[Review] Sting – JOOHONEY (MONSTA X) ft. Muhammad Ali

JOOHONEY (aka JOOHEON) of MONSTA X kicks off the year with his first solo comeback since his 2023 debut with Freedom and the mini-album Lights. And he comes in swinging with his new single Sting featuring legendary boxer Muhammad Ali (through an infamous audio clip at the start of the song). In the lead-up to the release of his second solo mini-album, 光 (Insanity), he also pre-released the single Push, featuring labelmate REI from IVE.

Hip-hop tracks aren’t my usual preference in KPOP, and STING leans heavily into the genre, which works against it for me. That said, I appreciated the intensity that JOOHONEY aims to exude in the song. His rapping, though shouty at times, had good flow and convincingly delivers STING‘s aggressive tone, supported by abrasive synth work in the instrumental. Ultimately, though, my issue with STING goes beyond genre bias. I expected more from STING‘s chorus. The centrepiece, meant to be the hookiest part of a song, relies on a flute-like synth that doesn’t fill out the background as well as it should have, and JOOHONEY’s repetition of Muhammad Ali’s infamous line “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee“. As such, I felt the chorus was uneventful and unimaginative. especially since others have been doing a similar thing with their chorus (though better). Elsewhere, the verses and bridge flew by, leaving little impression beyond the aggressiveness mentioned earlier.

The music video sees JOOHONEY channel the aggressive, intense nature of STING into the visual media of the comeback. We see JOOHONEY deliver the song with some head nodding, feeling the song’s vibes. We see him perform some choreography with the dancers. Honestly, it isn’t bad. But the most impressive parts of the video don’t involve him. Rather, it involves the bee that is the subject of the song – the CGI butterfly turning into a bee, the massive bee that sits behind the rapper at one point, and the bee that JOOHONEY spits out at high speed, enough to break the lens.

The choreography for this comeback is exactly how you imagine in it. Just as the music video does, the performance for STING portrays an aggressive, fierce side of JOOHONEY. I don’t think it is the moves, though. I actually put it down to his stage presence, which really leaves an impression as he performs the song, with the dancers helping fill any gaps along the way.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.2/10