debut track, 8TURN’s first comeback Excel proved to be a big grower and eventually took a spot on my “Top 50” year-end countdown. As with most rookies, I feel they have a ton of potential and they’d benefit from further exploring the raucous rock energy they delivered last summer. Sadly, new single Ru-Pum-Pum takes them in the opposite direction. It’s a major downturn for 8TURN.
If I had the power, I’d officially declare “Ru-Pum-Pum” an NG word in K-pop. Nothing good can come of it anymore. These sound effect phrases have become so overused and cloying — placeholders when you have nothing new to offer. Ru-Pum-Pum doubles down, trying to rhyme its titular hook with “Yeah we know we dope, duh duh duh duh dope dope.” It’s pretty lame, and not in a fun guilty pleasure way.
Ru-Pum-Pum is at its best when aping old-school hip-hop rhythms. The verses are playful and occasionally exciting, but too often the song becomes an NCT pastiche as the guys shout over abrasive production. I do like their all-blonde makeover, though. Perhaps it’s an ode to B.A.P?
| Hooks | 6 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 6.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The way I knew you’d hate the song but say something nice about them being all-blonde lol
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haha you know me too well!
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8Turn are still way better than their songs. They are really compelling performers. I want better for them.
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just horrible. I can’t believe they went from Excel to this. I’m already fearing what music MNH are gonna be giving to Matthew.
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oh I almost forgot, thoughts on IVE’s first English single All Night featuring Saweetie? it’s allegedly a remake(?) of Icona Pop’s excellent song.
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if it is then woohoo!
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Not sure how I feel about it being a cover, but at least the original is a good song.
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just plain old generic. There is nothing special about this track.
7/10
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I was really looking forward to this comeback. 8turn were one of my favorite debuts of last year…now this…this is not good. These kids (as most) deserve better than this. I wanted to click off pretty early on but I wanted to atleast give them a view.
Also, for a group that has more singers than rappers, there was way too much rapping, like way too much.
As much as I loved 90’s, 00’s and aome early ’10s hip hop/rap. I’m really put off by a lot of the stuff relased nowadays. I wish kpop would either do away with “rappers” in their groups or limit it to 1 or 2. Bring back singers!!!
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The thing is, most designated rappers in groups aren’t even rapping in an interesting way. They’re just shouting or sing-talking.
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To me it sounds like a ChatGPT result from “f(x) Rum a pum pum but make it NCT”.
I’ll keep the original. Plus Amber, yessssss Amber. Ah, the video, nice, back when SM made and remade these big sets which would get upcycled from one to the next.
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Hah! And then Kara “Step” autoplayed right after f(x). I got a twofer of awesome!
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I know a lot of people derided them at the time, but I loved those “box set” music videos. They always felt futuristic.
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HOLY SHIT I loved the boxed sets too! They really did feel futuristic. That’s the word I was looking for to describe them.
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Hey, i’ve been following you for almost a year now and i’ve enjoyed your reviews without necessarily commenting, but today i was listening to an “unpopular kpop opinions” video and it was just a complete copy of this review so i felt like i had to tell you. Idk if i’m overthinking it, it just felt too similar to be a coincidence. Here it is :
Its the last part of the video
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Oh you’re right! Well… that’s pretty lame, isn’t it?
I tried to report it, but there was no option for plagiarism. 😦
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