[Review] HyunA’s “Because I’m The Best” definitely is not the best

While HyunA solo releases are always welcomed for the gleeful way in which she flaunts sexiness and angers netizens with every single precise shake of her hips, there is not much joy to be found with “Because I’m The Best,” a disappointingly dull effort from one of K-pop’s most exciting stars.

If “Because I’m The Best” could be described in one word, it’d be “unfocused.” Frankly, it’s hard to keep track of the song’s structure between the intro, verses, guest rap, bridge, HyunA’s own propensity to rap-sing, and the outro. Besides the intro verse and first chorus, there’s no real sense of momentum to tether one’s self to while listening to HyunA’s latest comeback. Lyrics just happen. HyunA’s stylistic choices during her rap-singing in the verses are barely distinguishable from her delivery in the choruses, and BTOB’s Ilhoon compounds this problem by rapping in almost the exact same cadence as HyunA. Add to that a production that only has two modes — spacey, bass-heavy, EDM hip-pop and spacey, bass and synth heavy EDM — and you have a track that sounds like meandering loudness, signifying nothing.

The numbing sameness of the song unfortunately translates to the video. Sadly, HyunA’s sex appeal is almost all this video has for it. The sets and color scheme of NEON ERRRTHANG is headache inducing and it is omnipresent, from the props and sets to the awfully garish lighting. It’s enough to hate ‘Miami Vice‘ by association, and the video looks like deathly ill Nerds candies vomited everywhere.

Outside of the image of HyunA in a bra, the most stupefying thing about “Because I’m The Best” is that it’s a boring-ass video. It’s ostensibly a dance-in-a-box video that spends its time trying to squeeze as many cuts and shakey-cam focus shots as possible into 3 1/2 minutes. Strobe lights are employed with an abandon that T-ara would likely deem reckless, and shots look like they were sequenced together at random. This sort of singular focus can work for a photobook or as a teaser, but when it’s stretched out over an entire video, the results are tedious at best and a downright pain to watch at worst, something that should never, ever be said when HyunA is doing HyunA things. Ironically, HyunA’s mini-album teaser looks like a much more full-formed music video concept than the video for “Because I’m The Best”.

HyunABecauseImTheBest

It’s hard to fault HyunA for “Because I’m The Best” because she nearly pulls this off though sheer force of personality. However, the song and video hinder her every step of the way. The production doesn’t bring enough variation to it to mask her limited range as a vocalist, and choosing to feature another rapper only muddles things further. In contrast, Trouble Maker, HyunA’s duo project with Hyunseung, works well because it pairs HyunA with a good singer and that lets her do her rapping-singing as a contrast. That’s never allowed to develop here.

“Because I’m The Best” has only a paper-thin concept (HyunA and neon), the aggressive editing and lighting choices are a chore to process, and once it becomes clear that the ONLY idea that the video has is “HyunA go do stuff”, it quickly becomes an exercise in monotony. One could simply look at this gif and save themselves some time and an Advil:

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