Review

Song Review: CORTIS – FaSHioN

Posted on by 97 Comments

Given Big Hit’s track record, my expectations for new boy group CORTIS were high. Sadly, I haven’t been able to connect with any of their pre-release material. If I ignore the English lyrics of What You Want I can almost appreciate its 90s stoner rock pastiche, but songs like GO! leave me completely cold. Now, the guys are back with title track FaSHioN alongside their debut album and I think it’s simply time for me to admit defeat.

I am far from being part of Gen Z (MZ?), so maybe we’ve reached the point where age becomes an immovable wall between me and a track like FaSHioN. Speaking purely from my perspective, I don’t see the appeal of this song at all. It’s repetitive, sonically ugly and slathered in godawful vocal effects. Its melodic range is flat, its percussion is tinny and monotonous and the performance feels like it’s trying so hard to convince listeners of CORTIS’s badassery. (And, hasn’t ENHYPEN already recorded this song several times over?)

If you enjoy FaSHioN, you might be better off not reading this review at all. And if CORTIS continue down this musical path, future reviews might also be difficult. I try to be as open-minded as I can but everyone has their kryptonite and I find this to be the cheesiest, most sophomoric debut roll-out I’ve ever seen for a major K-pop artist. The empathetic side of me wants to praise FaSHioN for its unrelenting apocalyptic energy. In fact, much of my beloved Gen 1 H.O.T and Shinhwa songs were built upon a similar sense of impending doom.  However, those were better and more fully-formed songs with interesting commentary and diverse sound palettes. God help us (ie: me) if the sound of FaSHioN somehow catches fire and becomes the norm for the industry.

Hooks 4
 Production 4
 Longevity 4
 Bias 1
 RATING 3.25

Grade: F

97 thoughts on “Song Review: CORTIS – FaSHioN”

    • Anyways, I FUCKING CACKLED AT THE 1 FOR BIAS AFTER THE SPAMMED 4S 😭😭 but well, I’d say it’s deserved.

      The trap production reminds me of the production of xikers’ Breathe, except they made it even more suffocating and claustrophobic with the vocal effects and overstuffed arrangement. Like Breathe, it also heavily leans into gimmicks, but I’d say Breathe was more tolerable and nowhere as bad as… this. This one tries too hard and ends up being a massive headache. Not something I’d recommend listening after spending a full day at college from 9 to 5.

      3.5 (4, 4, 4, 2) for me. P.S, as a Gen Z (2006 liner), I feel offended at you implying this crap would appeal to me

      Liked by 4 people

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  3. I actually dont mind the song but I need Bigshit to explain how on earth a song like this deserves to be 3 minutes long and Beautiful Strangers (txt) deserves to be 2 minutes long.?

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  4. I’m not crazy about the whole mumble trap subgenre but, given that’s what this is, I think it’s an excellent example. It flows well. It fits together well with their other singles. I like the scampish tone of all of them. This one is a bit flat but I found the other 2 quite unique for k-hip-hop actually. I hear a lot of indie k-hiphop like this that just comes across obnoxious and lazy to me, but this doesn’t. I appreciate not hearing any vulgar or cringe lyrics either. Here’s what I picked up on:

    I call it fashion fashion Fushun fusho fushun
    Caught me looking fresh
    Famous
    My toast
    Wuzzup
    Fo’ sho’, fashion
    Feel like rockstar
    Moshpit

    I emerge unscathed from these! The rest was unintelligible or in Korean, just how I like it!

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    • Funnily enough I also struggle to understand whatever the Western artists of this genre are rapping about/saying. Like I listen to a Playboi Carti song and I have to look up the lyrics every time, I wouldn’t be able to get a single thing without that.

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  5. ok i have Many thoughts abt this + the cortis project as a whole that ill probably talk abt later but all ill say rn is Jfc this is the most painfully blatant travis scott cosplay ive ever heard in my life

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  9. As always with these types of songs, I’ve gotten more value and entertainment from reading this review than from putting my ears throw this plight.
    All I have to say is that, we need to bring back struggle. I imagine things would be slightly different if you have to actually release competent music to stay afloat, instead of riding in the coattails of the popularity and resources of your company.

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  10. “I blame the seagulls” – actual quote from darling daughter this morning, taken out of the original context but somehow works here.

    I have heard that the current generation no longer calls themselves Gen Z or Millennials, but something else. But here is the thing, you can’t label movements until they actually move along. Kpop gen labels seem to be accelerating, as if every five years needs a new label just because time has passed. But what does not accelerate in time is timing homages correctly. Sounding like this is too soon to sound like this again. To misquote another song, you’re so two thousand and late.

    … moving on …

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  11. When Hollywood action movies write a Gangnam club sequence or want a badass track that can soundtrack a sleek hotel bar moment that turns into a fight scene. That’s the song.
    Fast&Furious: Seoul Drift.

    In that sense it works.

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  12. Well this seems more aimed at the US and specifically Travis’ demographics/fandom, so it might pick some of those. Not me, I’m afraid.

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        • Just because it’s not your style or to your taste level doesn’t mean disbandment or training is warranted. Some people who are into this genre actually like this comeback so I doubt they’re going anywhere.

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          • Ahh I guess I was a negative person! I’m really sorry I really shouldn’t have said that. And yes, it isn’t their choice to release this kind of music. After all, I shouldn’t be too self-centred since this type of music can appeal to others as well. Again, I sincerely apologise 🙏

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    • why the hell did it remove some of the words 😭

      my whole comment was supposed to be

      I didn’t listen to this because I heard the preview and already knew that I’d hate it, just like their last two songs 🤣

      Liked by 1 person

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  16. “My tee, five bucks, my pants, 10,000 won
    My vision, billions, trillions like Bezos”

    My humble opinion is that a group debuting in Bighit, as it is now, shouldn’t lead with this. Is their tee really worth five bucks? I know idols are not rich at all at the beginning of their career, even idols from big companies, but come on now. The MV looks pretty high budget to me. You can’t make these lyrics work with this MV. Something doesn’t add up. If you want to lead with being poor and defiant, you need a MV to back this up, and a backround to back this up. Bighit has done this in the past. They should know how this is done. There was a time where Bighit released MVs where the entire production didn’t cost more than 5 bucks. That’s how this particular concept is done. But to do this, you need to actually be a company that has 5 bucks to spend on a MV. Bighit right now is not that company.

    “I mean I’m on a plane, finished the album in LA, came back looking fly, back on my swag”

    You can’t go to LA and back looking fly if you can only spend 5 bucks on a tee. I know it because I went to NYC in june and I’m in still in debt, and I didn’t even buy a single piece of clothing.

    “Dongmyo’s where we gather, like a seminar
    Hongdae’s where we gathеr, we set it off
    To the hеart of Cheongdam-dong, spreading out”

    Okay so why not leave all this cool frozen landscape and go to Dongmyo and Hongdae and shoot the MV there? That would have been cool. That would have meant *something*.

    I hesitated before posting this comment because I don’t normally comment on lyrics and because as a rule Hybe groups get way more criticism than other groups coming from huge kpop companies. And also generally speaking I don’t like commenting about something I simply hate, especially when it’s about a group that just debuted. They are really really young, they have undoubtedly trained a lot and they get a lot of exposure which entails a risk, and I respect that. But this is bad. Okay the music is about taste, I guess some people like this kind of Travis Scott trap, whatever. But the lyrics are so vain and empty and self aggrandizing that they made me mad. I am so not interested in listening to a group of 18 year olds talking about where they get their clothes for 3 minutes. Especially when they put a price tag on their “vision” using Bezos’ fortune as a metric. I just don’t care. Of course, I will add that I would have been wayy more lenient with cringe braggy lyrics if the music was good, I love a lot of braggy songs. But there is a right way and a wrong way for everything.

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  20. What You Want is the title track, not Fashion. They just decided to put out What You Want early before the EP’s release today. This whole rollout has been very confusing.

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  21. I think it’s not only the age factor that might be a reason why you (and many older K-pop listeners dislike this song and CORTIS’ output). It also has to do with musical preferences, and I feel that for people mainly enjoy pop and its subgenres, this is not gonna click.

    I’ve seen they’ve gotten a pretty negative reception, but I actually respect their commitment to this sound. I enjoy hip-hop and the rage sub-genre has also been something I consistenly listen to on a daily basis. In my opinion, they’ve also done a good job at giving their own spin to the source material that’s likely inspiring them (probably Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert or Playboi Carti).

    To me, it sounds consistent and it seems that Martin and James have really studied the production and sonic details that have inspired their work. I’m not completly sold on them, but I’m interested in what they’re doing.

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    • Yep, that’s exactly why the “bias” rating is much lower than the others 😅

      I could conceivably see why others might like this but it is aggressively not for me.

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  22. new bias list rating combination everyone!!!

    also u should’ve seen my face when i listened to this song, why the fuck are we bringing mumble rap back in the year of 2025

    Liked by 4 people

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  24. Yes, finally some of that hate I was asking for, Nick! 😉

    Seriously, though, I think this kind of music will always have its place among people for times of frustration and aggravation, I used to listen to stuff similar to this in my teens. I kind of still like it, but thankfully enough doesn’t have the mood for it as often as I used to.

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    • You see the problem? Maybe you were defending æspa’s Rich Man because you’re in that mood currently, then later you will despise it.

      I often disagree with Nick’s reviews and users comment on songs/groups i love, but i know many of them are kpop listeners for a long time actually. They have way more perspective than i am.

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  26. This is new, so maybe it just needs time to grow on me. However I’m really not a fan as of right now.

    “What You Want’ was listenable. “GO” was crossing that line. I feel like this release jumped over it and didn’t look back. This is partly because of the lyrics (I don’t think you can have 10,000 won pants and talk about flying to LA – then talk immediately about a 5 dollar tee?) and partly because of the production.

    Look, I’m not a hater. Joyride is probably my favorite off of the album, and it’s not bad at all! The songs that they’re choosing to promote though…

    For now, I’ll stick with Crown.

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    • I’m becoming very aware of that, which just means I’ll need to decide how to write about them going forward if they continue this sound.

      With that said, it’s definitely possible to make a much better and more interesting trap rap track than this, even if it’s not to my taste.

      Liked by 4 people

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  29. I have two contrasting arguments in my head about this song.

    The first is that I fully understand if people do like it, the beat is bouncy, the hook is catchy albeit simple. I’m not going to rain on anyone’s parade if they like this, hell I like go.

    The second, and probably the biggest criticism I have for a group like Cortis right now, is that musically they don’t sound like K-pop, as in what makes K-pop idol pop to begin with. Use as much trap and rap influence as you want, there’s still gotta be something about the song that makes it special, a push of a button to include some of that K-pop magic.

    Which gets me thinking that the worst part about Cortis is the fact they’re meant to be K-pop in the first place. I feel like I’d respect them more and have a feeling they’d be better under a hip-hop or an independent label. Not to segregate the two genres, but to let them breathe more. The members can easily do the same as they are now without the industry, corporations, and fandom staring them down.
    Anyways that’s my two cents, song’s fine.

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  30. So after hearing 3 songs by these kids I’m convinced someone in their camp is pretty much just copying the sound of a group called, Owave.

    This sound is not original and pretty redundant and at times lifeless. Not sure what Bighit was thinking cause this ain’t it.

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    • I kinda see *why* BigHit would tap into this genre specifically in the kpop realm as there’s not a lot of groups who base their whole sound on this. But with that being said it feels so inauthentic that it hurrrrrts. I don’t doubt that these boys are artists who are involved with their music but kpop is already so manufactured and trying to push this Carti/ASAP Rocky vibe in an environment like that gives me cognitive dissonance

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  31. Few random thoughts to share:

    “unrelenting apocalyptic energy” – Ahh yes! One of my favorite subniche in kpop, the apocalyptic songs. Those ones I find to have the most longevity.

    “God help us (ie: me) if the sound of FaSHioN somehow catches fire and becomes the norm for the industry” – Please please PLEASE NO. I find this more listenable than GO! and I prefer WYW to be the superior track during this debut run. But I’ll take “noise music” over this all day any day. Tbh, I don’t think the manufactured-ness of kpop fits a group like CORTIS. Their material and vibe would feel more authentic and less cringey from an independent or hip hop label as you mentioned.

    “hasn’t ENHYPEN already recorded this song several times over?” – as an Engene I thought the exact same thing. I could even hear the members voices at some parts

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  35. I knew all Cortis’s concept it’s all you hate about music lol. As you said, the generational breach got you. I love this song so much because I’m gen Z and I am into hip hop, so for tastes, colors.

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    • I’m Gen Z and I hate it. It’s a generic song. For a concept all about creating something new and “coloring outside the lines” it’s so uninspired and overdone. I can name 100 other songs that sound just like this made in the past 5 years.

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      • I didn’t want to say that all gen Z would like this song. But it’s a good way to say why Nick doesn’t like this song. I suppose he is a old millennial. And yea, it’s generic, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s catchy and has much energy, and most of this type of songs, matter these qualities over others so only remain to see how they will develop themselves

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  36. Finally someone said what i felt, if this were a group from a small company they wouldnt get to do a song like that at all, the bos train hard to be where they are right now so applause to that but they are at a place where almost everyone want to be and their sound is this “thing”? if it was a bside for both go and fashion then sure but using that much budget and all and as a prerelease????, well i will still check their comeback first, they might be just doing this for the clout first who knows

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  37. Wasn’t nearly as bad as yall made it out to be. I started bopping along. Super repetitive but they got the vibe right. I need more material to develop an opinion on them.

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  38. The MV is 🔥🔥 tho, lyrics are what you would expect 20-yr olds cosplaying Travis Scott to write…

    But I agree the MV doesn’t fit the vibe of the song it’s giving SM levels of clean and polished. “I may look rich but I’m wearing cheap clothes also I am actually rich” is a confusing flex… Like the reassurance that you are indeed a high-flyer kind of takes away from the message.

    I get the contrast they were going for but it gets lost in the very k-pop core MV production.

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  39. this song is just FE!N rip-off, even the instrumental is similar….. same thing goes with GO!, took too much inspiration from FE!N fr, it’s getting annoying

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