Despite their cringeworthy group name and equally cringey debut single, I respect how Young Posse are trying to do something a little different from their peers. When it comes to building credibility in the hip-hop world, last month’s Young Posse Up was a good start. But ultimately, the song was too hookless to appeal to me.
New single XXL continues the food theme of Macaroni Cheese, paired with a funny, surreal fast food video with plenty of (intentionally) bad green screen effects. Musically, it borrows heavily from 90’s rap. Its undulating bass feels pulled from an old Seo Taiji or H.O.T song, which were originally inspired by west coast gangsta rap. It makes for an odd fit in Young Posse’s hands. They’re a colorful group with plenty of skill, but at times their spitfire performance contrasts with the cartoonish nature of their concept. I admire the weirdness of it all, but I’m not sure everything has come together in a way that fully works. Not yet, at least.
The same could be said for XXL itself. It feels more like a song sketch than a fully-developed comeback. I enjoy its energy and nostalgic touchstones and it’s less cloying than Macaroni Cheese, but the track still misses an indelible hip-hop hook and colorful production to put it over the edge. Its accompanying visuals are far more memorable than the music.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.5 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This is unrelated to the song itself and I understand that they are a low budget group, but could they seriously not afford better editors? The green-screen keying is genuinely horrible- and i dont mean it looks off, i mean u literally see a green outline most of the time and its easily avoidable. and the song is pretty bad too, sounds like an nct reject lol
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I think it’s an “aesthetic” “choice”.
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I’m getting pretty sick of people claiming things sound like NCT when they sound nothing like anything NCT have ever released. This sounds absolutely nothing like any song NCT have ever released because NCT have never done 90’s hiphop before.
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it sounds like a song they would release, notice i said reject?
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Im not going to argue with an idiot.
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Come on, now. This is not a place for name calling.
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A decent improvement over Macaroni Cheese, this has some personality. Ngl, the chorus reminds me of that of Shinee’s “Hard”, maybe it’s just me, idk, maybe because both have a similar boom bap sound? 🗿
Anyways, a 7.25 (7, 8, 7, 7) for me
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I was thinking the same thing help😭
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Aha! Great minds think alike! 🙃
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it’s kinda decent I guess
7.5 for me as well
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More of a curiosity to me, that a Korean girl group could in 2024 release a straight ahead old timey hip hop single.
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why is the name cringey?
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“Young Posse” sounds like a particularly unoriginal rap name. The understatement of the year. Yo, where’s my posse at. It is so bad, a whole SNL cut-for-time skit could be done with Kristen Wiig as an old grandma doing a talent show as a member of the Young Posse straight out of Rose Arbor Nursing Home covering something unexpected (W.A.P. perhaps) and pointing to the audience, yo where’s my posse pussy at?!!!
It is so bad I bet all the rap name generators don’t even have the word “posse” in them as a response.
I just ran one, and my rap name this week is “Sling My Ma eM Money Muffin a.k.a. The Mad Bump”.
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(What she said 👆)
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this is even worse considering all the members are teenagers
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whats the underlying cringeness tho.
you didn’t say anything of merit.
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It’s cheesy and trite and lends itself to some problematic puns. That was all in the original comment?
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Also culture. Posse usually refers to the 80-90’s generation of west coast rap, usually black and urban and male. OT rap. Authentic stuff. With all the glory and tragedy that befell them.
Since then, in bad movies and in dumb pop culture, the phrase “posse” shifted to basically to a group of friends following a charismatic leader. Then to worse movies and lower list celebrities, and kids movies, then to being a pun unto itself with requisite eye roll. I would not be surprised if Kung Fu Panda movies calls the group a posse in some sly joke.
For the former, it is just comical and cringe that teenage girls in a manufactured kpop group would in any way resemble the lives and music of rap of that era. For the latter, it is just a bad groan-worthy choice.
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I like this song more than “Macaroni Cheese”.
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I’m curious if these young ladies even listen to hip hop and if so…who are their influences. I feel like this is just a shtick and i’m wondering how long their company is going to keep this up. Or maybe the girls genuinely like this “concept.” Maybe I need to watch a few interviews because i’m not convinced.
On a postive note, I actully liked the styling. Minus the fronts, please leave those in the early 2000’s.
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The first sentence told me everything I needed to know about this reviewer’s opinions and the rest of the article only got worse. Waste of my time.
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this is a review site, this reviewer has every right to say what he likes and doesn’t like.
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I hope people who make comments like these realize they just look immature and aren’t dunking on Nick like they think they are.
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hard to listen to the song when that video is playing. It’s bizarre in a way I haven’t seen in a long time
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All I could think while watching it is “what on earth is this?”
I’m SHOCKED this isn’t a parody of some sort 😮
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