Song Review: NEXZ – Upgrade

After the MV teaser for NEXZ’s Upgrade was released yesterday, social media went crazy with Cortis fans accusing the group of plagiarism since many of its L.A.-based shots seemed to match the MV for last year’s Go. It’s rich of any K-pop group’s fans to cite plagiarism, especially in defense of a group whose entire career seems built on borrowing hip-hop sounds from the West. Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here asking why JYP Entertainment chose the least interesting song from NEXZ’s EP for a follow-up music video when Appetite was sitting right there! Perhaps the powers that be assumed that Upgrade was the “cooler” track. After all, it borrows from the ever-popular 90s hip-hop aesthetic. I happen to enjoy every track on NEXZ’s newest album so Upgrade still works for me, even if it’s not particularly boundary-pushing. These tracks are most fun when delivered with as much character as possible. NEXZ are practically cartoonish in their personality and that goes a long way toward selling Upgrade‘s talky hooks. Most of the track simply bops along a simple hip-hop beat, but an explosion of percussion at its finale points toward a more interesting arrangement that would have been nice to he...