Ice Cream and the Ice Creams ft. Ice Cream "Ice Cream" (Singles First Quarter 2015)

[koganbot]

Missed most of February (and most of everything else). Ash-B is the great discovery here, a strong and throaty rapper like Choi Sam but with a tone that's more supple and subtle. Will say more when I post my 2014 albums list. "The Song Of Love" is a low-rent slow dance from Core Contents Media (yeah, it's not Core Contents Media anymore, but in my dark heart it always will be). "Yumeno Ukiyoni Saitemina" scrunches together two acts I never really got and it's catchy. Azin's the sort of respectable-type well-controlled quality singer I always intend to be indifferent towards except every year there's another one who gets to me. I can't tell if Rihanna's goofing. I'd have called it "Bitch Betta Have My Ice Cream." Red Velvet take the cake. Christine and the Queens sing "Christine." ZZBEst kinda go soul horny in the early evening. Lizzy trots. GFriend are trying to sound like early SNSD and kinda do. They don't dance remotely as well, unfortunately. Jason Aldean does rote party roteness with good guitars. J'sais pas, I dunno.

Looking forward to Crayon Pop, Miss A, Blady, Exo. What'd I miss?

1. Ash-B "매일"
2. The Seeya "The Song Of Love"
3. Momoiro Clover Z vs KISS "Yumeno Ukiyoni Saitemina"
4. Azin "Delete"
5. Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money"
6. Red Velvet "Ice Cream Cake"
7. Christine and the Queens "Christine"
8. ZZBEst "랄랄라"
9. Lizzy "Not An Easy Girl"
10. GFriend "Glass Bead"
11. Jason Aldean "Just Gettin' Started"
12. Brigitte "J'sais pas"

[EDIT: Video not available; Ash-B's "매일" seems to no longer exist on the Internet.]

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Cool, hadn't checked out ASh-B before. Interesting times for female rappers in Korea, I guess you could say. Unpretty Rapstar seemed like a messy, awkwardly framed competition at first but turned out smash hit single after smash hit single with rappers who've never topped charts before. From a marketing standpoint a big win for everyone involved. Even our friend Tymee found some of her old flow and swagger. Not the place for everyone, though. I've followed Choi Sam's SNS Q&A's and she's answered fan requests for her to appear with decided negatives and "what would I gain from it?". But she is apparently working on more official releases, after recently putting out another mixtape.

People, including me, have said Red Velvet sound like fx, and there are some similarities, but I've adjusted my stance, I think we're just hearing a branch of the SM sound. The Super Junior formula has been tweaked and applied to Shinee singles, EXO singles. SNSD has had less of a definitive sound and so their influence on other female SM artists has been less tangible. With f(x) they really found new inspiration and some of that has rubbed off on RV's style, although I think their collage pop differs in other, important ways from f(x), who are apparently still coming back soon, presumably still with Sulli.

[koganbot]

I'm hopelessly ignorant when it comes to Korean hip-hop: there's so much of it, just more and more, the number of releases seeming to double every year — or maybe the performers were always there but only now are the K-pop mp3 blogs paying attention to the bulk of them. I've heard a little of Dynamic Duo and a few of the rappers they run with. And bits and pieces from elsewhere, some dancey stuff from SOOLj at the turn of the decade, some freestyle from Huckleberry P, and the ones who've crossed into idol music: Zico and Miryo. And of course Tymee. Beyond that, I don't even have a map. I don't even know how I ended up listening to Ash-B. She seems to stand out: serious without becoming wearyingly grim, and not sounding put-upon like a lot of the guys. ("A lot of the guys"? I haven't heard most of the guys, or anyone.)

So, what releases or what performers would you recommend from Unpretty Rapstar?