Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Controversial (gonna be honest, I still don’t know exactly what happened) former NCT member LUCAS is somehow still under SM Entertainment and has now returned with “Renegade“, which is seemingly supposed to be a diss song to his haters or whatever.
In a vacuum, I actually rather like the concept of idols using simpler hip-hop instrumentals to showcase their stuff rather than going all bells and whistles, and if they’re hated by netizens for stupid shit then clapping back could be fun. The problem is the nature of the allegations he’s allegedly clapping back at, and the primary problem that … well, he’s not a very good rapper at all. It’s just difficult to take seriously when the rapping is so thoroughly mediocre. Additionally, the chorus/hook is just a bit of a bore, and the vocal effects seem out of place.
Look, a lot of idols doing hip-hop come off as tryhards, so that’s nothing new, but the context of this and the fact that he’s clearly so dead serious about it makes things feel even more contrived that usual. I feel like if you’re gonna do a concept in this vein, the skills have to be there for it to be effective, and they just aren’t. Much less the reality of him trying to declare himself a ‘renegade’ while still with SME and all that stuff.
Overall, based on “RENEGADE”, I’m not sure what SME necessarily sees here musically, but he seems to have a big fandom and that’s all one needs in the end.
