Review

Song Review: KIIRAS – Kill Ma Bo$$

Posted on by 26 Comments

It’s an uphill battle for new acts from small-to-medium sized agencies, requiring most to deliver eye-raising material that seizes the K-pop conversation. Rather than focus on legitimately great music, many of these smaller acts opt for gimmicks or — more recently — bold statements designed to grab listeners’ attention. The title of KIIRAS’s pre-release certainly fits in the latter category.

In classic K-pop fashion, I’m not sure anyone involved in this song appreciates what “Kill Ma Bo$$” actually entails, as the lyrics are a bunch of gobbledygook. Some samples:

“Kill ma boss
Yeah, I know you really into me right now
Are you ready to beat my heart?

Just kill ma boss, ooh (Kill ma)
Killn’ me, killin’ me, 좀 더 carry on, carry on (Carry on)
Kill ma boss, ooh (Kill ma)
Killin’ you, killin’ you, I’ve just taken your mind (Yeah, take you mind)
찌릿찌릿해, tic-it-tic-it, bang
Cheeky, cheeky, pow, take you, take you down (Wanna take you down)
I’m tryna kill ma boss”

So… yeah. This is all tied to a strange instrumental that’s a mix between country hoedown and typical clattertrap K-pop non-chorus, performed by a group whose youngest member is (checks notes) thirteen (!). I’m not sure someone that young should even have a boss, let alone fantasize about killing them. The song’s best moment is definitely the melodic pre-chorus where it goes full-on country and delivers a great sense of build. The girls give a confident performance that showcases tons of potential and I wish Kill Ma Bo$$ found a better way to harness that. When the song is good, it’s kind of awesome. But when it’s bad, it’s really quite obnoxious.

In the end, Kill Ma Bo$$ succeeds in its biggest mission. It successfully captures attention. For their follow-ups, I’d love to see KIIRAS lean into their strengths and see how far they can take this country sound with more melodically rich material.

Hooks 6
 Production 8
 Longevity 8
 Bias 8
 RATING 7.5

Grade: C

26 thoughts on “Song Review: KIIRAS – Kill Ma Bo$$”

  1. ”I’m not sure someone that young should even have a boss, let alone fantasize about killing them.” Welcome to the entertainment industry, Nick, that thrives on exploiting kids since as long as centuries! (Well, dk about fantasizing about killing them though)

    Anyways, I like the country/dance fusion of the production, but damn, is the chorus a downer. It has potential, yet also sounds too… juvenile-like. Hope they get stronger material in the future.

    7 (6, 8, 7, 7) for me.

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  2. Really impressed by their vocals here. I like this a lot. If the 1:17 part where it speeds up were fleshed out and that was the chorus, this would be a knockout. But even with the kill ma boss chorus, this is a strong debut for me.

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  3. It was a bit of a chore to listen all the way through. The maximallist, more is more, combining kpop with moments of electropop wisps of country and twelve other things. Just trying out too many things, too many flairs.

    Somehow it still hands together as an entity known as “song”, but not one I will return to.

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  7. “I’m not sure someone that young should even have a boss, let alone fantasize about killing them” I wheezed so hard I spilled my coffee on my keyboard

    Liked by 5 people

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  8. The lyrics are stupid. But with that out of the way, I like it!

    It’s not perfect, and the chorus is a little clunky, but most importantly it is its own thing while still sounding kpop. If there were more country crossovers this may not make the cut, but for now, it’ll sit a few pegs behind Bad News by Kiss of Life and Run For Roses by Nmixx in my country influenced kpop track list, if that existed.

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  9. Next comeback — “Hang the Landlord”
    It’s fine it drags a little bit towards the end but hey, at lest it’s 3:30. An epic by today’s standards.

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  10. Given how the chorus sounds, lyrics should have been

    Let’s kill ma bo$$Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahRum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum

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  15. This song changed my life and now my pronouns are yee/haw

    Jokes aside, I’m just utterly baffled by the creative choices they took, I guess this song is just not for me so I won’t give this a score (I can’t even put myself to finish the song tbh)

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  16. I tried singing the lyric snippet Nick posted before hitting play and it was actually pretty close lol.

    Idk. I think this is actually a fine modern country song. Unfortunately, that’s not what I’m looking for at this time.

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  17. I’m gonna be honest, I really love this song, the first couple of seconds I was like “hmm, will I like this song?” Because of the countryside type of concept and sound but the second the first verse started I was hooked icl, but the pre-chorus is a little annoying and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the song iykwim.. and it’s also a little too long the pre-chorus, also the vocals are INSANE so so good but other than that I love it and will be streaming also yayyy lingling debut!!!

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