Today, I wanted to start a “series” which would let me take a more statistical / opinionated approach to idols. I never really had “bias lists” because I figured they would be too much of a hassle, and would constantly need updating. Vocals would be too tricky a task, and dancers would be a topic I wouldn’t know too much on (not like I do anyway), so I picked the middle-ground: rapping. I’m just going to take a look at girl rappers and tier them into a pretty list on who I think the better or best rappers are, and who the not-so-better ones are. Call this a Power Ranking, if you will.
Some forward information: I only considered of groups and members I’m relatively well-versed in or more. There are certainly members I might place in the higher ranges but I haven’t studied or listened to the group’s music enough. Jucy and J-Da of EvoL really come to mind here. I will also restrict this ranking to idol group members only. Otherwise, Yoon Mirae would probably dominate and I’d have people like E.Via on the list (also sorry Hwayoung). Lastly, there has to be enough relevant excerpts / data for each person on the list. Sorry Minkyung, but I can’t add you off the brilliant rap from a concert clip I saw. Feature rapping for an obscure artist is legitimate, one-time rapping on a radio program is not.
Now we’ll look at the candidates / members I considered. Despite what I mentioned above, I didn’t pick every member in each group that met the requirements because that would be one hell of a Power Ranking. I chose 20 – because that’s a good number to work with – girls, and here they are in alphabetical (English) order.
* Candidates: Amber / Bora / CL / Erin / Eunji / Eunjung / Hana / Hyelim / Hyomin / Hyorin / Hyoyeon / Hyuna / Jia / Minzy / Miryo / Nicole / Woori / Yubin / Yura / Yuri
Finally, I’ll list and provide a brief description of the categories that I valued each member by. All five categories have a maximum 10 points, providing a potential perfect score of 50 – another good number to work with.
* Presence: How prevalent they are in their group’s music. Do these people come to mind when you think of either the group or good rapping? When they are rapping, do they draw attention?
* Execution: How they sound in the rapping, Are they fast? Sloppy? Do they have good flow, etc.
* Consistency: How the raps have progressed throughout releases. Do the raps from debut sound just as good as the raps in the present? Does the group’s music supplement the rapping, and / or vice versa?
* Charisma: How unique their rapping is. Does the member have the ability to project personality and style into their raps?
* Vocals: How good their singing voice is. Do they have vocal utility? Do they sing even if they don’t have rapping lines?
The categories are all interacting with each other. Rappers aren’t exactly known for their vocals, so it’s less important to see a good mark in that spot, but seeing how their charisma and presence work together is important for both the studio and stage variants. If some of their best work isn’t even within the group’s music, that may cost them in consistency, etc. etc. Now that that is all out of the way, let’s get started…with the bad!
[ D Tier ]
20. Hyelim (Wonder Girls)
Hyelim is one of my best examples of an idol who is a “jack of all trades, master of none”. Her role in the Wonder Girls (rest in peace) was very limited, given her being overshadowed by vocals, rapping, and overall presence. What chances she could shine with her dancing ability were very few and far. That said, Hyelim does have some good lights. She has an energetic voice as shown in “Act Cool (feat. San. E)” and is probably the only member on this entire list who would be able to rap in 4 languages (Korean, English, Mandarin, and Cantonese). That being said, her limited work (and the end of Wonder Girls) places her dead last.
19. Yura (Girl’s Day)
Yura is a tough individual given that she wasn’t originally a rapper and shifted into the role after Jihae’s departure. However, most if not all of her rapping since then has been very poor. The past aegyo concepts certainly didn’t help her in that regard, but even the forward movement into “Expectation” and “Female President” hasn’t provided any help. The raps come off as clustered, and her high voice (especially in “Female President”) makes everything worse. The thing is, Yura has a pretty low voice. There’s a husky quality that’s very evident whenever Yura sings, and she’s definitely got excellent transition / support vocals. Whereas most rappers fade into the background outside of their raps, Yura gets more spotlight with her husky support vocals. It’s a shame that none of her raps can deliver the same sound. I really do like Yura…just not as a rapper.
18. Hyuna (4minute)
How the “mighty” have fallen. Previously highlighted in the “Best Of Pioneers” article, 4minute and “I My Me Mine” were excellent years ago, but since there hasn’t been anything I’ve really enjoyed. Hyuna and her rapping has never really impressed, either. Solo work in “Change” and arguably “HuH” were her best pieces, and those are quite dated. Tracks from the Trouble Maker project have bettered in quality, but as for music from 4minute, it’s just been disappointment. Hyuna definitely can be a good rapper, like the previous highlights suggest, but she’s overused by Cube in the wrong aspects. When Hyuna gets some more respectable lines, I’ll be willing to place her farther up. But until then, she and 4minute continue on a downward spiral.
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[ C Tier ]
17. Hyoyeon (Girls’ Generation)
While Girls’ Generation and rapping shouldn’t really be thought of in the same sentence, Hyoyeon is someone that has to come to mind given the recent showings in the last year or so. “Maxstep” is what people will usually think of when it comes to Hyoyeon’s rapping. Shame she’s already underutilized in her dancing skills, since her rapping honestly isn’t bad and is just another potential outlet for her to stand out more in Soshi. Most of the other members can’t come close to her, especially if you look at the shared rapping in “I Got A Boy”. Hyoyeon appears to have the drive and talent for this, it’s just a matter of whether or not S.M. will produce and market good raps for her…similar to another resident labelmate female rapper.
16. Yuri (Girls’ Generation)
No, we weren’t talking about Yuri with the previous line. Anyways, Yuri is hands down the most underrated member of Soshi. If you want a “jack of all trades, master of none” that happens to be very balanced, Kwon Yuri is your woman. An excellent dancer with soothing vocals and a solid enough ability to rap. However, “balanced” does not mean “standout”, and while she excels at the basic skills, I find her lacking in presence. She’s obviously shown more than say Hyoyeon, but when you consider the strength of Soshi is the vocals, and that Yuri is given a backseat to the other vocalists, the opportunities to flaunt her talent is rare. Yuri also has the same dissonance problem that Yura has, in that her rapping voice is usually higher than her singing voice, which is on the low end. Consider Yuri “below average”, much like the others in this bracket.
15. Nicole (KARA)
When KARA came out with “Lupin”, Nicole’s opening was so addicting I had that playing for hours, just constantly going back to the rapping. That’s just about as good as it gets for Nicole, though. “Pandora” was good and likewise for “Damaged Lady”, but since the days of “Lupin” most of the rapping has been shared between her, Hara, and Jiyoung. The latter two are mediocre at best, and Nicole spearheads her (previous) teammates. That said, having to share the already limited lines of average songs doesn’t help. It’ll certainly be interesting to see whether Nicole’s future has any rapping in store for her, and if any will ever match the quality of “Lupin”.
14. Eunji (9MUSES)
Eunji is the secondary rapper of 9MUSES. While she’s pretty much relegated to this role since there are so many other members with excellent voices, she’s got the only other rapping spot on lock. That being said, Eunji has tended to be hit or miss. Her support work in “Dolls” and “Wild” were extremely solid, good enough to be on equal level with Erin, but lines in “Glue” were disappointing, and in songs with minimal rapping she (understandably) takes a backseat to Erin. Still, she’s pretty consistent otherwise, and definitely so compared to the members ranking below her.
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[ B Tier ]
13. Eunjung (T-Ara)
Hmm. Eunjung is the third or fourth person here that I’d classify as talented in the main aspects of vocals, dance, and rapping (and visual). This is very much so utilized throughout T-Ara’s music, as her role is as diverse as her talents. Honestly, her vocals are definitely more solid than her rapping, which is evident in her “singer voice”. Nonetheless Eunjung possesses solid rapping qualities, and is the true “baseline” or “average” standard for rappers. T-Ara, through all the trials and tribulations regarding kicking out certain rappers though, has kept rapping on the low side lately. “Number Nine” had a rather atrocious opening sequence for the rap bridge, but we’ll get to that later.
12. Hyomin (T-Ara)
Actually we’ll get to that right now with Hyomin at #12. Hyomin, compared to Eunjung has the better voice for rapping. It’s lower in range, and tends to be sassier, too. You’ll see in the scores that they really are pretty much dead even. For what Hyomin is worth, she’s nearly as diverse as Eunjung, with slightly better rapping traits and slightly weaker singing traits. But that’s what makes this pair formidable: they compliment each other very well. Side note: Yuri and Hyoyeon of Soshi were ranked right next to each other, and the same is for Eunjung and Hyomin. That’s cute.
11. Hyorin (Sistar)
Prior to her solo debut, Hyorin’s rapping was a rare sighting, whether from appearances on shows or short highlights. However, even in those small windows, Hyorin is a really consistent and solid rapper. The husky lower range of her voice contributes to her success, and she has pacing, good for various tempo of rap. The rap break in “One Way Love” was ridiculously fierce and sassy. Like, goddamn. That and other breaks prove she could easily take Bora’s place for Sistar raps, or be the extremely potent solo artist she already is. When you think about Hyorin, it’s really quite unfair that a lead vocalist, and one of the top vocalists ever at that, is this high up on a rankings specifically for rappers.
10. Hana (Secret)
Hana, Zinger, whatever the alias may be, Hana is a more staple rapper and a crowd favourite, apparently. Hana has the sass, power, and ferocity to back up the fans, and is always used for delivering the rap breaks. I’d argue she also has one of the better voices in Secret (I understand there’s only 4 of them). The largest problem that I have with Hana is that just like how her group suffers from a serious identity crisis, so too do her raps, as a direct result of the constant switching of the styles. When the concepts are aegyo and cute, Hana’s rap makes me cringe. When Secret’s music plays to the more mature style, Hana is one of the fiercest of all. There’s some serious potential behind Hana, but until Secret figures out what they want to do, she’ll remain mixed.
9. Woori (Rainbow)
Speaking of girl groups with identity issues. Here’s Rainbow’s resident rapper in Woori. Rainbow not only has issues with bouncing back and forth between concepts, the releases over the past years have been pretty disappointing since the days of “A” and “Mach”. Sort of like a combination between 4minute’s downward / unimpressive releases and Secret’s indecisive choice of style. Woori, however, is way more consistent across the switching between cute and sexy, such as the sass in “Tell Me Tell Me”, and the solid work in “Last Word”, and the quality of her better raps is above other rappers in this group like Hana.
8. Bora (Sistar)
Bora is often criticized for not projecting enough personality into her raps, but I actually think that her darker demeanor shown in the raps is very much so characteristic of having a style / personality, especially given that she is such the bubbly girl outside of the studio. A huskier, deeper voice which really contrasts the bright and lively persona she has on variety shows and the like is really appealing. While her raps never air on the bad side, she suffers from some horrid misrepresentation, without any singing lines despite her group only having 4 members. This is most evident in Sistar19’s work. Truth is, Bora has a pretty solid singing voice. It’s nothing special, but it is average. That alone should’ve been reason to have her earn more lines in SIstar’s music, but for whatever reasons, that just isn’t the case. Bora is really consistent and solid all around, and is the lead into the foray of “top tier” rappers.
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Final Glance
Large: http://i.imgur.com/LHbLXPs.png
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Happy Chinese New Year’s everyone! Hope you enjoyed this so far, we’ll conclude with the “Top 7” which is A Tier and S Tier next.
