After the MV teaser for NEXZ’s Upgrade was released yesterday, social media went crazy with Cortis fans accusing the group of plagiarism since many of its L.A.-based shots seemed to match the MV for last year’s Go. It’s rich of any K-pop group’s fans to cite plagiarism, especially in defense of a group whose entire career seems built on borrowing hip-hop sounds from the West. Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here asking why JYP Entertainment chose the least interesting song from NEXZ’s EP for a follow-up music video when Appetite was sitting right there!
Perhaps the powers that be assumed that Upgrade was the “cooler” track. After all, it borrows from the ever-popular 90s hip-hop aesthetic. I happen to enjoy every track on NEXZ’s newest album so Upgrade still works for me, even if it’s not particularly boundary-pushing. These tracks are most fun when delivered with as much character as possible. NEXZ are practically cartoonish in their personality and that goes a long way toward selling Upgrade‘s talky hooks. Most of the track simply bops along a simple hip-hop beat, but an explosion of percussion at its finale points toward a more interesting arrangement that would have been nice to hear in full. After all, a character-rich performance deserves an equally colorful production.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 7 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
Grade: C+
I downloaded the EP, but there wasn’t enough melody for me, so I didn’t come back to it. I feel like the members got what they wanted on Nizi Project S2 where they were all gunning for the rapper role.
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i wish the whole song sounded like that outro cuz that would have been an easy soty contender
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I see the vision!
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This kind of rap-focused song usually need either a strong beat/production to anchor it like REDRED or a powerful charismatic rapper to wing it like G Dragon and unfortunately this song had neither of them so its just coasting along the line that it almost feel like a chore listening to the drowzy rap before things finally got more interesting in the end.
For plagiarism claims, KPOP stans really took groups visuals (MV or album) as their sacred ground that should not be touched by other groups, like newjeans Y2K or aespa futuristic cyberpunk. Its quite ridiculous that they called out others’ plagiarism as though they are the original. Even younger fandoms like KiiKii called out others that used edited collage of retro tech and Y2K graphic as plagiarism, how crazy is that…..
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The last sentence is really funny. Imagine fandoms trying to stake claims on frutiger aero… reminds me of when Disney tried to copyright the Day of the Dead.
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Same 😭 For the promoted b-side they should’ve gone with appetite imo
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Weakest b-side but it has its moments. I agree bias is really carrying here. 7.25
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