YouTube channel: KWONTTOTTO
Park Soomin: “Wanna hang out with TTOTTO? Let’s do whatever we want—together!” Just like the closing song of her very first video, TTOTTO truly means it when she says, “Let’s hang out together.” TTOTTO gained popularity after appearing in a mockumentary called “Diva Village Queen Gabee.” Since then, she has done a bunch of different characters, including a passionate newlywed urging people to get married and the CEO of a fake idol group called “Real Guys.” But on her personal YouTube channel, KWONTTOTTO, she steps away from characters and simply shows up as herself—Kwon Doyeon. Most of the time, she’s just vibing with her husband, “Bebeh,” dancer friends, and the “Diva Village Queen Gabee” crew. In her “Cheongttobu” series, short for “TTOTTO + cheong-so-bu(cleaner)”, she helps friends clean their rooms and lowkey dives into the stories behind their stuff. She’s especially obsessed with “zoning,” but always does it with heart. In her “5-Minute Laugh Challenge” series, she promises quick laughs—but the videos usually go over ten minutes, and the on-screen countdown never even starts. Each episode has a new guest holding the camera—today’s “director”—so it feels like you’re right there hanging out. And even though it’s called “5-Minute Laugh Challenge,” time flies by.
People joke that TTOTTO and her husband, “Bebeh,” are the classic “Estrogen-boy” and “Testosterone-girl" duo—aka soft boy meets girlboss. But TTOTTO herself? She had no clue what that even meant. Still, her quirky energy and nonstop giggles make every video a blast. Watching TTOTTO and her crew, you start to wonder—are they just goofing around, or still living in the “Diva Village Queen Gabee” universe? All that bright, chaotic charm comes from something real: their love for people. When she randomly starts singing and dancing, her friends join her like it’s totally normal. Sometimes she plans a whole day just to make her friends smile—no reason. Just her way of showing she cares. Maybe that’s why people keep watching—not just her channel, but whatever she’s part of, even after “Diva Village Queen Gabee.” It’s always about people. Maybe what we all need right now is just that: real people, having real fun. No pressure, just pure joy.
*Zoning: Dividing a space by function and purpose.
“KOREA” – Kimj & Extra Small
Na Won-young (Music Critic): Korean hip-hop this year, especially from KC—a label known for its rage-style beats and producer Vangdale—often features distorted synth loops and an inflated electronic sound, twisting electro-pop into something much heavier. While this kind of over-the-top electronic sound spreads across mid-2020s trends, one name stands out—Korean American producer Kimj. Known for crafting digicore beats—a mix of melodic trap and glittery synths—he first made his mark online with a wave of underground artists in the West. Lately, he’s been steadily expanding his work into the Korean scene as well. Interestingly, three tracks Kimj produced were all released on March 28, each offering a different take on Koreanness. JUSTB’s “Chest” turns a 2hollis-style demo into idol pop. Effie’s EP, E draws on late-2000s to early-2010s aesthetics through Korean hip-hop and R&B, arriving in a reimagined form of hyperpop.
Most strikingly, Kimj’s own album KOREAN is filled with dubstep-driven EDM—far from what the title might suggest. The collaboration track “KOREA” with the Korean-American hip-hop duo, Extra Small, builds on that same idea. Here, Korean elements appear in fragments buried under harsh, thudding electronics—mumbled Korean words delivered by Levy, glimpses of Mijoo YangKog Church in LA’s Koreatown, and shots of Korean snacks in the video. In the second half, what feels like a Skrillex-style drop sends the chaotic momentum into free fall, making it hard to pin down the track’s nationality at all. What’s interesting is that this scattered, surface-level version of Korea—like how a diasporic Korean might experience their homeland—doesn’t feel so different from what K-pop does. In E, we see melodies, words, and images lined up to show off that K. Idol music often blends outside genres into a cohesive whole and calls it K-pop. In that sense, the bold title “KOREA” and its messy mix of fragments still somehow work—it reflects how Koreanness today can be made from bits and still feel complete.
The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing (Adam Moss)
Kim Boksung (Writer): The title of this book—“The Work of Art”—immediately clues the reader into how good art is really made, and author Adam Moss’ quality book no doubt took a lot of the same key ingredient: work.
When you open its pages and pull back the curtain, the art you find ranges from the expected paintings, films, and music, but even includes the art of the joke, the culinary arts, and things like crosswords. The names inside may mainly be New York artists, but their mediums and their processes all vary vastly. Moss does uncover some apparently universal truths, however, like the need for bold decisions and truth of the old adage that you need to suffer for your art—maybe not literally, but making something from nothing can be mentally anguishing and emotionally draining. There’s also the lament of failure, which the book goes into the crucial role of in its more philosophical moments. Most importantly, Moss never romanticizes the creative process or equates it to a eureka moment. The artists share some of their early sketches and ideas behind final products, and Moss even prompts the reader into creative exercises of their own to get a taste for themselves.
That’s all to say that it takes a lot of effort to produce even one work of art—I’ll be looking at this same topic from a bit of a different angle in another “NoW” review two weeks from now, so make sure to pay another visit then if you’re interested.