Welcome to another edition of Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings. Continuing on our Power Rankings revisiting tour (May: bias, June: group, July: visual, August: rapper), the only stop left after this one is the vocalists in September. Once more I'll briefly go over the main focuses when determining placements: ability first, material second, consistency third. Voice matters so much, you might get triggered seeing people ranked too high or low being carried (or not carried) by their voice. Title track / promotional material only. Veterans won't get too much "outside credit," but it does hurt rookies who may have better B-sides I didn't get to listen to. This double-edged sword tries to make things as fair as possible, if you can call it that. In the same vein, I'm gonna care much more about what they've done in the present than in the past - like say what's new since the last list. And finally, ability to write or produce raps is ignored because not everyone has the chance or opportunity to do so. If it were a level playing field I certainly would factor that in but alas.
From last winter's set we bid farewell to Yubin, Hyelim, Nada, Sihyun, and Bora. May their groups rest in peace. Conversely, I'll be adding four younger rappers to the fray: Laboum's Yulhee, Dreamcatcher's Dami, DIA's Huihyeon, and LOONA's Jinsoul. I'll try and have a member addition / subtraction segment for each new installment of a Power Ranking. There were many rappers I wish I got a better or more in-depth look at (from groups like Pristin or Bulldok) but I've delayed this piece long enough (drafts started as early as late May). There's always the next rendition! This time around more than previous lists I've focused more on tiers. So for the most part even though each rapper is placed individually, most of them collectively share similar attributes within the same tier. I've babbled enough, let's start from the bottom!
Bottom tier inhabitants range from 30th to 26th and they're characterized by (a) simply not much to work off of and (b) being forgettable as rappers to begin with. Apparently Junyeol is "graduating" (read: leaving) Stellar. So it's high time I finished this half of the rankings. You've moved up two spots! Unfortunately, you're still last. Junyeol had small bursts of rapping here and there, though it's more like chants. Even the newest "Archangels of the Sephiroth" release saw the same. Which by the way is the most badass title for a Kpop song ever. She never really had a long rap break and she now she never will, that's so sad.
#29. Dahye (+2)
Ahh, BESTie. You had some promise with "Excuse Me" and then everything went into a complete stop. That makes writing your blurb very difficult. I could say how her rap there was pretty good and might be the sole reason she deserves to be higher but that was two years ago. On the bright side, she has been active on her own Youtube channel with some covers so that's great to see. This means either BESTie is coming back or they're done. My pessimistic nature guesses the latter.
#28. Dahyun (+2)
What a trend of +2's we've seen so far. Though it's mostly due to the departures and arrivals. Anyway Dahyun rings up spot #28 and is finally separated from Chaeyoung. Her voice is weaker and the whole splitting rap sections doesn't help. Her last two raps from "Knock Knock" and "Signal" were really bad and killed any momentum I had in my mind for her. It's not really her fault, since their best rap showing in "Like Ooh-Ahh" was still only okay (and short) but we can hope that for a group as popular as them, they'll get the rapping ball rolling soon.
#27. Yulhee (--)
Not gonna lie I didn't even know Laboum had a rapper. Granted I only listened to like two of their songs before this piece but still. Laboum has been quite active since December, with Yulhee getting good portions in most of the new songs. The rap in "Winter Story" was a good fit for the rest of the song, while "Only U" did little to help the rest of the track. Their other 2017 release "Hwi Hwi" lacked a true rap section, though it's the best song of the three. This goes with the motif that their better songs are ones where rapping is absent. But when your group gravitates towards the generic pop sound, you need to be spectacular to stand out.
#26. Jinsoul (--)
LOONA is a girl group that's generating plenty of hype so I figured to get in on the fun. Jinsoul is both gorgeous and responsible for one of their best predebut songs in "Singing In The Rain." Conveniently, the song had some small bursts of rap that show what she could do. It's nothing crazy but it's passable. A better picture of her ability is seen in Vivi's "Everyday I Need You" which had a lengthy rap break. Jinsoul isn't anything special, but we've not seen much of her and she hasn't even debuted yet.
Let me once more lament Chaeng's short hair. Anyways, she has had forgettable moments in both "Signal" and "Knock Knock," much like teammate Dahyun. So long as they continue to share rapping sections I doubt we'll ever truly see what she's capable of in their title tracks. I really do like her rapping voice - at least what she sounded like in their first two releases, but these last two songs have put her voice in the higher range where almost everyone is. Deeper voices are more exciting and less generic so I'd like to see more of that.
#24. Irene (+4)
Here we see Irene and the beginning of low tier. It'll be a little awkward structure-wise since I grouped rappers in fives for the images but they don't align with the tiers. For example, low tier runs from #24 to #19. These rappers are either inactive like crazy and / or have at least one rap which I would call good (or better). For Irene her best may have been "Ice Cream Cake" but her part in "Red Flavor" wasn't bad. It's rather unfortunate that Yeri and Joy have encroached on her rapping territory much more as of late. Baerene needs more lines to shine!
#23. Serri (+2)
Dal Shabet has been quiet on the music front (as a group anyway). Last September saw "Fri.Sat.Sun" but the rap-singing there was done by Ahyoung and not Serri. Thus, I'm going to have an awkward time filling space. With Dreamcatcher picking up steam you'd hope that Happy Face Entertainment isn't going to use that opportunity to quietly push Dal Shabet out the back door. Serri did a pretty good job filling the gap left by Kaeun early but with the inactivity, it'll be difficult to envision where the group goes from here.
#22. Hana (-10)
Do y'all know how many pictures of Hyosung show up if you try and search for Hana / Zinger? It's depressing. Also depressing is the inactivity of Secret and I've had enough. As mentioned in the intro, members who have actually rapped in the last year are worth way more than someone and some group that has done absolutely nothing since the summer of fucking 2014. I'm waiting for this Secret comeback that was announced in like January. I don't even care if the music is bad, just give me something...please.
#21. Hyomin (-10)
Like Hana, Hyomin tumbles down not because of the lack of music, but because she hasn't been rapping in recent music. I really thought the hype dance beats of "What's My Name" would have featured a Hyomin rap break but alas. When Hyomin was rapping she was extremely consistent but that's simply not enough to be ranked in the middle regions anymore. It's a shame this will be her final spot after four appearances, since, you know, T-ARA will be disbanding in a few months. Sigh.
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