Throwback (Musical) Thursday – The Background isn’t Bad Either

We often see male rappers doing their thing in front of gorgeous women dancing or hanging out or whatever, but female rappers are more frequently just kind of chillin’ solo or also with a group of other strong looking ladies. You don’t usually see male backup dancers shaken’ their money makers behind our MV female leads. I have zero actual data to back up this observation, but I’ve watched A LOT of music videos in my day so I feel fairly confident in this statement.

Please, don’t fact check me. Unless I’m proven right, then you can fact check and let me know.

The reason I bring this up is that Katie Kim, or I believe as she has been known for a while, Katie, did a wonderful job of kind of flipping that situation in her debut MV Remember. Katie won the final title on KPop Star 4 in 2014 and was scooped up by YG as a trainee. She was neatly tucked away into the basement where she stayed for three years…training. She partnered with Bobby and DK from Ikon on a song in 2017 called Secret, but that was really her only public showing since signing with the label until her 2018 release.

I remember watching the video straight through two times without a break. The song is gorgeously airy while still feeling totally grounded. Her voice is soft and light while still being deep and just the tiniest bit raspy. The styling is Kpop comfy, but still blinged out and the colors are bold while still looking like you’re seeing everything through some washed out Insta filter.

It was on the second viewing that I realized that the guys, all of those glorious men, surrounding her, dancing to her song, showing their swag, were insanely familiar. It took a third watch through for me to go “Oh, that’s Sik-K!” and “Wait! That’s Woo!!” Darn it all, she’s got an insane number of incredibly talented rappers showing their love and support…not their pipes, not their lyrics or their names, just their faces there in the background. Jamezz, Vasco, Woodie GoChild, Zion-T, among others, are all there.

Unfortunately, with all of those familiar faces came some controversy, potentially impacting her debut and forward momentum. C-Jamm and Bill Stax were both featured in the video and both were facing jail time for Marijuana. We all know how sensitive Kpop fans are to and hint at a scandal, so that was a super big deal. YG responded to the outrage by editing them out of the video, but none of that stuff every really goes away in this niche world. I don’t know if this was the reason for the delay in Katie’s full album, but the anticipated release date in October 2018 came and went with nary a word. And now that YG is mired in all sorts of controversy, I don’t see her coming out any time soon. Just as a huge number of the YouTube commentators have already said, she’d probably fare much better if she shifted over to a new label. But who am I to give advice to an artist on her career. I’m just sitting in the passenger seat along for the ride.

Remember, Katie