Starship Entertainment is having a busy year, first debuting new girl group KiiiKiii and now new boy group IDID. IDID won’t have their official debut until September, but like so many other rookies they’re testing the waters with a pre-debut track.

It’s a horrible feeling to be very excited about something only to have that excitement lessened with each new piece of information you learn about it. From the genre description to production credits to miniscule running time, each droplet of info about Step It Up made me more skeptical of a project I think has so much potential. With expectations cratered to sub-zero, I’m pleased that Step It Up is a decent shot of idol hip-hop. At least the guys aren’t shouting and chanting incessantly. In fact, the track boasts unexpected flourishes of jazzy instrumentation that are far more engaging than the rote trap beats and gurgling bass we’ve heard so much of over the past few years.

Step It Up feels underdeveloped and incomplete, which is to be expected from a running time of just over two minutes. This gives it the air of a pre-debut performance piece rather than a fully-fleshed out song. As such, I’m hoping this will be IDID’s Siren ahead of their eventual Get A Guitar. If I couch Step It Up within that framework, the song makes a decent enough teaser and offers glimpses of promising vocals. However, I need Starship to give these guys a production team and sound unique to them because we’ve heard this all before and the market is too saturated for more of the same exact thing.

Grade: C