Song Review:: G-Dragon (BIGBANG): Power {Pre-Release}

• Release date: 2024 October 31 / TBA

• Album tracklist: Power

• Album runtime: TBA minutes

 If anyone has the earned right to just casually drop a pre-release single with very little warning, and without telling us when the album is coming out other than presumably sometime next month, it's him. I also decided to do the Battle of the B Groups today (because apparently the Spirit of Halloween shunted us all back in time) in debut order, so I'm starting with G-Dragon of BIGBANG first. Which is funny because he's also the oldest one of the bunch, by only a couple of years. Bro needs no introduction.

Well, he introduces himself in the song. But other than that.

I don't like the runtime for this song, and I'm a little disappointed in him for that.

Initially, I didn't like the instrumentals. But it took me about halfway through the first listen before I realized I was actually vibing to the song. I don't know what happened, and frankly it's a little disconcerting. The repetitious squeal is normally exactly what I am not a huge fan of, and there's a lot happening, but somehow, that repetition settled underneath everything else to keep it grounded without driving me up the wall. If I had to take a guess as to why, it's because the back-and-forth got linked to the actual beat of the percussion and as long as the percussion is there, so is the swagginess. We've got record scratching sound effects, which is always something fun to look forward to.

G-Dragon hasn't released any solo work in seven years, BIGBANG has only released a single in the last seven years, so I'd count him as kind of dropping off the face of the planet. And then, after seven very long years, he comes back and drops a smack to the media. That is so iconic of him, and exactly as I'd expect. You know what's funny? Well, a couple of things. One, the first time I heard his speaking voice was literally last night and I didn't believe it was him because his voice sounds so different from what I'm used to with his music. The duality is crazy. Two, I was listening to Power and realized that it sounded familiar because his tone when he raps, as well as his style a little bit, is similar to Yechan from xikers, which I'm a lot more familiar with. I think I found a G-Dragon fan. Which is cute.

He has an incredible sense of rhythm. Even I, who has very little knowledge concerning rap, can tell that. It just flows so well and is a little hypnotic. But here's where I get to turn to Epik High as well. I've commented before on other reviews how rapping with this much swagger and posturing usually falls flat because the artist doesn't have the chops to convincingly say these things. Epik High can make the same claims in their rapping and be believable because they have the weight and legacy to prove what they're saying. If you have an artist or a group rapping about how awesome they are, and they debuted a year earlier, that may be true, but they haven't been proven by the test of years, survival, and wins in the industry. There are thousands of hip-hop and rap groups out there, in many different languages, who claim the same thing, but how many are remembered, or last longer than a few years? Precious few. G-Dragon is one of those artists who gets to say what he does and you believe it, because he has survived for almost two decades in a very fickle industry that hasn't always been on his side, and has the chops to be able to call out what he sees. There is honesty to what he says, even when he's swaggering and bragging. This song is honest. 

I have exactly two songs in my regular listening playlists by him. One is Untitled, 2014, and the other is Crooked. I'm not the leading expert on his discography, so I have no idea where this fits into it in terms of his song quality. But I'm also hoping the title track is longer.

Okay. So, I know I'm not even an expert on BIGBANG discography either, but those references are so blatant that even I recognize some of them. The man is swaggering back to the world stage to say he's back and he's got some things to say. It's a relatively simple music video, which is good for a pre-release as it means the focus can be on the main event. The fact that he's with an actual goat when he calls himself a GOAT is possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a K-Pop music video in a while. The literal and figurativeness of that entire verse is incredible and I'm a little in awe. While, realistically, it's just him moving around a circle stage, the amount of details that were put into it are incredible. And literally calling out the media for being too powerful. Welcome back, GD. Welcome back. I look forward to seeing your title track.

Also, he is dancing like an absolute dork, and I love it so much. Trained dancer, yes, he is. But oh, goodness me. It's so unbelievably endearing.