As is tradition, a lottery was ran to select the throwback review candidate and CLC takes home that honor for the month of October. They debuted with "Pepe" a little over five and a half years ago, which is kinda crazy to think about. For one they've been relatively underrated for most of their career, but part of that is in no small part thanks to Cube's management of this group. But for now let's take it back to a simpler time and see what CLC brought to the table.
"Pepe" is your traditional cutesy girl group track. There's chants, a catchy chorus, English, and aegyo. A little bit of everything you might come to expect in a new group debut. Given the times, it was a very safe option for a first look. Nothing was forced on the girls, and they all appear to be in their element. From a retrospective lens, the thing that I noticed is how much some members have grown and evolved since debut. In particular, Seunghee and Seungyeon have made exponential gains in their abilities and stage presence. Meanwhile, others like Yujin and Sorn still look awkward at times in 2020. It also speaks to what the additions of Elki and Eunbin did to the group. Those two helped round out the roster a little and patch up some holes in terms of vocals and general presence. But back to the song itself. "Pepe" was run-of-the-mill and still is to this day. It only truly stands out in one area, which I'll get to later.
Something that always bothered me in music videos is when a member is shown singing lines that clearly aren't their own. If it's in a chorus where multiple voices are going then that's fine but a lot of "Pepe" has different members appearing at other parts. Just a nitpick since we all know the rest of the MV isn't worth writing about. Those dresses don't look very optimal for choreography. Speaking of, the dance is also pretty straightforward. Nothing super exciting or noteworthy from my non-dancer POV, and that goes for when I first watched it in 2015 and now.
But finally, we're here. Let's talk about the star of the show: Yeeun's rap break. There have been many, many debuts in Kpop history and many more rap debuts. Yeeun's performance in "Pepe" is likely in the top five of all time. It's that good. She brings punch, pizzazz, all wrapped up in really good flow and execution. I'm 90% sure everyone that walked away from "Pepe" after a first listen went "did you hear that rapper?" Yeeun made a beautiful first impression and that resonated with her as she improved as a rapper. Man, now I want to write up some of the best rapping debuts ever.
"Pepe" is your traditional cutesy girl group track. There's chants, a catchy chorus, English, and aegyo. A little bit of everything you might come to expect in a new group debut. Given the times, it was a very safe option for a first look. Nothing was forced on the girls, and they all appear to be in their element. From a retrospective lens, the thing that I noticed is how much some members have grown and evolved since debut. In particular, Seunghee and Seungyeon have made exponential gains in their abilities and stage presence. Meanwhile, others like Yujin and Sorn still look awkward at times in 2020. It also speaks to what the additions of Elki and Eunbin did to the group. Those two helped round out the roster a little and patch up some holes in terms of vocals and general presence. But back to the song itself. "Pepe" was run-of-the-mill and still is to this day. It only truly stands out in one area, which I'll get to later.
Something that always bothered me in music videos is when a member is shown singing lines that clearly aren't their own. If it's in a chorus where multiple voices are going then that's fine but a lot of "Pepe" has different members appearing at other parts. Just a nitpick since we all know the rest of the MV isn't worth writing about. Those dresses don't look very optimal for choreography. Speaking of, the dance is also pretty straightforward. Nothing super exciting or noteworthy from my non-dancer POV, and that goes for when I first watched it in 2015 and now.
But finally, we're here. Let's talk about the star of the show: Yeeun's rap break. There have been many, many debuts in Kpop history and many more rap debuts. Yeeun's performance in "Pepe" is likely in the top five of all time. It's that good. She brings punch, pizzazz, all wrapped up in really good flow and execution. I'm 90% sure everyone that walked away from "Pepe" after a first listen went "did you hear that rapper?" Yeeun made a beautiful first impression and that resonated with her as she improved as a rapper. Man, now I want to write up some of the best rapping debuts ever.
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