Chattering with the ‘God of Music’ (Channel Fullmoon)

Yoon Haein: Chattering with Nah is the group version of Nattering with Nah, a YouTube series from Channel Fullmoon where producer Nah Yung Suk brings in his friends and acquaintances to natter over food and drinks—and as MINGYU quickly figured out, “Nattering became Chattering because it’s a large group.” Chattering with Nah begins abruptly when WONWOO visits the Egg Is Coming headquarters, which houses Channel Fullmoon. The whole series is overflowing with chemistry between Nah and the members of SEVENTEEN—a dynamic they first discovered while filming NANA TOUR, which was itself spurred on by a wish DK had on another series, The Game Caterers.

Nattering with Nah feels relatively loose and unstructured, but Nah’s relationship with his guests is almost infectious to watch, and he draws from their long careers to ask the kinds of questions that reveal to viewers a side of these people they’ve never before seen. Chattering with Nah similarly continues on as entertainingly haphazardly as it starts, with the host and the SEVENTEEN members saying hi and getting to talking an hour before they’re even scheduled to arrive. The conversation evolves naturally from there, talking about the food they brought along with them, playfully bantering about what tone to set for the show if any, and diving into stories about everything from what went on behind the production of SEVENTEEN’s new song “God of Music” to their bygone trainee days. Host Nah continues to keep things light, posing engaging questions as they come up naturally in conversation. Their talk touches on everything from how the group manages to master their dance routines while maintaining a packed and physically demanding schedule, to how much trust the many members of the group have in HOSHI to ensure their performances are perfect, and how WOOZI simultaneously performs with, graciously directs, and produces for the group. It’s “a whole new kind of talk show”—one that lets us watch stars as they sit down to dinner and chatter with one another for our entertainment.

We Thought of Pure Things by Eunyu

Kim Gyeoul (Writer): Can poetry be translated? Poetry leverages the structural and phonetic characteristics of the language in which it’s written and is therefore strongly tied to the language itself. But even though it may seem impossible, poetry nevertheless gets translated—in a process akin to untying those steadfast knots one by one and tying them back up in another language. Translating poetry also comes with more freedom than with commercial translation work thanks to all the different ways those knots can be retied. Author Eunyu interviewed the people who tie up those knots: one who translates webtoons by day, poems by night; another, who translates poetry alongside philosophy books; someone else, who lives in the United States, teaching and translating; yet another, who catches glimpses into the other ways people live while studying Korean … With no one right answer to weigh them down, moving freely between source and target, these translators sometimes learn something about themselves as they consider the place of literary works in the world. Eunyu’s touching interviews delve brilliantly into questions surrounding all the resistance, comfort, freedom, and beauty these writers have found in the poems they’ve translated.

YOUNG POSSE - “MACARONI CHEESE”

Randy Suh (Music Writer): Who could’ve guessed that the new girl group from DSP Media—the same label that launched APRIL eight years ago—would be a full-fledged rap group? DSP, who famously brought the world groups with innocent images, worked together with the producer KIGGEN-led BEATS ENTERTAINMENT for their new group, YOUNG POSSE.

YOUNG POSSE’s debut single, “MACARONI CHEESE,” is pretty silly, but it’s not a joke song like the ones NORAZO puts out, nor is the choreography intentionally ridiculous like with ORANGE CARAMEL. The beat is pure hip hop; the lyrics, which the members of the group helped write, really are about macaroni and cheese. It follows on the recent trend of “wasting talent” in kitschy ways, pairing quality music and dancing with nondescript subject matter.

The group flows naturally when they rap and they’re clearly skilled—and, importantly, they don’t overdo it. The downfall of so much rap in K-pop is trying too hard to meet some imaginary expectation of what a rapper is supposed to be and how tough they should come across. Most of the rapping in “MACARONI CHEESE” is performed in English, and it’s pretty good. They focus more on their flow and intonation than pronunciation here, and it works.

The song sounds like if you took XG’s Y2K-chic hip hop/R&B pop and swapped out the sweet parts for something salty, or if you were to transplant ATARASHII GAKKO!’s quirkiness into the K-pop paradigm. Both of those groups are like mutants within the Japanese idol world—and while those may all sound like extreme analogies, I strongly recommend you give a listen for yourself. With the competition in the fourth-generation girl group ring growing ever fiercer, YOUNG POSSE has already emerged as one of the more interesting contenders.