Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
G-DRAGON has returned with his album Übermensch after topping the charts last year with “Home Sweet Home“, and he’s done so with two title tracks released on the same day in “DRAMA” and “TOO BAD“. The latter includes a featuring from Anderson .Paak that becomes a starring role as Silk Sonic is apparently on a mission to take over K-pop.
“TOO BAD” is clearly meant to be a mainstream crossover pop hit, as evidenced by G-DRAGON having just two abbreviated verses and a barely-there bridge, while Anderson .Paak does the heavy lifting for the chorus, post-chorus, and hooks. So for better or worse, it continues the trend of K-pop’s biggest artists propping themselves up next to Western artists. Regardless of how one feels about that, Anderson .Paak is definitely game, delivering an energetic burst of a chorus over a lively, funky production. That production is something you’ve heard before and borders on predictable, but the smooth post-chorus in particular helped to elevate this past a sea of other numbers like it.
While I’ve never really bought into the mystique of G-Dragon as some mega-genius of music, he does have a certain flair that allows him to inject some verve and charisma into what would be otherwise be completely banal verses. And that’s further enhanced by a music video that welcomes .Paak himself, aespa‘s Karina, and Bada Lee to provide an appealing, vibrant visual backdrop to the general anthemic feel of things. Still, there’s criticism to be had about GD’s nonsensical, barely-trying lyrics and increasingly esoteric vocal stylings, but this brainless fun type of track is arguably the best time to do it since nobody’s expecting intellectual rigor out of them anyway.
I just realized that Anderson .PerfectAllKill might come true.
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) February 25, 2025
“TOO BAD” is definitely one of those songs that benefits from the current depressed state of its competition, in that it does stand out more than it normally would just by virtue of trying to be a little fun and entertaining. Like with “APT” before it — though it’s not at that level of earworm — it’s a bit juvenile and simplistic, but its upbeat nature with an easy groove gives it listenable mainstream appeal. G-DRAGON inevitably invokes a lot of takes — and I’m already bracing for the overreactions — but I don’t think doing all that is necessary for a rather transparent, rhythm-driven pop song mostly taken over by .Paak.
