#36: Hwayobi - Ssso What (Feat. Beenzino)

I like Hwayobi. No, let me rephrase that, I LOVE HWAYOBI. When I first heard her I found her voice very interesting, especially coming from a Kpop/K-hip hop act, but even in the Western world her voice is a bit intriguing if you listen carefully. The timbre of her voice, the body it has, and the texture that those two elements have.


You'd think that when she hits high notes they come out shrill, but they actually come out quite soothing. That's what her voice is - soothing. It's super smooth, but with the body of a voice with a much deeper timbre.

So the song. To be honest with you, it's quite difficult to choose a repertoire for Hwayobi, if you don't know what you're doing. You can't just give Hwayobi a run-of-the-mill kpop ballad, nor can you shove a repetitive, autotuned, uptempo into her face - that's just not the way her voice works. To be honest with you, whoever does her A&R (if she doesn't do it herself) is rather good.

Ssso What is something I'd have no problem grooving to - it's nice and laid-back with a bare arrangement for pop standards, but it has enough intensity and dynamics running around to make everyone happy. The hook is interesting, and veryyyyyy catchy, the way a lot of people like it.

And it's for that reason that this song is on the list - it satisfies a lot of different groups of people. It fits Hwayobi's interesting voice, it has enough musicality to appeal to the critics like me, it's Hwayobi enough for her fans to but it has a hook catchy and familiar enough to stick to the minds of the masses. Technically, pop music only fulfills either the first or the last 2, sometimes together, but hardly ever is the second characteristic added to the already-full list and when it is, that's a rather rare occurrence. It happens, but not everyday. In kpop.

Best of 2009: October #6 - #4

October was an all-kpop month. See which songs made the cut.

#6: SS501 - Wasteland

If you remember back when the mini-album this is on was released, I did a review and it was slammed, bashed and treated like trash by a bunch of SS501 fans (Triple S) just because I said I didn't like it and that it sucked. I don't regret saying that because for crap's sake what is wrong with me saying what I think and no, I will NOT be careful with what I say because I was raised to always say exactly what I think. I study in a school that taught me to always voice my opinions so NO, I refuse to 'soften' my opinions just because someone'll get hurt. ANYWAY. This entry is sort of a truce to the NICE SS501 fans. You know who you are and I won't name you anymore but thank you for presenting your opinions in a civilized way, I appreciate that. To the fans who just kept on bashing me, this is mot definitely NOT for you.

Wasteland is the best of the mediocre - it's bearable and the melody has some semblance of beauty.

#5: SeeYa - 그 놈 목소리

SeeYa came back late this year with a new member and a continuation of their Hot Girl days - it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Yeah, their vocals are processed like hell (excuse me for a moment while I throw up..) but BEG went the same way - from ballad singers to eurocrap robots. I had a few theories on them back when this was released and they still stand. SeeYa are the Korean version of the Sugababes and they're trying to cash in on what The Brown Eyed Girls have done with their music. His Voice isn't a BAD song, I just wish they'd get rid of the processing.

#4: Hwayobi and Sleepy from Untouchable - Kiss Kiss Kiss

This is brilliance. No really, Kiss Kiss Kiss is a sweet R&B staple but it's not dated - it sounds like it's from 2009. I like the funky-sounding instruments, the simple but pretty verses and the undeniably R&B hook - Hwayobi knows how to make a song. All is great with just that but then you add Hwayobi's gorgeous, gorgeous voice and everything just explodes (figuratively).

Hwayobi with Sleepy of Untouchable - Kiss Kiss Kiss

To Koreans and K-pop fans who know the ins and outs of what I'm talking about here, please note that compared to you I know very little - I only got addicted to the mainstream side of things in April of this year. Although I've done my research to the best of my ability and with what I can actually read, the internet isn't exactly a comprehensive encyclopedia with everything about the artists listed in one place and I can't read Korean (Google Translate isn't of much help either) so there are a lot of important pages I'm missing out on. Any corrections and clarifications are very welcome, please comment so I can further develop this review.

In Korea, everyone has some form of rapping in some random song - SHINee, DBSK, f(x), Brown Eyed Girls, Super Junior, 2PM, After School, 4 Minute, Rain and countless others all make provisions for chanting/rapping. It's kinda like dancing so that makes it dance AND rap OR rot and die in Korea. What a standard.

Back to what I was saying. Rapping isn't reserved for Hip-Hop acts or predominantly Hip-Hop songs - heck, even The Brown Eyed Girls' How Come had a rap part and that was on the techno side! Which is why back then I was a little annoyed by the oftentimes cheap rapping by G-Dragon and the like.

For the longest time, my only foray into what people actually call Korean R&B/Hip-Hop was via YG - I got my fill of Se7en, Big Bang and 2NE1 from the talent company and thought that that was enough. Until I realized that they were more on the pop side and were probably as familiar with Korean R&B as people from SM and JYP were.

Recently I gave these Hip-Hop people a chance and what I heard surprised even me! The rapping on a lot of the songs I heard was tasteful and didn't sound like they knew absolutely nothing about what rapping was - these people had a sense of rhythm, a good way of delivering the words and the over-all rapping was tasteful. Which brings me to this song.

Hwayobi, from what I've been reading on her, is a well-respected pop/R&B singer in her late 20's. Her debut album was released in 2000 and although she doesn't get as much press attention as all these girl groups, boybands and major solo artists from holy trinity talent companies (I have yet to find out if she actually belongs to a talent company), the girl has one heck of a voice. Think Duffy with an even deeper, more beautiful timbre and you have Hwayobi. I haven't heard her hit big, high notes with a full voice yet but who cares - she isn't a ballad singer and she isn't in a girl group, I happen to think she has a nice range.

Now the guy. Hwayobi's dating the guy, which explains the video. Anyway, he's part of a Hip-Hop duo called Untouchable and they've been around for a while now. There's not much info about them online (will have to dig more) but they look very proficient. See one of their singles here. The guy, who's credited as Sleepy (his real name's Kim Sung Won), raps on this song but on the other song by Untouchable that I linked you to, HE SINGS. And might I add that he's pretty good. Not anywhere near Jaejoong DBSK's vocals but cut the guy some slack, he's a rapper.

Now that you have basic background on them, on to the song.

Kiss Kiss Kiss is very light and sweet - mix that with Hwayobi's voice that sounds very smooth and clean yet has passion and conviction and you have a very, very good R&B number. The hook is catchy but not like a pop song where it hits you over the head and doesn't let you breathe, this one's laid-back but not lazy. The rapping gives it a different dimension and like I said, as long as you rap tastefully and it compliments the song, I don't mind at all.

I like the trumpets that sporadically appear in the background and I like the arrangement of this song - the production is outstanding as well. The songs's a good example of how to properly use the obvious auto-tune and not over do it but I do think that Hwayobi's voice when auto-tuned sounds very good.

So there. I'm still pretty much grazing the surface of the genre with this song and I know very little but when I started the K-pop special back in May I was like this for the mainstream pop - absolutely clueless. Over the next few weeks I might be pouring all my attention into hunting down the gems in Korean Hip-Hop so if I ever feature any others, you know I've been looking.

4.5/5