If you follow Kpop, you must remember how random the announcement of a boy band super group was in the middle of the summer. Sure, there were rumors of collaboration among SM Entertainment’s top recent boy groups: Shinee, EXO, NCT, and WayV. With Shinee member Taemin’s fellow bandmates currently fulfilling their mandatory military service, it seemed like these next few years would be full of solo activities. However, this new project group from SM, SuperM, has Taemin joining the likes of some of the other SM boy groups’ most popular members for a highly anticipated debut in the United States.
SuperM, with Taemin, EXO’s Baekhyun and Kai, NCT’s Mark and Taeyong, and WayV’s Ten and Lucas debuted with its first mini-album EP October 4th. The title song, ‘Jopping,’ is one of the shining hype songs to come out of Kpop, and it’s addictive. Even the title of the song itself, Jopping, is strangely fun to say, and even easier to make fun of. But that’s the appeal— the name is that infectious that it makes the song memorable.
Since this is a U.S. debut, most of the lyrics to the song are in English, yet it retains a few fragments of Korean to stay true to the group’s roots as Kpop stars. As such, for English-speaking, casual listeners and any new Kpop fans, this song is very easy to sing along to. The easy lyrics, plus the loud, aggressive guitar sounds and the low, sleek bass make the song all that more addictive, and easy to repeat.
True to the group members’ talents, the song is filled with plenty of instrumental sections to allow the dancers time to shine (like Taemin, Kai, and Ten), rap verses for the group’s rappers (Mark and Taeyong), and moments that allow for the vocalists to pop off (Baekhyun and Taemin split adlibs over the final chorus, with both of their unique vocal flavors brightly showing during their parts). Everyone gets time within the song for themselves, which makes sense for a group composed of some of SM Entertainment’s finest male idols; they’ve demonstrated time and time again they deserve this spotlight, and because of their individual popularity, they won’t be overshadowed in this super group.
One of the things that surprised me the most about this song was the second verse rap from Mark. I knew that because of his popularity in NCT and its various subgroups that Mark was an obvious choice for the super group. However, personally, his rap style wasn’t quite my taste, though I know many others enjoy it. My opinion of his style changed when he delivered one of 2019’s most memorable rap verses in Kpop in the second verse of Jopping. His rap, delivered in a restrained, disinterested tone, was an immediate earworm and became a strong redeeming component of this song to me. The lyrics too are just incredible, and the slyness of their message matches perfectly with Mark’s style during this section when he raps, “Oh, you think you big boy throwing three stacks? / Imma show you how to ball, you a mismatch / Opinionated but I’m always spitting straight facts / Throwback, Imma throw this on an 8 track.” After listening to this verse, I could finally understand the hype around Mark as a rapper. This verse was iconic.
Overall, Jopping benefits greatly from the members it is composed of. Any other set of performers given this song probably would not have made the song what it is. The song itself is pretty okay, but standout talents from Baekhyun’s vocals and Mark’s rap truly make Jopping the hype track that it is.