New group KEYVITUP must be so impressed by their silly name that they made it the title of their debut track as well. There’s power in repetition, and getting your name out to listeners is important. Their pre-debut Best One hinted at strong vocals, but (the song) KEYVITUP mostly jettisons that charm for familiar 90s hip-hop tropes.

I really want to hear these guys on a vocally-focused track. They feel wasted on material that’s mostly composed of rhythmic chanting. 90s hip-hop is a very well-trodden era for K-pop, which makes sense since it’s the decade when the modern industry came to life as we know it. I’ll always love a 90s beat, but you must place an equally groovy song over the top. There’s not much “song” going on here. Instead, it feels like several pick-and-mix pieces thrown together in a predictable way. The pre-chorus is the best of these segments, but even here there’s not much to write home about.

We’ve passed the point in K-pop where there’s very little left to mine from certain tropes. So rather than reinvent the game, groups must churn out the best possible version of the sound. I don’t think anyone would argue that KEYVITUP is the best possible version of a 90s hip-hop boy group track, making it feel more like work than pleasure.

Grade: C-