[Review] [Single] BEAST’s Junhyung – “Living Without You”

• Style
• Vocals
• Production

Of all the members in BEAST, I have been least opinionated about rapper Junhyung. For whatever reason, he’s never left much of an impression on me, or at least he didn’t used to during BEAST’s humble beginnings. Now though, I’ve turned a new leaf and I’m finding myself incredibly drawn to Junhyung, not on his looks (though he’s alright looking), but on the fact that he’s contributed a shit ton to BEAST’s musical development and style.

Aside from being a rapper, Junhyung is also a singer-songwriter, composer, and producer. That’s pretty gangsta, and that’s pretty gangsta of BEAST to possess such a skilled member in their camp. BEAST could almost function on their own if they were allowed to, and that’s an exciting thing to envision.

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Now back to Junhyung, who I think has so much to offer on his own, he has followed up BEAST’s latest digital single release, “I Knew It“, with a back story solo track, titled “Living Without You“.

Co-produced with Kim Tae Joo, “Living Without You” is narrated from the point of view of a man who’s past the grievances of a broken relationship, eulogizing the cheating ex-girlfriend from “I Knew It” by thanking her ass for the new found freedom. Junhyung even goes as far as to taunt the bitch for her wrongdoings:

“you probably already know but I’m a lot more popular than you think / there are a lot of girls I couldn’t meet for all this time, so I meet them now without a single second of missing you“

To stabilize the darkest colors of “Living Without You”, Junhyung layers a level of swirling ambiances beneath a simple hip-hop drum kit and a set of engaging keys. The hook is a direct play on the one in “I Knew It”, which not only adds a chilling effect to the chorus, toying with rhythms that once emphasized completely different emotions, but it also connects both songs to give the listener a straightforward cue that the continuity between “I Knew It” and “Living Without You” is intentional.

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Performance-wise, there are moments in “Living Without You” where Junhyung sounds vaguely familiar to Big Bang‘s G-Dragon, especially during the singing portions of the song. The only distinction I hear though is that Junhyung hasn’t given into the novelty of pop music yet, which allows him to be a little more inclined to focus on the hip-hop aspects in his work as opposed to its mainstream appeal, something that has arguably been a key element in GD’s solo compositions.

Having said that, there’s still an immense likability factor to this song that makes it stick. It’s tame, but in all the right places. Junhyung did a fabulous job of capturing the right level of emotions and translating them in song without having to over dramatizing the delivery. The end product is a snarky, dick waving champ song that works.