[Bonus] Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings V: Spring 2018 (#20-#11)

#20. Hyoyeon (--)

Much like labelmate Amber, Hyoyeon hasn't really been doing much. She released "Sober" in two languages but her rapping was absent. Since I missed her completely during the last iteration (I still can't believe I did that...) I'll briefly talk about the final Girls' Generation releases. Both "All Night" and "Holiday" was decent for Hyoyeon but given her track record it's a significant improvement haha. Sad that that was the way to end as far as the group was concerned. With the lineup of SNSD fractured, I doubt we'll see anything new from her that isn't solo activity.

#19. Chanmi (--)
Yawn, nothing to see here. AOA have been hiding away since Choa's departure and though they will comeback later in the year according to Naver, I'm holding my breath. Furthermore, with Choa out of the picture I could easily see Jimin handling all the rapping duties and leaving Chanmi in the (rapping) dust. Not that she already wasn't, but was gaining a little traction with their early 2017 promotions. She'll likely get stuck in support vocalist hell, and at the top end of low tier.

#18. Sojin (-3)
The reason Sojin is middle tier as opposed to low tier is because she was recently good. Last year saw her breakout performance with the rap in "Remember," and none of the previous handful of members could say they've released anything substantial dating even further back. She's certainly in a shaky position because Star Empire has ruined 9MUSES time and time again but I'll give the deserved praise and position for now. It could be premature to say that she's still better than the weak Chanmi and Hyoyeon, but the 2017 surge helps keep her afloat.

[Bonus] Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings V: Spring 2018 (#30-#21)

They're back! Girl Group Rapper Power Rankings returns as we hit the end of April. Once more the main focuses are: ability, material, and consistency. Good rappers who haven't released music in a while will be punished, decent rappers with decent releases will be rewarded. There's no purely mathematical way to evaluate these rappers but this is all fun writing anyway. From last year's list we say goodbye to Yulhee, Dahye, Junyeol, and Serri. Taking their place are three newcomers: Pristin's Rena, gugudan's Mina, and Weki Meki's Yoojung. This gives us an exact 30 rappers (technically last iteration had 30 too but that's because I forgot about Hyoyeon...) to work with. Let's see who is in what tier. Also, sorry but I got lazy with images this time. They'll only show four out of the ten rappers in each set. That adds some mystery to things I guess?

#30. Mina (--)
Bottom tier starts with #30 and ends at #25. Shared traits between these rappers are that they're unimpressive overall, and or don't have much to show yet. They also have other members of their groups participate in rapping, leaving a rapping line that is extremely weak. This takes away more of their chances. Mina follows Junyeol and takes up last place upon her debut. "A Girl Like Me" was alright but besides that she has very little to analyze. Their best song to date "The Boots" doesn't have a rap, whether that's thanks to the lack of rapping remains to be seen.

#29. Jinsoul (-2)
Jinsoul suffers because three of the four departing members were ranked below her, and thus she falls to #29. She has demonstrated pretty good ability and potential, and among the plethora of Loona material her song(s) and appearances have made the biggest impression. Her feature in "Egoist" solidifies her as the primary rapper within Loona, and we'll see what their official debut has in store for her.

#28. Rena (--)
Out of everyone in bottom tier, I think Rena has the most potential (with Chaeyoung close behind). Her voice is the best in this group although she has received some mediocre raps ("Black Widow" and "We Like" were underwhelming). The biggest obstacle for Rena is how to stop her groupmates from munching away all her lines. Seriously she has the worst case of shared rapping I've ever seen. Kyla, Nayoung, Xiyeohn, and even Kyulkyung have taken moments of lines that should be Rena's. Sure some of them are very minuscule but that piles up.

[Review] VIXX - Scentist (Blitz)

Unfortunately this will snap my streak of consecutive months with at least one full review. Somehow, this is the first time I've written about VIXX (and added them to labels) which is quite the surprise. They were always a solid middle tier boy group and I've enjoyed some of their past hits. Songs like "Error," "Voodoo Doll" and "Shangri-La" rate highly in my library. On the other hand, I wasn't a fan of anything during their 2016 run. Nonetheless, here's "Scentist," fooling everyone into thinking they were gonna be singing about scientists. This is very much a VIXX song: the smooth instrumental that hits hard enough to dance along to, while maintaining that mysterious almost ethereal sound this group is well-known for. The unique twist is having Hongbin lead the chorus, shifting Ken to prechorus. Definitely an unexpected change but executed well. Heck Hongbin even closes out the song, too. Plus having Leo as your backup should put you at ease. Ravi only used like five noticeable English words in his rap! That's a marked improvement, and I can actually follow along this time. As far as I remember this music video is way more vibrant and expressive than those before it, and understandably so. You don't get to see too much of the dance, and Blitz reviews don't include live performances, so that's really all there is to "Scentist." It's a solid number coming off the beauteous "Shangri-La" and VIXX continues to make this type of sound their trademark.

Word Count: 250

[Misc] CLC Power Ranking

It's been a busy month for me but here we are with a CLC ranking. They're trying to march into the top girl groups, and "Black Dress" was certainly a step in the right direction. With so many groups deciding against being sexy, these concepts will be a breath of fresh air. Hopefully this time around they don't immediately turn around and do something completely different...again...

#7. Yujin
For CLC the odd member out is Yujin. She's simply too awkward I feel. Yujin is naturally on the cute side of things but even during songs like "Pepe" and "No Oh Oh" she seemed...off. I wouldn't say "out of place" or anything to that extreme but appearance-wise she didn't match well. Her weak voice doesn't help matters either. Now to her credit, as CLC got more comfortable with the tougher concepts so did she, but ain't enough to keep her out of last.

#6. Seunghee
Seunghee is quiet and reserved, she doesn't draw a lot of attention to herself. Combined with how little I've really seen of this group on variety, and it's no surprise to see her on the bottom part of the rankings. Points for being one of the primary vocalists in the group despite being overshadowed by the non-Koreans. Seunghee has been great though, her styling in "Black Dress" was refreshing and I hope to see more of that in her future.

[Misc] Bias Power Rankings X: Spring 2018

To set precedent going forward for other Power Rankings, any group that hasn't officially disbanded will still count as an active group. Any member that is still part of the label will be viable for this list (think After School members). Any member that is no longer with the company is ineligible (think Suzy). It's mainly irrelevant here, but for Rapper and Vocalist Power Rankings it's to clear the water on who is still a girl group member - as loose as the definition may be.

12. Hwasa / 11. Seungyeon (NEW) / 10. Sojin / 9. Eunji (-2)

Hwasa makes a return to the rankings after missing out of the last two iterations. She was the lead visual in Mamamoo's comebacks and with them continuing to ramp up production she may start climbing back up again. Seungyeon is the star of CLC and even though she faces tough competition within the group against Yeeun and Elkie, her charisma while dancing is mesmerizing. Sojin remains at #10 for legacy reasons and because Sojin noona is best noona. Eunji drops a little as Apink continues to lose their charm, but I doubt she'll ever leave the rankings because of her material as a solo artist.

[Bonus] Favorite Moments: Girl Group Rapping Edition

Kicking off a "new" series as April gets going. They'll highlight ten moments or sections that I simply love. Singing, dancing, rapping, variety, etc. etc. In time I'll publish a girl group and boy group piece of this kind for each category. That will satiate the completionist in me, though the only question I have is where to label them under...but that's more about organization. I actually wrote a small handful of pieces very similar to this concept from way back. They're too cringe to link here, you'll have to find them for yourself. Anyway I'll try to leave out any rap breaks that are legendary - such as Yubin in "I Dance," and Miryo in "Abracadabra." These might not be the best, the flashiest, or the most impressive. But they're my favorite. And that matters to me, goddammit.

Bora - Gone Not Around Any Longer (1:42)

Unfortunately I can't link timestamps directly so I'll add when said rap occurs in the video. Despite Bora never achieving top-level success as a rapper, this was one of her many solid efforts. And double down on the disfortune because Hyorin does sing half of this rap break with her. Still, Bora pulls through displaying a frailty appropriate for the song. Honestly this selection simply makes me sad and mad that Sistar19 wasn't utilized more often throughout Sistar's career.

Gilme - Strong (0:35)

I swear I've talked about Gilme in this song before. Either way, her husky tones shine brightly here and was easily my favorite section in the track (yes even better than Yezi). There really aren't many girl (group) rappers that could do what Gilme does here. Contained aggression to match the other features (not to mention the badassery that betrays her appearance). There's a reason why she takes half of the chorus with Yezi, too. Really haven't heard anything about Gilme lately, what's up with that.

[Misc] Happy April Fool's

Here's April, and here's some fools. Two birds with one stone. Just kidding of course. Somin didn't leave this group for nothing. More writing on the way. Anyhoo have a good one, folks.