Review

Song Review: BABYMONSTER – Clik Clak

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BABYMONSTER - Click ClackQuality control at YG Entertainment has been all over the place for the past decade or so, and the agency’s newest artist BABYMONSTER is emblematic of that hit or miss approach. The group’s first full album is just around the corner. Clips of the songs have gradually been teased and the previews range from godawful horrific to basic (but fun) YG-style EDM bangers. I unironically loved their single Forever from this summer, tired production tropes and all. However, Clik Clak is an instant non-starter.

There are few things I find more tedious than pop songs about spending money. Usually I’d overlook lyrics on this blog because they’re not performed in my native language, but Clik Clak is entirely in English, so even if I actively try I can’t escape the mega-cringe of bars like “Spending money, charge, charge, charge. Who be livin’ large, large, large.” Is this really the level of creativity we’re willing to accept from one of K-pop’s leading agencies? It doesn’t help that these empty boasts unfold over a skeletal beat that does little to cover up the capitalist idiocy on display.

If you make it to the end of Clik Clak (big if), you’ll actually be treated to an exciting shift in energy. Out of nowhere (or exactly where you’d expect given YG’s history), the song embraces a club beat that grows more unhinged as we reach the climax. Meaningless platitudes remain, but its much easier to swallow these clichés when they’re supported by compelling production. Had the entire track embraced this aural madness, it could have been a fun, tongue-in-cheek detour in BABYMONSTER’s patchy discography. Alas, it feels like everyone involved took this way more seriously than it deserved.

Hooks 5
 Production 7
 Longevity 6
 Bias 5
 RATING 5.75

Grade: F

65 thoughts on “Song Review: BABYMONSTER – Clik Clak”

  2. Typical trap song with bragging. *yawn* next! How did we come here from Forever? The girls here sound so uninterested. The outro spices things up, but it’s too little, too late.

    5.5 (5, 6, 6, 5) for me. And since papa YG said that we’ll be getting lots of MVs, I can only hope we don’t get a Woke Up In Tokyo MV.

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    • clik clak, love in my heart, drip and forever are the 4 songs that get MVs.

      wake up in tokyo n others won’t.

      i am bitter because really like you is sure better than clik clak

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      • Phew, we can rejoice in the fact that WUIT won’t get a MV (though I’d pay to see a review of it). I wish they showed Baemon’s “Forever” side more and less of their “Clik Clak” side.

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        • Yg tries way to hard to push this “swaggy”, “hood” image on their groups and it is cringy.

          i found g dragon cringy back then when he acted swaggy and gangsta. Songs like crook are better than one of a kind, one of the reasons is that crook does not feel pretencious.

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          • I feel like YG’s rappers have the charisma to sell the swaggy image decently, though I’d also love to see versatility in their music like you said how GD shows his other side in Crooked. And it also comes down to the music itself. Like, Treasure’s rappers did a decent job with VolKno and G.O.A.T, maybe cause those songs themselves had great production. But here, the song just seems so bland and monotonous (generic lyrics with plain trap beats), like the girls sound bored and don’t believe in what they’re singing/rapping.

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    • So I decided to listen to the preview of Woke Up In Tokyo and it sounds like someone on that team is on some level a fan of Lil Dicky. Like they listened to the Penith album and decided that’s what the inspiration should be for this track. And nobody stopped them. Bold. In what way I do not know but this is bold and that is only half of this track.

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    • It’s funny you mention Woke Up in Tokyo because, honestly, Clik Clak’s lyrics are just okay at best. Maybe they’re trying to keep it PG since none of the members are even legal yet. But Woke Up in Tokyo is already a miss for me. I was expecting something more rap- and hip-hop-heavy, but instead, it feels like I’m listening to nursery rhymes. It’s almost like we’re one step away from Baby Shark! I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but Woke Up in Tokyo is a hard pass.

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      • Clik Clak’s lyrics are just plain “look how rich we are” stuff which is just boring atp, it just serves as a teen-friendly version of Money by Lisa (knowing half of the group is still underaged). But man, Woke Up In Tokyo just makes me wish I wasn’t fluent in English. It just sounds like they took Tokyo Drift by Teriyaki Boyz, smashed it into dust and tried re-building a song out of it and added nursery rhymes and gibberish to the mix (comparing that shit to the masterpiece that is Tokyo Drift is already an insult!). Not even Rukasa’s delivery could save the hot mess that is those “bars” (and they managed to make the onomatopoeia in Sheesh sound good!)

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  3. They really said🎵baby it was all a dream🎵 we aren’t making good music because what the actual fawk did i just listen too, this was so hard to get through and I had to pause for 20 minutes for a YouTube brea. idgaf babymonster if your heels clik clak just stop saying it or im gonna go feral😃 so for now you can clik clak and walk with your hips back away from me because if this plays in my vicenity, I will end up with criminal charges 😍. 4.75/10🎅

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  4. i can’t not believe a whole team of people can listen to this musical disaster and think it deserves to have an MV.

    Clik clak is bm’s worst song along with wake up in tokyo

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    • Woke Up in Tokyo is honestly down there in rock bottom’s basement. Clik clak at least have a little bit of that ear worm sound, lyrics aside. But Woke Up in Tokyo, nothing is gonna save it. It’s a bad representation of Asa and Ruka’s lyrical abilities. I hope they don’t market this song as Asa and Ruka official sub-unit. They deserve a better official sub-unit song.

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  7. I listened to the song all the way through and the drop between the last chorus and the outro was so jarring I had to rewind the song and make sure that I hadn’t accidentally skipped a part of the song…. I hadn’t, the song is just like that… After listening to Forever I was excited because I thought BabyMonster might finally get to have their own sound and have it be not so blatantly YG… I was wrong this song is just godawful… this sounds like a child wrote it

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    • NMIXX from Temu is right, but even so NMIXX’s producers seem to know what members can do what Baemon’s producers are hopeless…. honestly the decent YG groups are 2ne1, BigBang, Treasure, Winner and iKON and 2ne1 is coming back and saving us this year… G Dragon might be doing something and I have no idea where Treasure, Winner and iKON are

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  9. This is probably more of a me thing but I HATE it when K-pop idols sing or rap in English cause it means I have to understand it. The lyrics aren’t terrible they just do nothing. ‘We make them talk’ yeah about how bad this music is, sheesh (pun intended).

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  10. how old are the girls? most of them have to be under 18, right?!? the lyrics to this song are so much worse than newjeans’ cookie. this is literally “strippers on a pole” territory – heels clacking as you’re counting money. i could not believe my ears.

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  13. I start guessing BABYMONSTER is the ultimate troll in K-Pop history.
    I’m seriously expecting there has to be a ppt deck, somewhere in the world, whose 1st chart states

    “BABYMONSTER’S Goal: to see how far we can push ourselves to maximize the hype and business of something intentionally unbearable and talent-waster“.

    [standing ovation from the investors]

    And yay, it definitely worked pretty good so far, and it seems it can work even better with their 1st full album.
    Houston, do we have an issue with BABYMONSTER (and their producers) or with K-Pop stans?

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  14. Someone needs to read the Cheetah Girls book where one of the members gets hooked on buying luxury goods using her mother’s credit card and learns the dangers of turning to consumerism in an attempt to deal with emotional pain and build self-worth.

    Seriously, though, I am so sick of all the capitalist lyrics and brand collabs in kpop, and find it especially gross that young girl groups are so heavily involved in it. I really loved the BTS song “Spine Breaker” which tackles the issue, but BTS are also involved in shilling for luxury goods these days, so I can only throw up my hands.

    But the lyrics aside, the song still stinks, unfortunately.

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  16. That soulless, hazy “clik clak” could make me believe this was a satirical critique of the culture of mindless consumerism, in which case I could appreciate this. Unfortunately, they appear to be serious.

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  17. You rated it too high in my opinion. It’s a nothing burger. I find it hilarious that they make literal teenagers “flex” when they can’t even drive the vehicles they show and have minimal creative control. I can’t even. Here’s to hoping Drip is better, but the bar is set so low I don’t expect anything. Horrific, and I want my time back. The last seconds are interesting but it ends too soon and abruptly, and they are not enough to make me listen to this again, even if I skip to the end. Other than the usual YG stans (who are already boot liking the song), what mass appeal are they trying to find here? Focus in getting another Haru Haru and not what feels like a gen z meta-ironic joke made on Garage band in 2 minutes max. I also enjoyed Forever, and this just awful, especially for a full album.

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  18. the verses were quite forgettable and there wasn’t really much that appealed to me. i dislike how i know english not because what were those lyrics 😭😭

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  19. My opinion as an actual BM fan: yeah this is awful. I somehow really loved Sheesh and Batter Up. Yes, they are generic, but really fun and catchy. This here just gives me nothing, the lyrics are so horrible, like can we please stop with these “money, money, I’m so rich” lyrics? Forever was a step in the right direction, so I’m seriously disappointed after hearing all the previews for the album. I actually pre-ordered the album and spent money on this, can you imagine how livid I am? Uggh. The Tokyo song… I can’t…

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  20. I feel like everyone is saying this, but how many times can YG repeat the “I got money, I am a bad girl, I am a millionaire”. I found myself enjoying the overall flow of the raps, but the chorus just gives me a headache. The girls have great potential, but it just needs to be utilized with better lyrics and a more interesting production. Some more recent K-pop songs have done this, like STAYC’s “GPT” and aespa’s “Whiplash”.

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  27. I like reading reviews even when I disagree because it makes me think about music, which I love, in new ways, and makes me consider what others like about things I don’t. So here’s the perspective of someone who likes this song a lot. 

    I also got the exact opposite impression especially with the video–it seemed very tongue-in-cheek to me. Having their main vocalists rap seems not only like a flex but also just amusing, so the whole idea of this song to me seems to be yeah, flexing, but also just having fun and not taking everything too seriously. I’m kind of surprised people are taking it so seriously here?

    It’s the juxtaposition of the somewhat silly lyrics and over-the-top tough-girl acting, riding bicycles while rapping about Ferraris, rapping about being rich in front of signs that are literally for second-hand items for sale with vouchers, that makes it pretty clear that the disparities are there on purpose. It’s supposed to be over-the-top. To each their own, though, and admittedly I’m a lifelong hiphop fan so I’m more the audience for this. 

    I’m not going to argue the lyrics are masterful or groundbreaking or some great empowerment anthem with critically clever cultural commentary (not remotely), but they’re also not terrible by any standards. That people keep resorting moralistic “teenagers shouldn’t brag” takes or “money is capitalist which is bad” feels very… bad faith to me. And, for the latter at least, fair enough, capitalism is bad and so is materialism, but… I wish people could at least try to understand the point of the music and still be like “nah, does nothing for me and is a pet peeve.” Idk, I think Nick’s a better reviewer than resorting to lazy “bragging bad” moral posturing.

    I know hiphop clearly isn’t everyone’s thing, and people are more than entitled to dislike it and to dislike bragging, but I wish they’d maybe acknowledge why culturally, hiphop particularly focuses on that, because it’s not “got mine screw you,” it’s more the opposite–a response to “got mine screw you” privilege, like “you told me I wasn’t allowed to get any, but now I’ve got mine too.” And there are fair arguments about why this from well-off teens may seem inauthentic, but it’s also true that we don’t know their lives, and women in patriarchal societies have their own experiences of being told to sit down and be polite and be grateful for what you get instead of making their own way.

    I also realize this kind of sounds like I’m moralizing, and I don’t mean to, so maybe it’s the same here and no one’s got time for a million disclaimers. 

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      • I didn’t say that. I think it’s clear that’s not his favorite genre and that’s totally fine? Things are allowed to irritate us without being moral judgements. I don’t like certain kinds of pop music and that’s fine too. I read this blog for years now despite not agreeing at least half the time because they are thoughtful reviews that help me appreciate music I don’t even like, because I love music.

        My comment was more a gentle… suggestion? that it can be a bit… weird to see moral judgments weaving their way into reviews, and especially from white men who have a history of expressing dislike of bragging (fair enough) but often express it with particular derision when it comes to women of color doing so, which can feel distasteful. We’re allowed to point out that it feels uncomfortable to read that without raging about it or thinking it means the reviewer is some ignorant monster who doesn’t understand genius. And also many woc would possibly even agree with him because it’s not a monolith. This is just a comment from one woman that he and you and anyone is free to regard or to disregard. And just because I’m expressing discomfort doesn’t mean anything is inherently wrong either.

        The reviews on this blog are great for the most part even when I disagree. They’re well-articulated, thoughtful, and honest; this is just something I have noticed that I wish he would keep in mind, not to change his opinions but at least to consider how he’s expressing them. And if he does and decides that it’s full of hot air and wellll….’s “all up in their feelings, that’s too bad,” that’s fine too. 😉

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          • Let’s refrain from sweeping generalizations or over-exaggerations on both sides, please. I’m always open to criticism as long as it’s thoughtful and respectful. After all, if you can dish it you should be able to take it.

            This general sound is certainly a pet peeve of mine regardless of the performers’ gender (though not as many people tend to read the boy group reviews). Point taken, though! It’s been a rough month for this style and I tend to dogpile the more times I hear a type of song I find irritating/uninspired. My intent is never to be mean-spirited, but sometimes the exasperation may come across that way. I’ll continue to keep this in mind.

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            • thanks, and I hope I didn’t overgeneralize–not my intent! Also don’t think you ever intend to be mean-spirited.

              And thanks for writing so many reviews all the time; as said, I love reading them! 

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  29. I have had an aversion against ‘I’ m so hot and rich’ songs since I can remember. However, if the song is really good and the delivery very charismatic, it will win me over regardless.

    Thankfully (I suppose), this song is not good and the delivery is not really making it better. If you want to brag over a beat, at least make it fun.

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  30. Its like the producers chatGPT’d the first minutes and actually turned their brains on for the last part. BabyMonster would do well in a post brat club banger setting. If they could just flip the clichéd lyrics about money and fame, they’d have an instant club classic on their hands.

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    1. I feel bad for the girls (they’re all pretty and talented what did they do to deserve this)
    2. Wtf is YG doing
    3. I cannot stop cringing omg
    4. I do think the last part is good (starting around 2:05), but they lyrics still make me reach my hand into my ear and pull the eardrums out

    5/10 for me

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