3/4/2026 Going Through a RIIZE Single, Backwards

So it has been a while... I'm sorry... I have been very busy and stressed. I should probably make shorter blog posts from now on.

So, "Fame" by RIIZE. This was the group's last Korean comeback, in November of 2025. I anticipated it with bated breath. In the end I fear for the most part I was a little disappointed. For the sake of positivity, though, I want to review the songs of the single in reverse order, because the first song is my favorite and the third my least favorite. 

Sticky Like

The day on which this song was released was a mediocre mudpit of a day and I had no patience for anything that wouldn't astonish me. "Sticky Like", unfortunately, is not astonishing at all.

There are many nice things about it, I'm realizing upon listening to it again. The piano melody that underscores the song adds a little richness that couldn't be lent to it by guitar. I like the leisurely beat. I like the lovely high innocence of Sohee and Anton's voices, especially the "echo, echo, echo" line that bleeds into the next phrase. But nothing else really hits. It's just a pretty version of a song I have heard over and over again.

Only an EXO-like focus on beauty and originality of melody could have saved this, in my opinion. There's one pretty part in the first verse, delivered of course by Sohee; otherwise there's not much here to redeem the raps. The rapping was a low point in this album, as we will see with "Fame". I'm so sad - I really like Sungchan. I think his rap is the best part of "Bag Bad Back"! This does not cut it, though.

I may very well revise my opinion on this one - I haven't listened to it as much. I also must acknowledge that my standards are high. If any other fifth-gen boy group released "Sticky Like", I would be very happy. RIIZE just happen to be my favorites of this generation. 

And that, paradoxically, has led to me finally putting this song on my playlist.

Fame

I should not have been as frightened as I was when I first heard that "Fame" was going to be a rage rap song. All modern global pop is taken from Black culture, whether African or U.S. or U.K., but I feared an egregious level of poser-ism in a hip-hop song. Something All Day Project-esque. Something Cortis-esque. Thankfully I was wrong. While this does not necessarily preclude cultural appropriation, RIIZE are relatively musically conservative. In K-pop, I've observed, a lot of "boundary-pushing" groups are more inclined to borrow heavily from Black culture, probably for shock value, as if doing so is inherently scandalous. This is just my perspective, and I do not want to discourage breaking barriers and taking influence from around the globe. I also don't mean to insult RIIZE - I think they do unique things in other ways.

I said in a review of the more evil "FE!N" knockoff "Knife" by Enhypen that "Fame" is held back by its popiness. The instrumental is good, but it does not hit hard enough. The lyrics are angsty, but they are not angsty enough. The raps - are bad.

[Shotaro] Super hard (Super hard), make it loud (Make it loud)
What kind of day (Breathe, breathe) do you want? Yeah
[Sungchan] Not just the outward appearance, but the real me
Burst, I’m only here now, bass go boom, boom, boom, boom (Boom) 

I am so sorry. Shotaro's part belongs in a semi-comedic song like "Just Right" by GOT7. Sungchan's delivery on "moseup" (모습) is an echo of the uniqueness of his rap in "Bad Bag Back", but the "bass go boom" part obscures it like a cloud of evil. Why was it added? What relevance does it have besides being a reference? Was the melody for this song written in thirty minutes?

Indeed it feels like it. Little care for originality is put into any part of the melody of this song, least of all the chorus. Sohee's famous "pass me the key" part at the end of the second verse is barely anticipated and terminated abruptly, making it sound like an unsuccessful stand-in for a bridge. 

"Fame", however, is relistenable, partially because it's the only rage rap K-pop boy group song I can listen to without feeling a little weird. The other part comes from the passion in the members' voices - I've gotten used to Eunseok's silly little deep-voiced rap, and I will say that Anton put his all into this (didn't like "shot shot, flashlight", though). Also every time a flashlight is mentioned in a RIIZE song (three times so far) I think they're saying "fleshlight" and I giggle.

Also also the dance is fucking flames, especially the outro, in which they all follow Shotaro in waves. Fuck, can these young men dance!

Something's in the Water

I want to get my one big criticism of this song out of the way - I expected it to flow more. The first and last thirds of the song were featured in a trailer for the single, with only a few changes made to those parts of it. I thought some of the choices made, such as the instrumental halt on the first "water", were for narrative purposes, like how songs featured in movie trailers are often rearranged. That this part is the same in the release isn't necessarily bad - I just think it would be cooler if it was even more different, you know?

Even that is a tiny problem. Rewatching the trailer, I find all my initial excitement returning. This is peak. Everyone's voice sounds beautiful. I don't think Sohee is capable of delivering a line without that exquisite elastic sensitivity with which he sings "nuneul gamgo breathe, running all the way". I adore how Wonbin, whose voice can sound so harsh (and indeed does, later in the song), sings the first chorus so gently, in a way that flows evenly into the dark hollowness of Eunseok's voice. Anton's opening is just so perfect. Nothing can recreate the feeling of hearing it for the first time.

"I couldn't save us in time.
I don't do good by myself.
I should have you by my side."

It's so romantic, the way this guy delivers these lines, especially "I don't do good by myself." I believe him. I am buying this subtle Y/N-style K-pop boy fantasy. I also believe that second chorus "something wakes me up" even more than I believe Wonbin's first one. Fuck, dude, this is peak. I told you these boys are talented. Listen to that ad-lib after the first chorus and those harmonies at the end.

I do not even care that this song is less than two minutes and twenty-two seconds. There, I said it. I think a song like this deserves to be tragically trampled by a horse in its youth. I would have liked it to go on for eighty verses, but that is not how life works. One can only contemplate one's reflection in the music building bathroom mirror for so long before you have to go to class. 

The tight composition combined with the real passion of its performers makes it feel so real in its semi-narrative nature - although feelings of self-doubt and insecurity are almost universal, as well as breakups, there's something obviously specific going on here. I'll give credit to "Fame" for this, too. I won't give shit to "Sticky Like".

"Something's in the Water" and "Fame" are, in reality, inseparable songs, and I will think of them fondly as a fun November emo interlude in RIIZE's early career. Although 2025 was a difficult year to be a fan, the fact that they released the song of the year ("Another Life") in May and proceeded to beat it in November makes me feel lucky to be alive. The world is beautiful.

1/11/2026 I Promise You Will Like These K-Pop Boys

Forget about what I said about the last post being posted on the 9th. It was posted on both the 9th AND the 10th, so it counts for both days.

Tonight I will utilize my internet anonymity for evil and enthusiastically pitch my favorite K-pop group to all 2 people who read my blog. They are called RIIZE. Their name is pronounced "rise" and is spelled as an awkward portmanteau of "rise" and "realize". They are wretched young princes suffering under a collective evil curse. Only you can free them by becoming one of their maybe twenty sane fans on planet Earth. 

The K-pop boy group landscape of the past few years has shifted dramatically toward an emphasis on dance, from what I have observed. In this aspect RIIZE are some of the best of the best. Before debut, they released a little ditty called "Siren" in which they jump around so rigorously they are unable to even lip-sync the lyrics properly.
 

 

 

Their other predebut song "Memories" is not to my personal taste, but I appreciate how it shows off their talent. Who are the talent, anyway?

RIIZE's existence came into public knowledge (I believe) from the removal of Osaki Shotaro and Jeong Sungchan from NCT, which is a whole other can of worms that may be compressed as such: the parent company of RIIZE, SM Entertainment, probably did not know how to manage them within the complicated NCT structure (NCT, if you didn't know, is a boy group currently composed of 25 total members and four fixed subunits).

Shotaro and Sungchan had already been essentially relegated to the role of leaders of the SM Rookies (as-yet-undebuted kids training to be idols under SM who occasionally modeled or performed), so this was to be a real fresh start for them. RIIZE officially debuted with seven members on September 4th, 2023, with their single "Get a Guitar".

 The RIIZE Guiiys, in age order.

• 

  Eunseok kind of looks like this all the time.

  The young man second to the left in the mouse costume, who rather looks like a mouse himself, is Osaki Shotaro (2001) from Japan, who was casted by SM for his extraordinary dancing skills. In their songs he usually raps, and in their performances he leads all the big parts and dance breaks.
• Song Eunseok (2001), who is dressed as a rock, was an SM Rookie, and had been training under SM since 2018. Eunseok raps, sings, stares at you with a disarming squint, and does deadpan comedy. I personally believe him to be the funniest.
• Normal gentleman with the sweet smile holding a little trophy in his hand is Jeong Sungchan (2001), who is six-foot-two and exceedingly athletic. Sungchan dances spectacularly, but he mostly raps. Here is his iconic "90's Love" rap from his NCT days, and here is him having to carry an encore for said song with zero audience and zero help from his coworkers.
• You can distinguish Park Wonbin (2002), who is in the pizza costume, by his long hair, wide beady eyes, and sheepish smile. Wonbin was an instant hit with the public from debut, owing to his good looks and frantic dance skills. Wonbin also serves as a main vocalist and he is very good. I like him a lot because he seems to be an anxious soul.
• Sharp-faced and joyous Hong Seunghan (2003) on the far right is also a dancing machine, one of three main dancers along with Shotaro and Wonbin. He was an SM Rookie like Eunseok, and his cheerful charm rivals even the more experienced Shotaro and Sungchan. He is not in the group anymore for reasons I will explain later; now he releases music under the name Xnghan with his dance group Xoul.

  

  Sohee has thick hair and fangs.

• Lee Sohee (2003) is the blond boy who is about to eat poor Seunghan's claw.  Sohee is the most talented singer of his generation of K-pop boys, in my opinion. His agility is especially remarkable - he tends high and his vibrato is fast, making his runs sound smooth and pleasant. He MC'd on a music show (on which K-pop groups give live performances) alongside ZEROBASEONE's Sung Hanbin and BOYNEXTDOOR's Myung Jaehyun (all these boygroup names are capitalized, I know). 
• Starfish with the wide grin on the far left is Lee Chanyoung (2004) or Anton Lee. His father was popular in the 90s in Korea as a singer and producer; his mother is a popular actress. He however grew up in New Jersey. Anton excels at swimming and music production. He has gained a lot of confidence on stage since debut and now sings as frequently in their songs as Wonbin and Sohee.  

RIIZE have some excellent songs under their belt, and they also have "Memories". A lot of them heavily feature bass and guitar, often played live by Anton and Wonbin. Their song "Another Life", which is one of the best K-pop songs I've ever heard, has a deliciously dramatic guitar solo. As they are still figuring out their musical identity, they have dipped their toes into many different genres, from house ("Impossible") to R&B ("Honestly") to UKG (?) ("Odyssey") to rage hip hop ("Fame" - mostly reflected in the instrumental) to ballad ("The End of the Day"). If you're a fan of TVXQ, they did a cute cover of "Hug" last winter. 

These princes were not in accord about the dress code.

RIIZE songs I especially recommend:

• "Talk Saxy" - probably not to everyone's taste, but to me and my friends (whose opinions are always right) it's exceedingly fun. Their outfits are also fucking fire.
• "Love 119" - an addictive song which anniversary I look forward to every January.
• "Lucky" - silly fun Japanese title track.
• "Be My Next" - Japanese b-side. An if-you-get-it-you-get-it type deal. 
• "Ember to Solar" - fun dramatic drum n bass with beautiful voices.
• "Another Life" - obviously.
• "Something's in the Water" - hypnotizing. Gentle, spooky little B-side.

On to the curse.

RIIZE have received intense scrutiny from the public, mostly because their company is a large and popular one. Since before their debut, they have been accused of smoking, drinking, dating both women and men, and talking shit about other idols. 

Several leaked photos, videos, and Instagram lives of Seunghan's revealed to the public that he at one point had an age-appropriate girlfriend and smoked underage. Soobin of TXT also flipped him off with his toe (ignore the content of the tweet itself). Rather more seriously, a clip of Soobin and Seunghan discussing Soobin's MC gig with LESSERAFIM's Eunchae was interpreted as derogatory toward Eunchae; to my knowledge this is false. In late November of 2023, just two months after RIIZE's official debut, Seunghan was put on hiatus from the group until further notice. Thus began the eleven-month period known as the Bu Heeju Nightmare.

Bu Heeju refers to the personification of the collective briize (pronounced "breeze"), RIIZE's fanbase. Abruptly, RIIZE's marketing shifted from "seven guys who love to chill and play sports" to "your six beautiful boyfriends", illustrated by the variety content they began to do. "You're dating Heeju? But I'm dating Heeju!" Ladies, ladies...

On October 11th, Seunghan returned to RIIZE and everyone cheered. Well, a lot of people cheered. Some very loud people did not. Only a few days later, on the 14th, before he had the chance to be officially seen with the rest of the group, he announced his permanent departure. It was hell on Earth to be a fan. Many fans boycotted their songs and activities for a long while. I boycotted until Seunghan officially debuted the next summer with dancers Jang Yul and Gu Kyohong as Xnghan&Xoul. The RIIZE boys have mentioned still being on good terms with Seunghan, who remains charming and silly despite having borne the brunt of a deluge of online hate.

The thing about this group (and Seunghan) is that they are not a loud group of people. To me it's rather absurd that they should be targeted by so many rumors which are either innocuous or false, and still be disdained or ignored by many K-pop fans. I am sure they are not perfect people and have done many things wrong in their life. Perhaps in the days to come one of them will fuck up majorly. I do believe, however, that the hate they have recieved thus far looks more and more stupid the more videos you watch of these guys. Even now, having grown more confident as public figures, they are a relatively soft-spoken group. They don't do much. They just sing and dance and wear sweatshirts incorrectly, as all K-pop boys should do.

Speaking of singing and dancing, here is them singing and dancing to "Rising Sun" by TVXQ, with TVXQ!

I am indeed aware that the performance is lip-synced, but by God, do you hear Sohee? Are you seeing this? Are we not seeing the boy band realness?

Please join me. I am so alone. If you are cool, fun, attractive, introverted, in college, autistic, and/or above the age of 30 you may like these guys.