CORTIS occupy an interesting position in K-pop this year. On one hand, their massive hit REDRED has blossomed into one of the year’s biggest and best earworms. However, every other song has sucked and their overall influence has drained the life out of so many of their peers’ discographies. With each new song they release, more of that REDRED goodwill is slipping away.
Today, they’re back with a repackage of their latest EP. True to repetitive form, new single MONEYMONEYMONEY transforms one word into a monotonous stream of apathetic noise. And unlike REDRED, the production here is sludgy and unpleasant. It sounds like we’re hearing a song from the bottom of a smelly trash can. The guys’ vocals are so distorted that they’re barely a presence on their own track. You’ll be best off shifting all your attention to the rubbery bassline because that’s the only enjoyable ingredient in this distinctly below-average production.
I get that a perceived lack of effort makes you look “cool” to a certain audience, but at some point “not trying” simply becomes… well… not trying. If I wanted to listen to someone banging out some amateur production on their laptop and mumbling over the top, I could visit any suburban teenager with GarageBand. This song comes from the biggest corporation in K-pop. They’re asking us to spend MONEYMONEYMONEY on this crap. You have a right to feel insulted.
| Hooks | 1 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 5 |
| Bias | 3 |
| RATING | 3.75 |
Grade: F
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I braced myself when I saw your notif pop up, then to avoid spoilers, I played the MV before reading the review, then I closed the MV at the two-minute mark (almost the end but I also skipped some sections), opened your review and had a good cackle at the ratings. Now I wish for the 2 minutes wasted back and now I shall cleanse my ears with a good old SHINee marathon. ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა♡
I can’t be arsed enough to give this crapfest a proper rating out of 10 (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ‹𝟹
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Also, for anyone interested, their average is at a 5.61 now (unless Nick updates their debut era songs as a few grew on him), so their Career In Song Ratings is gonna be… interesting next year :p
(And for the record, X:IN of all groups have a higher average than them (a 5.95 although a couple of their songs have never been reviewed but yeah…))
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A SHINee marathon is always a good thing no matter what has happened in the day.
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half of the mv gave me last minute google slides presentation vibes, which is not what to remember from kpop given that I start uni TOMORROW.
Not for me.
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1/10 for me. And I heard they got backlash over something related to Hanroro or something.
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Yup, the lyrics in this song twisted (or referencing) Hanroro’s song titled 0+0.
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I want some sort of my MONEYMONEYMONEY back by listening to this shi.
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No…
Ju- Just no.
I’m a FaSHioN defender, but I can’t really defend this one. It’s a new low for Cortis and that’s saying something since Açaí exists.
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Nick, 3.75 is too generous for this not-really-a-song song
1.75(1,3,2,1) for me
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That future “enemies of the blog” rating is gonna be diabolical
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when was the last time a song had a category rating of a 1?
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Cortis’ very own FaSHioN that had a 1 for bias, who else is surprised ^w^
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I don’t think I enjoyed this very much.
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i said this once and i’ll say it again
cortis makes music for middle class teenage white boys who waste their money on supreme hoodies and think the paul brothers are a godsend to their lives
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Gosh this gave me a good laugh
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Well I guess now we all can predict where the 2026 crown for the worst release of the year gonna end up
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Begging anyone involved with this group to give an F. Apathy only gets you so far and it’s honestly off-putting to me, as someone who loves music, that apathy is seen as more “authentic” than passion. I’d rather listen to the most generic Ed Sheeran than this, because at least those songs are attempting to be or do something.
Why did immature teenage music snob become a concept and why, if it is, aren’t those involved in making the music actually fans of, well, music? How can you be a snob and at the same time not care about what you’re supposed to be enlightened about? (This is not directed at the boys, more at the producers.) There’s a contradiction there at the core of Cortis’s concept and it’s just baffling to me.
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This x10000000.
I’m so sick of apathy in music. I’m sick of “vibes.” I’m sick of background music for the streaming algorithm. I want to see and feel passion. If the songwriters/producers can’t be bothered, why the hell should the listener??
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Yesss. When I listen to something I want to feel something. If I wanted elevator music I could call any number of customer service lines. Not that this is elevator music, but it’s more like… at least the background vibes stuff, as much as I dislike it, isn’t outright bragging about its apathy and using that as its selling point? I just find that so off-putting. And it’s not done in a creative or thought-provoking way either (something you could argue was the case for other bad-by-design songs like Gnarly). It’s almost a parody, but not intentional about it because intentionality would be cringe. Or something. Sigh.
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Honestly, it’s not even that, but what truly pisses me off is that groups like Cortis who made self-producing and “colouring outside the lines” their whole brand resort to making low-effort crap like this or most of the time, their self-produced songs are boring R&B or trap. Like what’s the point of painting yourself as unconventional if you barely give the bare minimum/make the most boring generic background music or yk, making shit like this that I can barely call music? It only makes me appreciate songs like GO!, FaSHioN and REDRED more cause at least they tried to do something to varying results.
(It’s even worse when you realize the whole “authenticity” brand is all the brainchild of a fucking conglomerate 🙃)
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It honestly feels like Cortis isn’t even trying anymore. Every time they release a new song I question their intentions more and more to the point where they don’t care about music quality and just the fame. I’m not even mad or disappointed, I’m genuinely confused. Why are they continuing to make worse and worse songs by the day? I don’t understand why they’re sticking And this is coming from a Fashion defender. I think I’m better off listening to fucking It’s Everyday Bro than whatever this is.
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I actually like a lot of CORTIS’ songs (especially FaSHioN and REDRED), but there’s no defending this song, it’s genuinely garbage. It’s a random and pretty useless song with a horrible, ear bleeding sound.
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Looking back, Fashion and (especially) Go are decent, but I think that’s only because I didn’t know how low we could fall yet 😵💫
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i mean this is so dogshit that i cant even think of a way to promote jane remover to end them
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They have so much talent, only to waste it trying so hard to be ‘niche’ and ‘swaggy’
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I still think 2.0 is worse.
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pls do a career in song ratings for red velvet
Not talking about this dog shit cuz there is nothing to talk about 😹🎉
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no wait sorry i found it,rv has one sorry
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oh my gosh nick didnt play around with this song lmfao, straight F 😭😭
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