Stray Kids almost always follow up their title tracks with additional videos, but this time they’ve designated Divine (신선놀음) as a double title track, complimenting the relatively subdued Do It that premiered alongside the mixtape. I’ve seen quite a few fans say they prefer this one, and it certainly leaves more of an impression.
Where Do It mined Latin grooves, Divine finds its footing in old-school hip-hop. This is very well-tread territory, not only for Stray Kids but for K-pop in general. It takes quite a bit of creativity to make the sound feel fresh in 2025, and Divine mostly sticks to expectations. I hear some cool synths here and there that remind me of Dr. Dre’s second wave of late 90s success, while the percussion hits with a more primal force.
While the song doesn’t excite me in the way the group’s best music does, I definitely prefer it to Do It. The hooks don’t feel gimmicky (intro aside…) and the mix of rap and vocals compliment each other well. The shouty chorus comes across as powerful rather than whiny and the verses strut rather than clobber you over the head. The track could use a more galvanizing finale, as the autotuned vocals don’t send it off on the high I’d hope for, but as a mixtape track I think this works pretty well.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The chorus is a bit monotonous but I really like the rap verses, the MV is amazing and they all look really hot, so that’s a win for me
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skz gets an 8 rating after forever! 🎉
this is a well-deserved 8, definitely prefer it over Do It. This one sounds a lot more like the Stray Kids we all know and love
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Sweet lord – Seungmin’s opening salvo. That definitely put me in the right frame of mind. This is the first Stray Kids song I’ve added to my playlist in a while (outside the recent solos, which I thought were great).
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Omg same… if I could get a whole song like his first lines I would die happy (any recs?)
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Please try to really promote this idea within the fandom to help raise awareness of the minority opinion. These days, they’re still mostly focusing on catering to the majority, rather than making decisions on their own.
Btw, there aren’t more suggestions, especially since I can’t think of any recent works that highlight powerful vocals from them!
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Omg same… if I could get a whole song like his first lines I would die happy (any recs?)
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While the entire song isn’t like that, Max Changmin’s Chocolate has a pretty strong vocal opening too!
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Max Changmin’s got that soulful vibe in Devil. Seungmin needs a chance to flex that vocal style, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard him do so. Besides Changmin, the only vocalist I can think of who plays around with that sound is Woodz.
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i can’t tell if u like the intro or not lol (personally i love it)
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Suffice it to say he doesn’t care for “all you need is love dreams and stray kids” and I don’t either lol. Song is good tho
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ha, i thought he meant seungmin’s intro :’). bc if it’s just abt that sentence then i lowkey agree lol
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No, it’s the sentence. It’s stuff like this that turns me off the group. It’s trying so hard to be clever but just lands with a thud.
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lands like a thud for who exactly lmao? old boring boomers like you who love to put fun things down. it’s okay for you to not personally vibe with something but to have to say some kind of pretentious line like “it’s trying too hard to be clever,” “lands like a thud,” etc to make it sound like there’s something objectively wrong or cringe about it is so unnecessary. if you’re so turned off the group maybe stop writing reviews on them since it clearly pains you to say anything positive about their music anymore without needing to throw jabs at them as well. you’re not doing any favors to anyone except skz antis by writing the reviews you do, trust me we don’t have any more fun reading them than you clearly do writing them.
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Stop camping here if you hate it so much just go back to your bubble where you don’t have to hear anyone criticizing your favorite artist. What about this is so difficult for you? Is someone tying you down and forcing you to read this blog? Is something wrong????
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Then stop reading them?
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Who’s we? You don’t speak for us, asshole! Get out and never come back!
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head back to your echo chamber lmao. There are things like criticizing this blog for a valid point and then there are these comments made by people who can’t handle the fact that not every artist is perfect and sometimes we all make mistakes.
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yeah lol, i love skz but it’s a slightly cringy line start that turned me off the mashup immediately, though it doesn’t impact the song too much
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Seungmintro is jjang 👍
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haha I hate it
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glad to see skz finally getting a 8 rating hahaha! longtime stay and i love skz old-school hip-hop-type songs (i’m OBSESSED with last yr’s walkin on water), i just don’t know what it is about this specific song that didn’t quite hit for me. i love bits and pieces of it and i love the overall concept so much but i think it’s the rap verses don’t quite click for me, the chorus is growing on me though 🤞 of the two title tracks, i definitely prefer do it (easy 10/10 for me) which makes me feel like a bit of a fake stay cuz everyone else seems to like divine better ahahah but i appreciate divine sm and love the mv, always a sucker for mv’s that incorporate traditional korean culture like thunderous did!
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Glad they’re going with double title tracks for this one. Clears Do It and Walking on Water and even Ceremony. It does have that distinct skz sound down to the goofy sound effects. Love/hate it when Chan busts out the royalty free soundboard. 8 is about right, maybe 8.25 depending how it grows on me. I agree that the ending is fun but could have hit harder.
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I will give this one thing, it does not fully sink in line with the worst that current day SKZ has offered. This is still not up to par with their older works. I do not like that chorus, and I’m fine with that being a hot take. This isn’t HIP HIP HOORAY bizarre, but the loud chanting and tonally irritating ‘we make it right’ combo is not a fun thing to listen to as the chorus (prechorus it wasn’t bad, and then it continued).
6 (5,7,6,6) Longevity takes a hit for the fact that they’ve just been having an unceasing output as of late and it’s only harmed everything they put out in my opinion. And yeah this rating is harsh because as someone who’s enjoyed everything up to and including S-Class, there is something off now. It feels like whenever any idol group reaches a threshold of fame/success, it brings a level of complacency too, they’re not the first and only ones.
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After a week since Do It’s release, here is my personal ranking of the songs.
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Haha what the heck happened to SKZ.
This is so boring that I don’t have the words for it.
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Many fans who attended the pre-listening party appeared to enjoy this song even more, and it received more votes than song Do it. This outcome surprised all of them quite a bit. It seems that the group’s musical talent is on the verge of being underestimated, as their seemingly impressive circumstances may not be as favorable as they appear.
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Well, I think it actually has a lot of goodies in it. Some of them recycled from their own old songs, but at least there are goodies.
I am also OK in principal with the opening salvo. It was my favorite part in “Hall of Fame”. This song here is to some extent Hall of Fame 2.0.
I am going to give this one low 8’s or something.
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Off-topic – Nick, perhaps there is some way to have a delay on wordpress for new logins posting? The drive-by snark by one-and-done posters thing. I am dreading the upcoming comeback this spring by a certain boy band. It will be like Buc-ees off of I95 on the Sunday-after-Thanksgiving midday drive home = a mess, which was both an experience and opportunity and great mistake.
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Will this flop group ever stop overusing autotune?
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like I said for my overall thoughts for the mixtape, this song is good but nowhere near close to do it and holiday. Still fun though
8.5/10 (8, 8, 8, 10) for me
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