Review

Song Review: KiiiKiii – Debut Song

Posted on by 68 Comments

A week ago, Starship Entertainment’s new girl group KiiiKiii pre-released their first track I Do Me, prompting a lukewarm response from me and many others who wished the group wouldn’t play things so safe. Be careful what you wish for, I guess, because they’re back with another pre-release — ironically titled Debut Song.

I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered a song like this from a major label before. This is a tough one, because as far as I can tell, Debut Song isn’t meant to be taken seriously. Its garishness is a feature, not a bug. At least, I hope that’s the case. It feels like I’d be perpetuating the joke by giving it a poor rating, but the song is legitimately awful. On Debut Song, the world of internet memes and pop music have become intrinsically linked to the point where you can’t tell the difference. I guess the track is mildly funny the first time through, but like most memes it teeters into obnoxiousness the more it’s played.

Again, it feels silly to harp on the song’s annoying “Happy Birthday” interpolation, cheesy rap phrasing and “cake, cake, cake” hooks. This is clearly a marketing strategy to prompt attention, so I’ll play right into their hands and give it the terrible rating they’re looking for. However, it’s worth pointing out that a knowing, “wink wink” terrible is nowhere near as fun as an honest-to-god earnest terrible.

Hooks 2
 Production 4
 Longevity 3
 Bias 3
 RATING 3

Grade: F

68 thoughts on “Song Review: KiiiKiii – Debut Song”

  2. I was waiting for your review cause what the actual fuck is this song? 😭🥴 I had a feeling that you’d hate the song the moment the Happy Birthday interpolation came up, and I was right (though I didn’t expect a 3 rating and did giggle a bit).

    Novelty songs never translates to good (*ahem* Dance Monkey and Dame Tu Cosita), unless you add good melodies or good production to it instead of sticking to the gimmicks (Orange Caramel and Crayon Pop knew how to make silly songs good, and boy, do I miss them). This song has neither of that, and instead is stuck with plain hip-hop/trap beats with poor vocal effects to create a lethargic haze and sadly is overstuffed with gimmicks. And add a nursery song (Happy Birthday kinda is one, isn’t it?) to the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster.

    I don’t know what to rate a song that seems to be intentionally bad, but it’s a F grade for me as well (and look, Koong isn’t the only 3-rated song post-2022!)

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    • This reminds me of my dad hating APT. (he was playing his favourite when the song randomly popped up) cause he thought it was a nonsense song (mostly after I explained that it was partially based on a drinking game). I have a feeling he’ll think I need to get institutionalised if I played this song to him 😭

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  4. ”I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered a song like this from a major label before.”

    I mean, even Super Junior’s Joke leaned into the novelty side if that’s what you meant (except Joke was just an effortless, unfunny… joke and this one tries too hard as a meme song) (and ngl, this song also reminds me of Woke Up In Tokyo with how confidently terrible they sound, except WUIT is actually serious)

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  6. tbh i really fear for my music taste because the random flute noises have kind of captivated me. i found their other predebut song boring af but u truly can’t say the same for this song. the beautiful piano jazz notes contrast with the garish autotuned happy birthday to create a one of a kind song that has never been done before and hopefully will never be done again.

    hooks 6 (‘happy birthday to you’ is a catchy song! i will always think of kiiikiii now on my birthday, thank u girls)

    production 4

    longevity 10 (happy birthdayyyyy to youuuuuu)

    bias 8

    = 7

    (๑･̑◡･̑๑)

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  9. It seems that the production wanted to find a more allegorical way of showing their debut and ended up with this. In the end, it sounds like they’re paying homage to their debut… what a shame!

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  10. the rap is atrocious, the autotune out of control, I mean maybe I would tolerate it if it was some reality / doc moment to introduce the band. As a real track, NO!

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  12. This feels like a song that is done as a punishment in an in-house variety show but the problem is these girls have no content so it comes across as one, long, baffling inside joke that no one understands the point of and therefore has no reason to exist.

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  13. This was like a trainwreck that I had to finish to the end but I bitterly regret the time I spent unable to look away. I’m just going to slowly back away now and try to expunge this from my memory, but I fear I’m going to just burst out laughing every time I have to sing happy birthday to people IRL now…

    What on earth, by the way, is a “litchuasian”?

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    • I mean it’s awful but is it even a real song? Sounds like just messing around for a YouTube video, but then why make it like a proper MV with credits and everything? Odd choice as part of their first impression to us.

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  15. At this point they’re just sacrificing music quality for the concept. I definitely see how the song fits with their random/chronically online/weird concept but… WHY? And as you said, purposefully bad songs are never as funny as actually bad songs.

    Oh KiiiKiii, you will never be these divas…

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  16. i mean yeah this is horrible from a serious perspective but honestly i admire the fact that they had the gall to make smthn this unapologetically batshit. like this is troll music if ive ever heard it

    welp. hopefully their actual debut is. like. an actual Song

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    • it’s not even their real debut. Just a silly song to congratulate themselves on their debut. Can’t believe people took it seriously 😂

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  17. Nothing will beat NewJeans debut. KK was trying to do something similar, to grab our “Attention” with a unique/unexpected song but they legit just don’t have the clout or artistry to pull this genre off at all. I know exactly what they were trying to do (“I’m so quirky, Im cute but I have songs that make your ears bleed, look at me!!) but it just comes off so disingenuous, uninteresting, and plain cringe, especially coming from a big company like Starship or with the release of their other pre-debut song which is the complete opposite of this song. I feel like knowing that there’s corporate hands on this makes it even worse when their video and production looks so low-budget or small-indie-artist-vibez on purpose, it feels so evil like they’re playing us for fools or something lol. I genuinely love this genre of music and this song just makes the genre look like a joke that these companies can just capitalize on to make easy money and call it a day (I think that’s why I’m going nuts in this rant lol)

    There is weird music like this one that actually sound good/fun and make certain artists unique that I wish more people tuned into (ie. 100 gecs, KeroKeroBonito, Rico Nasty) but these girls do not give those vibes off at all especially knowing they most likely had no hand in its production. What a way to tarnish the girls’ reputation by trying to go the low hanging fruit way of causing a commotion. The least they could’ve done was make the song somewhat listenable. Their debut songs so far are a joke.

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    • are we jumping to conclusions now bcs they aren’t trying to compete with njz nor did they try to push their “concept” of looking cute but having unbearable music to be quirky, the pre release was just to promote the group by it’s odd production and auto tuned vocals, not taking itself seriously and also lemme just laugh one real second because 100 gecs, kkb and Rico nasty are all part of mainstream. I’m just confused about what you’re saying here

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      • I’m also just saying that it’s in such poor taste that a big company views this genre as a joke and decided it would be great to draw in viewers by making a purposefully bad song, and just make it an “aesthetic” for jokes. I mentioned those specific artists because the general public would view those artists (maybe moreso 100gecs) as jokes but they legitimately have a very dedicated fanbase that don’t view their music as jokes at all.

        Also, how are those artists even remotely mainstream lol. Are you basing that off of one viral song? They still aren’t considered mainstream. I mean them each having just 1 viral song from Tiktok or something just proves how “bad” songs can gain a lot of traction and interest to draw in more fans, but that’s also because that’s the type of music you can actually expect from those artists. Kiki is already so confusing with the “I DO ME” track which is such a basic pop song, that this kind of marketing formula just did not work out for them at all. Like what exactly is the vibe is this group going for? I guess we’ll see with the actual debut – but if it ends up being the most generic pop song I’ve ever heard then this whole group’s aesthetic and marketing was a cheap joke. Bait and switch lol.

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  18. Yeah, I don’t even know what to say. I associate the Happy Birthday melody with that awkward feeling of being sung at out of tune and not really knowing what to do with yourself while it happens, which doesn’t help.

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  20. Why is everyone in the comments being so serious? I don’t think they released this and expect people to take it seriously, it is clearly done as a joke in mind with all the vlog style footages. The way the song is called “debut song” also made as a joke because why you name the song a “Debut Song” when it’s not even the debut song? Take a joke I guess

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    • Why waste money on a joke? Who is supposed to laugh at this? Who is this supposed to win over? They don’t even have a solid fan base yet for this to not just read as embarrassing lol. And It’s not even that funny, it’s more cringe than anything really, just reinforces just how cringe K-pop is viewed online. I feel like you could tell if it was supposed to be funny, but this really felt like they’re trying so hard to fit in with the “quirky” crowd which is why its kind of in poor taste to begin with. If you compare this to the marketing, it was kinda like the aesthetic of this music video where it’s just random crazy stuff happening, but honestly the marketing was more successful and more intriguing and that was also not that serious. Why couldn’t the song do the same? It was such a let down. You can do a joke song and still try to make it decent. This was a waste of everyone’s time and money.

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      • tbh just thinking about how many higher ups had to sign off on this and how kpop is a hyper commercialised product makes me cringe even more….. if these girls wrote this themselves and decided to be adventurous then it would be one thing but i doubt that was the case 😭

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      • I feel like this song exists as some sort of viral marketing attempt? I mean, even X:IN’s My Idol exists for the same thing, except in X:IN’s defense, they are nugus from a very small company, so they may need that viral moment + their A&R’s probably not as strict as compared to bigger companies like Starship. This is just disappointing and baffling given Starship’s a decent mid-tier company who has a strong legacy given they housed girl groups like Sistar, WJSN and IVE. And as you said, a joke song can still be good, which as I mentioned in a comment, Orange Caramel, Crayon Pop and to a very small extent, Young Posse, did best. This song just tries too hard to appear quirky, but fails horribly.

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        • “This song just tries too hard to appear quirky, but fails horribly.” have we forgot that that they intended for this to be horrible and it was for promoting purposes

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      • i feel like anyone with a brain can say this song was purposefully made bad and the song had a purpose to draw in new fans who think that their mixed media/internet humor concept is interesting

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        • Well the song is definitely not interesting. I was genuinely disappointed too because the concept and MV itself was alright but why not just deliver the full package? What a waste.

          Cheap joke for shts and giggles. Wow. Riveting. Thanks Starship. Next thing you know, their debut song sounds like the most generic and basic pop song you’ve ever heard. They already dropped I DO ME. So, what’s next?

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    • I’m fully willing to laugh at a joke if the joke is funny, but I don’t think it’s out of place to discuss why a joke didn’t land. This song feels more like failed performance art.

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  21. The best part of listening to the song was waiting for the “sike!” But it never came and I rushed to see what score you gave it. I thought it’d be in the 4s honestly, but 3 is what it deserves. I’m glad it’s not their debut because I wouldn’t listen to them anymore

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  22. Also I love that last line. Bad music, bad movies, bad books are best when there’s an earnest attempt by the (often delusional) creator(s) to make something good and they just failed. Trying to be bad will never give the same results

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  24. Oh my God, I can’t believe Eternity now has actual human competition for worst-rated song of this blog. Crying visible tears. Young, Dumb, Stupid by NMIXX I am so sorry I ever mocked your nursery rhyme interpolations.

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  25. There’s something about this that seems distasteful. I’m someone who really overthinks the K-pop industry and its overt ties to exploitation and consumerism, so when I heard this song I just thought ‘they want the polarised reactions right?’ I guess the team’s thinking all publicity is good publicity? Who knows.

    There’s a comment comparing Debut song a to Babymonster song (I’m too lazy to look back on which one it is sorry) which musically I heavily understand but the difference is because Ive has such a tight grip on South Korea and K-pop fans along with having pre-debut history, Babymonster is the same but they also have YG which means company stans, Kii Kii has a smaller margin of error when it comes to producing their music. They need their music to be ‘good,’ in this case commercially viable and sufficient enough (which I do me did). I don’t know why the team would choose to produce a song that may render some of their target audience away from the Kii Kii.

    At least their debut will be better.

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    • Right, IVE’s saving grace (at least around debut era) is that they have Yujin and Wonyoung, so they already had a dedicated fanbase from the start, so noise marketing like what Starship’s doing with this group wouldn’t be feasible (and besides, if IVE released something like this, it’ll prolly get defended more). KiiiKiii, on the other hand, has members with little to no prior experience in the industry, so they don’t have the already established fanbase from the start. I Do Me was decent, though not enough to get potential fans intrigued, so from a marketing perspective, they needed a song that would be so polarizing, so “what the fuck did I just listen to??”, that it would cause a huge discourse among the the targeted market which is us, the mainstream K-Pop fandom, and from what I’ve seen so far, this song succeeded at causing a huge discourse among people cause I’ve seen people talk about this more than I Do Me (and I will admit I didn’t check I Do Me entirely until after listening to this).

      In the end, I hope Starship’s playing the expectations game and besides, it’s just a pre-debut song so there’s hope methinks.

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      • Fully agree. Kii Kii do have time and the resources for that time to be a few years. If Cravity (god bless) can artistically crawl out of their hole Kii Kii can too, they just need the right execution.

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  28. I’m very curious about the strategy behind this song. Like what exactly do the starship corporate people think this will accomplish for the group? Is it the “all press is good press” idea? Or maybe they think this has viral potential? Would a tik tokker turn this into a trend? I’m not sure, but I wish I knew! Because yeah, this was pretty bad! Maybe the idea is that it’s bad and goofy and chronically online gen z kids love that kind of stuff. Like they’ll see this and think kiiikiii are so real and “unserious” for this. Honestly that’s probably it.

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  29. Agree about the waste of time and money.

    There is plenty of good quirky kitsch in kpop. How about “Banana Allergy Monkey” from Oh My Girl subgroup, which was briefly the highest selling Hanteo chart #1 ever, and over 2.7 Billion sales.

    … … … because an enterprising person hacked into the system just to tweak the numbers. THAT is how to know people are in on the joke, when someone with too much time does that. They called it a “glitch”. Was not a glitch.

    https://www.allkpop.com/article/2019/11/netizens-lol-at-funny-hanteo-chart-glitch-making-oh-my-girls-banana-allergy-monkey-selling-over-2-billion-copies

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  31. I don’t think this is a good decision, but I am ready to give them props for breaking the trend of solid 7-level easy listening bridgeless 2:30 or under tracks. At least I laughed. And it does show Starship is willing to take risks I guess. I am baffled but also intrigued.

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  33. I didn’t think anyone would actually take this song seriously. I just thought it was a fun and silly song for the girls to do just to enjoy it. Personally I think it’s nice to see them have fun with silly non serious music like this

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    • The thing I’m also wondering about is… Did they enjoy it? It’s not like kpop artists get that much of a say in their songs and concepts, so these girls might have just gotten that dropped on them by the company and had to pretend to be into it for the music video.

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  34. I didn’t think anyone would actually take this song seriously. I just thought it was a fun and silly song for the girls to do just to enjoy it. Personally I think it’s nice to see them have fun with silly non serious music like this

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  35. I will say it is better than Woke Up in Tokyo purely because this song is a joke and from what I can tell Woke Up in Tokyo is not a joke… I will say based on the marketing of the group I was expecting weirdness… I don’t know if I was expecting them to be this weird though because kpop historically doesn’t do well with fun songs, but those songs I usually enjoy… this one just feels a little bit too weird even for me

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  36. ohmygod, wtf was this song 😭

    anyways nick i think there’s a new placement for your top 10 worst reviewed songs…

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