We seem to be in K-pop’s era of “rage hip-hop,” as the genre has slowly entrenched itself within idol releases. So far, this has largely been limited to a boy group phenomenon, but it makes sense that an act like Young Posse would give it a try. After all, they’ve covered many hip-hop sub-genres already.
As I mentioned when writing about releases from ENHYPEN, RIIZE and CORTIS, this is a difficult one for me. I’m not sure I’ll ever enjoy anything about this genre, as I find the sound claustrophobic, unpleasant and lacking any real melodic heft. To Visa‘s credit, the production adds shimmering synths as a sonic counterpoint, giving the track an almost hyperpop appeal. However, this is the only element I enjoy within its combative brew.
Others may disagree, but I find Visa borderline unlistenable. There’s not a single moment during this song that I actively want to hear. The vocals are shellacked in ugly filters from start to finish. The rapping feels more like sing-shouting most of the time, following a predictable flow that brings nothing new to the table. And when it comes to “raging,” the beat isn’t even hard enough to blow off any aggression. I honestly can’t picture a setting where I’d put this on. In short, I’m bewildered — but not in a fun way. I’m sure there are some listeners who will go to bat for Visa simply because it’s different. I guess when it comes to pop music, I’m just a bit more basic than that.
| Hooks | 3 |
| Production | 5 |
| Longevity | 3 |
| Bias | 2 |
| RATING | 3.25 |
Grade: F
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Jan’s not over yet, it’s already a mid, sparse month and we already got a 3 rating. Sigh, someone fucking nuke the portal CORTIS opened, PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
4.75 (5, 5, 5, 4) for me.
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Atp, I doubt we’re gonna get that “Revisiting lowest rated kpop songs” part 2 cause it seems like we’re getting 3.75- rated songs every year with no breaks 😭
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If you’re talking about the portal for groups that go brazenly mask off with cultural appropriation (over the past 2 years), it was Young Posse that really started that period. I say this as someone who does like some of their songs (oddly enough including this one), but I do have to admit it was debuts like theirs that set the way for future groups to just not be subtle with it.
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I know that YP has been a polarizing group due to their cultural insensitivity since debut, I meant it in the sense of genre since I feel like after FaSHioN, many groups started going down the rage path (and both GO! and FaSHioN also saw moderate success). And CORTIS is also a HYBE group so they get more exposure and have too faced shit for their not-very-subtle CA as well, so they essentially expanded a base YP had already established
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This will be a lovely addition to my “worst songs of 2026” playlist, along with the horrifically unlistenable “TATz” by LOLA 😁
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Not us twinning! I also have a playlist of worst songs 😍
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🫶🏻😂
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The fact that this is 4 minutes long is diabolical in itself 💔🥀
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Oof. I forgot how you rated Fashion and I didn’t think it’d be this low, lmao. Fair to be disconcerted by this, hell I have my own gripes with it (like the writing feels like a bunch of hiphop buzzwords thrown into a digicore track to show they’re “with it” when like, no, I don’t think any of you are actually into stuff like crypto and chip sales). Look, I’m a Jane Remover fan, I’m slowly getting into Lucy Bedroque, I love albums like Danny Brown’s Stardust, this is admittedly in a lane of mine. I don’t hate this.
7 (7, 9, 7, 5), I wouldn’t mind this with more personal, intentional writing, and like you said, more interesting flows, I’ll give you that. I still think there are parts that sound nice within what feels just like a following of a style instead of an attempt to make it theirs (a big flaw of theirs, in my opinion).
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update: it has been brought to my attention that very early on there’s a ‘put the mask on like kanye’ bar in there, and it is confirmed to be that because the lyrics are posted in the description of the video. really hope it wasn’t one of the members who wrote that, but given that a member of lngshot recently claimed tory lanes as an inspiration (the guy who shot megan thee stallion)… f*ck, man…
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I’m question how you rate songs below a certain threshold because I feel like it would be difficult to give it an review and actually scoring it accordingly? ☺️
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Speaking generally, Nick doesn’t usually bother with songs below somewhere in the 6’s, preferring to skip rather than waste his time, unless they come from a group that is somehow notable or the song really pisses him off. I suspect both of the latter.
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Interesting! thank you! ❤️
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”put the mask on like Kanye” – a real line said in a real song made by real human beings
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This morning our usual morning classical radio in the kitchen was caught in fuzz between the sounds of Bach and Beethoven and the indie college stations whose DJ of the morning was playing thrash metal. (To be fair, metal has borrowed a lot from classical music, viz every Eddie Van Halen solo ever. The man learned his inventions.) We didn’t get up to change the station because it was bad but not bad enough to get us to move.
That radio fuzz between two stations was preferable to this assemblage of noise.
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Nick, you have any plans of making the next iteration of “Lowest Rated Songs Revisited”?
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with the insane amount of crappy songs released last year, he should
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A Kanye shoutout in this day an age is CRAZY hahhahahahahahahahah. The guy is a pioneer, but the years when being associated with Kanye was a compliment or honoring him are long gone.
Other than that, I enjoy this style from them. I think they are well-trained in rap and they can pull it off pretty well. The production is also okay and it works well as part of the genre.
I’m not surprised by the reception CORTIS or Young Posse may have by sticking to this style. It 100% lacks pop appeal and conventional melody and it’s also pretty divisive around hip-hop fans. It also can get annoying or too overstimulating but I’m here for it.
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In Japan, Black music became popular in the 2000s and 2010s, and a lot of hip-hop artists emerged.
But honestly, so much of it doesn’t even come close to what artists from the culture have been doing — a lot of it just feels like imitation with no real substance.
Part of the problem is that Japanese as a language can be a tough fit for hip-hop in certain ways, but in most cases it’s because the artists don’t really understand the cultural side of hip-hop. They don’t mean any harm, but their admiration for America is sometimes so intense that they don’t realize how uncomfortable it can come across. K-pop can run into the same issue too.
Ideally, people shouldn’t copy another culture too casually — but it’s also true that the music industry has grown by absorbing influences from overseas.
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my 2 cents as some1 who listens to a lot of music like this (che jane remover osamason etc): this is fine enough but if i wanted to listen to smthn like this id listen to any of the artists i mentioned above. i will say to young posses credit this is more convincing than if say cortis or enhypen released it (theyre from a much smaller agency + theyre comanaged by a khh label) but it still comes off as cheap cosplay of these artists all the same
also brings up another point: this cheap cosplay in question wouldnt be such a glaring issue to me if it even tangentially tried to be *kpop*. its the reason why i consider fame by riize to be far and away the best attempt at this sound ive heard in kpop. ya u could say its cheap cosplay too (cuz lbr That part is a clear evil jordan rip) but theres a je ne sais quoi to it that feels distinctly kpop to me. its mainly in the vocal layering and focus on melody like it feels much more authentic yk?
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This is a let down as someone who likes this type of music outside of a K-Pop context. Young Posse was actually ahead of the curve of Rage with their promoted B-Side “Scars”, which used rage production to talk about how they overcame their challenges as trainees in a harsh system, so seeing Young Posse instead regress to these basic K-Pop brag lyrics and simple flows really sucks. Whenever Young Posse usually brags in their lyrics its very tongue and cheek. Like they usually make a point about the fact that really they’re young and nugu. Sucks to see a favorite of mine stumble like this.
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This actually isn’t terrible for me. With rage the beat has to be overstimulating and big in a way, so I like the fact that they went all in unlike Cortis and Enhypen whose recent singles have been sanitised. I don’t listen to K-pop for this stuff but I’m happy that the production here is well-executed.
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I feel like my ear drums are being scraped with steel wool. I don’t find that many songs to be actively unpleasant. There are a fair number of songs Nick has found aurally unpleasant that appealed to me. This, however. I feel like the song is actively trying to repel me. It’s the bouncer at the club you aren’t cool enough to enter. It sits at the mean girl table. Well fine, I’ll hang out with the losers, thank you very much.
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ate that remains their only listenable song. to be fair, it was a really good one.
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