ITZY’s ‘Guess Who’ EP Demonstrates Why They’re at the Apex of the K-Pop Scene
The bright and lively quintet is at its most mature yet, making a deeper foray into urban music genres.
Author’s Note: While most of this review was written back in May when the EP was freshly released, it hibernated in my draft box while I attended to career transitions and life changes — but better late than never! It’s been dusted off and revised with a bit of retrospect and appreciation for how it has aged in the grand scheme of ITZY’s discography.
Back in April, ITZY dropped their Guess Who EP — a heart-capturing comeback with six new tracks and a sinister new attitude. Following the craze of mafia games set off by the smash-hit pandemic game Among Us, a mafia-game-themed K-Pop song was precisely what society was waiting for.
In this EP, ITZY has incorporated more interesting sounds into their repertoire, including Western and trap. Of course, ITZY’s first full venture into a hip hop-oriented record must be different from the norm — it just makes sense for ITZY to circumvent traditional hip hop and go straight into more hard-edged trap. The group has already mashed together rock and hip hop with ‘Not Shy,’ and this is just their next step up.
마.피.아. In the morning
Where to even begin with what I love about this song? With just the lead line, 808, and kick going, there’s a lot of space to just focus on the rapping — and that creates a wondrous trap atmosphere. As always, there’s an insane earworm for the chorus, immaculate mixing from JYP’s in-house production, and traplets upon triplets that appeal to the new decade’s hip hop affinity. Chaeryeong and Lia’s vocal tones are right at home in a darker song like this one. ITZY haven’t historically marketed themselves as hip-hop artists, but they’ve taken this modern brand of trap very seriously and have repackaged their unstoppable pop energy into something sleek and swaggering.
I’m also obsessed with the ideation, composition, and arrangement of this song. The eerie chords and sound effects are perfectly inspired by the scores of murder mystery movies, as the looping background melody is a great take on the mysterious effect of minor chord progressions, much like Among Us’ “body found report” sound effect.
On top of the clever instrumentation are the girls’ gloriously suited vocals. Everyone in ITZY is technically a vocalist, but each one’s flow far exceeds that of many idols who specifically market themselves as rappers. While this outcome is partly due to great production and A&R, it’s also due to each of the member’s incredible performance abilities. The appeal of rap isn’t so much about having melodious vocals as much as it’s about having a compelling performance — both in the studio and on stage. The funny thing about great pop music (as opposed to great opera) is that a great execution doesn’t necessarily come from Broadway-quality vocals, but from the ability to ride the production in a memorable manner. This group excels in that.
ITZY is stepping into a new realm of possibilities for female idol rap styles — one that fuses high-teen energy with trap-hop. In the industry, only a handful of female idol rappers really stand out among lots of stylistic imitations. There are endless archetypes to fall into when it comes to idol-rap, from Hyuna-esque vocal fry to fast-talking verses reminiscent of the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” With “마.피.아. In the Morning,” it’s neither an imitation of western rap nor a more girlish, adolescent style — it’s a self-branded attitude that could only come from the vocal profiles of the valley-girl-esque lilt in Yuna’s voice and Ryujin’s naturally deeper timbre. I also love Yuna and Yeji’s verses that adapt the addictive flow of Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” (specifically the hook that hard-forces the vowels). Within rap communities, flows and rhythms are often co-opted in the name of creating something new from something borrowed, and I believe that ITZY’s needling of this harder trap style into the dance-pop genre is a fascinating play.
Sorry Not Sorry
A sort of alter ego to MITM and a callback to their previous Not Shy Western vibe, “Sorry Not Sorry” is an instant blast. A rugged guitar loop anchors the group to their well-established rock ’n’ roll edge as their title tracks wane more into hip hop. Yuna is the perfect choice to take the opening verse, as her braggadocious charm is enchanting upon arrival. Granting high notes to Chaeryeong also provides such a strong vocal base for this song, and I love every moment of it.
The A-chorus is such pure genius: by melodically echoing the guitar loop, ITZY steadily hooks in the listener until the explosive final chorus releases all that building hype. The breakdown is also one of my favorites in all of K-Pop — the “I wanna make it, ITZY no limit” is a cold chant that simply exhilarates the listener, and it makes the final chorus all the sweeter.
The song also makes me giddy in its genre mashing. Rap with a country edge to it has been in for a minute now (Huncho Jack, Travis Scott, Lil Nas X), and this track — in true ITZY fashion, brings this meld of genres into the realm of dance-pop seamlessly. Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s undeniable that ITZY has done a fine job of maintaining a sonic identity of dance-driven hype music.
I also have to give a huge nod to the direction behind the live stages for this track. In any game of Mafia, there’s typically a cop/detective role to keep the order in town — and if a mafia is looking for a way to bluff, masquerading as the cop is the most effective move. So I adore how in the “Sorry Not Sorry” stage performances, ITZY dons the outfits of uniformed officers — the mafia pretending to be cops, cheeky and unapologetic.
KIDDING ME
I sincerely mean it when I say that I need to hear “KIDDING ME” by ITZY in the club at least once in my lifetime before I die. That’s all I ask. I’m telling you now: this song may be the most pleasant surprise you’ll find on this album, as it’s modern and fresh, but still so unified with their established EDM trajectory. “Not Shy” composer Kobee has returned to the girls’ discography with an incredible club jam. The drop is electrifying — and if y’all have ever been clubbing, you’ll know that this is the kind of drop when the lights bleed red and purple on the dance floor.
Once again, ITZY’s dual character of rock and dance appears in the melding of guitar and electronica in the pre-chorus. Yeji and Lia’s lines in the latter pre-chorus “난 계속 말해 Hey stop hey stop, 넌 또 무시한 채 Don’t stop don’t stop” get me so amped up like it’s a late 2000’s high-teen dance track. Yeji’s voice is absolutely perfect for the accompaniment this kind of thrumming electronica requires. A proven ace time and time again, Ryujin’s authoritative vocal tone nicely punctuates her rap lines as well.
It seems like every other K-Pop group wants to dip their toes in trendy electronic trap and hip hop these days, but ITZY has been consistently and meticulously building up their sound in a natural evolution to reach this current flavor of hip hop. Their tracks always somewhat echo the EDM and rock roots that have defined their musical DNA since IT’z Different. “KIDDING ME” is this record’s oddball track, but it fits so well because they’ve truly evolved towards it.
WILD WILD WEST
If we’re speaking honestly, this one was a bit of a miss for me. I’m not a fan of the instrumental nor the topline, and couldn’t get with the vocal direction on this song. It’s clear that A&R chose this song to thematically link Not Shy’s outlaw concept to Guess Who’s mafia concept, and while it is a masterclass in pure camp (which I can respect), it sounds like a passed Not Shy EP b-side. The trap breakdowns laced into the song nicely weave it into the overall album, but other than that, it feels too much like a quirky filler track.
SHOOT!
I think my soul left my body not even 10 seconds in when I thought I heard Yeji sing “check my loot,” and had to look it up to find out that the line is actually “check my look” — which actually makes much more sense for an ITZY song. But for a second there, the Travis Scott-ification of ITZY flashed before my eyes.
This track is an exercise in the type of Latin trap that Chungha’s been going for lately with QUERENCIA — and the girls excel with the vibe while wrangling it into the playfulness of K-Pop. For me, “SHOOT!” is this EP’s shining b-side that only gets better with each listen. Lia and Yeji’s vocals are utter perfection on this track — Lia eats up any opportunity to show off her R&B vocal sensibility and Yeji has this wonderful full-bodied voice that sounds great with trap autotune.
There’s always a bit of catch when it comes to how K-Pop production tends to consume and absorb genres into its hybrid composition — in the hands of an unprepared artist or group, it can easily sound like an imitation of a genre rather than a genuine addition to it. I’m not going to jump the gun and call them fully-fledged trap artists, but they have certainly digested the genre with their own high-teen style.
Tennis (0:0)
Immediately upon listening to “Tennis,” I could tell that this was the track with Cazzi Opeia on the production. The topline feels like it could be an infectiously bubbly vocal track off a Red Velvet EP, and I mean that in the best possible way — because ITZY brings a whole different flavor to it. “Tennis” is a sweet summer song for the warmer days following the EP release. Ryujin’s first verse on this track has all the pleasantness of a Seulgi vocal topline and all the groove of Reve Festival Day 2 instrumental — clear and striking (can you tell I might be a ReVeluv?). I also cannot express enough how much I enjoyed Lia’s vocals on this entire mini album, and her lovely vocal bending ties a nice little bow on this track. An acoustic guitar-led vocal track makes for a great vocal outro (“Honesty” on SHINee’s Sherlock, anyone?), and this one fits well on ITZY’s ever-youthful and playful vocals.
Conclusions
What makes Guess Who an incredibly exciting piece of work goes far beyond just being a collection of solid songs — on a macro scale, it’s identity-refining for ITZY and a bucket of cold water for the whole K-Pop industry, which I find has been lagging a bit these days.
There’s this unstoppable agency that pervades ITZY’s musical ethos. They control the narrative, no matter if they’re talking about self-love like in their IT’z trilogy, or touting their confident declarations of pursuit like in “Not Shy” and MITM. The reason why ITZY wears their latest dark, hip hop-laden concept so well is actually due to the fact that ITZY are never actually pure chameleons — they digest new genres and concepts well, but retain their high-teen ethos and dance-music sensibility.
Generally, K-Pop music is written by a handful of the same people, so what really differentiates the way a K-Pop song turns out is how a group digests and executes it. This process is affected by an entertainment company’s internal A&R system (lyric and arrangement revision, line distribution, etc.), in-house production and mixing (producing a high-quality sound), and the talent of the performers. Here, talent means not just vocal ability, but sensibility — knowing how to inflect, how to control tone, how to infuse vocals with a certain attitude to do a topline justice.
To someone who is both a huge music nerd and an industry nerd, Guess Who is the type of production that would receive an A+ in just how much it understands the idea of K-Pop. In its modern iteration, K-Pop is more than just good music — it rose to fame (and notoriety) for being campy and maximalist in a stylish way, and capitalizing on visually thematic “concepts” for promotion. K-Pop has always been more than just music: it’s a package, a performance, an experience. It taps into youthful fantasy and tells us what we want. Because let’s be honest — the whole genre can seem super ridiculous if you don’t commit to the fantasy you’re selling, and then it’s just overproduced pop music. So the seductive power of fantasy is well-placed into the hands of ITZY, who aren’t afraid to get campy and spoofy as outlaws and gangsters rather than recycling outfits that are either schoolgirl or vaguely dark formal.
In addition to being conceptually challenging, ITZY also keeps pushing the envelope musically. Quite a few songs sound like they were written for K-Pop boy groups and ended up being plucked up and devoured by ITZY — and “Sorry Not Sorry” is a perfect example of this. Defiant lower-register hip-hop verses; a high-note pre-chorus with thick-voiced leading vocals; bass-heavy instrumentals — these may sound like elements of 4th-gen boy group production, but ITZY wears the song with the wildness and ferocity of delinquent teenage girls.
Hip hop, rap, and urban genres are certainly leading the global music scene after the rise of the internet, and lots of newer acts are scrambling to catch up to its sheer momentum — K-Pop included. But unlike other acts who try to debut with hip hop as an entire concept, ITZY have naturally flexed their hip hop muscles as a group with pre-established confidence in rhythmically heavy productions. They’ve found their way here musically rather than forcing it as a gimmick, and I would say that’s made all the difference.
