Review

Song Review: ALLDAY PROJECT – Wicked

Posted on by 38 Comments

Newly-debuted co-ed group ALLDAY PROJECT released their single Famous a week ago to mixed reviews. Some loved its rhythmic, chorus-less approach while others found its sound dated and dull. I count myself in the latter group, though I’d gladly take a dozen Famous‘s over one Wicked.

At some point, a large swath of K-pop’s output became “lame boasts over lamer beats.” I’m not quite sure how we got here, but I wish artists would stop treating the industry like some battle royale where they constantly need to arrive with guns blazing, shouting about how awesome they are. There’s nothing more tiresome than hearing someone brag on and on about themselves, especially if you’ve already heard it so many times before. Songwriters need to get some new material because there are plenty of interesting topics to write about in this world.

Wicked feels more like a showcase than a song, forgoing traditional structure for a cypher-like assembly line of acerbic rap. The Brazilian funk production has promise except for the fact that we’ve heard it from so many other acts already. There’s nothing new, fresh or interesting about this. Instead, it feels like you could divide each verse of Wicked and build better songs around them. As brief moments of aggressive energy, they could be killer standouts. However, nearly three minutes of this (punctuated by a super-silly “Take a shot. Photoshoot!” hook) is just exhausting and self-indulgent.

Hooks 5
 Production 7
 Longevity 6
 Bias 6
 RATING 6

Grade: D-

38 thoughts on “Song Review: ALLDAY PROJECT – Wicked”

  3. Eh, the baile funk beat is lowkey fire, but the lyrics (and Tarzzan’s culture appropriation shenanigans…) are just 🥴 it could work as a OST for those Street Woman/Man Fighter series, but as a standalone single… no.

    6.25 (5, 8, 6, 6) for me

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  4. I got a jump scare because I did not expect that barrage of noise at me at the hour of morning I listened to this.

    Ah, there they are again, the rap triplets (viz the whole second verse).

    Is this really kpop? What is kpop these days, because it ain’t this. It’s like a pan-Asian restaurant, a little bit like everything and nothing like any of them.

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    • I had this gem come across my suggestions this morning, and it has the same meter as the part that starts at 1:24, in case anyone reading here thought that rhythm was novel.

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  5. I think the emergence of massive Blackpink popularity was the point where the bragadocious song quantity got out of control. It fit well with the girlboss / bossbitch culture at the time, but I think was a magic recipe only for that small period of time. But kpop being produced how it is has tried to replicate it for far too long. YG only kept finding what appears to be success because they are YG, and anything they release is guaranteed a bajillion hits. Not surprised to see Black Label taking that and trying to run with it. Especially with new groups it is pretty cringey. At least BP has reason to brag, they became a global sensation, and even they didn’t really start getting too bragalicious until their Born Pink album.

    Anyway, you are right about chopping this song up and instead trying to make a cohesive product with some of the better parts.

    7,4,7,7 = 6.25

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    • most K-pop now is cutesy minimalism garage house and y2k shit I want more mature and noisy concepts and sounds tyy (not saying they can’t suck and haven’t heard this song yet but I come to K-pop for maximalism and noise not boring cute music. Bad maximalism is funny whereas bad minimalism is just draining when you rate 800+ songs a year

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  8. One thing that confuses me about this group is the ‘project’ in the name, like does it mean that they are going to be a fixed group or that at some point they will be 2 separate groups?

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  9. i like how the kpop demon hunters ost, theblacklabel at least tried some variety with their song output. really says a lot when their ost songs are better than the actual main songs from their groups

    6.25/10 (6, 7, 6, 6) for me

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  10. Wicked feels more like a showcase than a song

    This sums up my thoughts. The presence of the members is the selling point of the track imo.

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  11. The cultural appropriation in this video is insane! Insane! Not only does one dude have cornrows, a man and a woman have blond hair! I can’t even! Who do they think they are, Scandinavians?

    Anyway, they could have done so many things with a mixed group and they decided to go this route.

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      • I’m not. I’m overexaggerating the nothingburgers some people love to get offended at, and also pointing out that they do it, let’s say, very selectively.

        I’m serious about the last part though.

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        • He’s doing a lot more than “just wearing cornrows”, my guy. If you were more “terminally online”, then you would see how he is quite literally trying to impersonate a black man. Pictures posing with chicken and waffles and everything.

          I get it. He’s not harming anyone, the internet isn’t real, he’s appreciating not appropriating, yada ya. But I imagine the industry running with this (moreso than they have already tried), just because mister Tarzan here has discovered the cheat code, and I see an entire industry fine with being openly racist and no longer wanting our support.

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  12. I would question who is actually listening to this, but sadly we’ve seen that songs like this always find an audience and the cycle continues. If someone genuinely enjoys this song then props to them, but I’m so tired of this, man. I don’t even have expectations and still I’m disappointed with songs like this at this point.

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    • and I’m tired of boring 5th gen y2k “fresh” watered down cutsy garage house fake afrobeats and shit. I’ll take bad girlcrush any day over average boring music. Haven’t heard this specific song yet, just kind of saying that I want more maximalism in K-pop badly and gnarly of all things made me realize that. Blackpink and f(x) were the first groups I was into. So yeah. I come to K-pop to escape the boring American music scene not to be bored. Clearly I’m not in the majority as most people would rather listen to the NJZ rip-off of the week but I’ll take dear God anything else.

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  15. ‘There’s nothing more tiresome than hearing someone brag on and on about themselves, especially if you’ve already heard it so many times before.’

    Worst thing about it is like, what do they have to brag about? Idol exploitation? Slave contracts? Cultural Appropriation? This doesn’t go for just Allday but a lot of groups gotta realise that they have nothing about themselves to rap about.

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  18. I’m so happy i found this site. it basically explains my opinions on almost every song from kpop that i listen.

    I was so interested in this group when it was announced… when i first listened to Famous i thought: “alright, it’s a lil bit experimental (for me) but nonertheless it’s listenable”. but Wicked came and dude… i feel that’s one of that songs that’s a skip on anyone’s playlist. it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, specially the lyrics (which i might say that it’s somehow cringe).

    they have hype, potencial and talent. i hope they don’t flop…

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