Song Review:: Minhyuk (Huta) (BTOB): HOOK- Bora

• Release date: 2025 July 21

• Album tracklist: V, Bora, Wet, Rosy, XOXO, Colorful, Break Free

• Album runtime: 18 minutes

 That is a weird combination of runtimes, my dude. You've got one minute-and-a-half song, which I assume is some sort of introduction. You've got two that are under two-and-a-half minutes, one of which is the title track and gets a disapproving stare from me. The other four are all three minutes or over. There is no middle ground here. I know he debuted one of these at Water Bomb, and that's one of the three minute songs, but it's just kind of funny. Also, I need to get this one out because Changsub and Ilhoon also had songs come out, and Hyunsik has one coming out on Friday. So. Here we are.

Strong beat, y'all. It's actually as I'd expect from him because he seems to really enjoy dancing and this sort of instrumental gives him a lot to work with, especially where he wouldn't necessarily get to do this with his group. I love them to pieces, they're my emotional support group, but sometimes it feels like they forget that they're trained idols, dance and all, and not just balladeers and comedians. Sometimes, I'm not sure which is their actual day job, but it's fine because they're so good at both, but I digress. The song has also got a near constant, quiet "beep beep" whether by embedded vocals or by imitation through the actual instrumentals that is most audible at the very beginning as sort of an introduction to the song.  This would also make for a pretty good workout song, which, given who he is, also makes a lot of sense. It's pretty unrelenting, with brief, not even skids to a stop, but rather something more akin to brake checks. Somehow there also seems to be a dance break, which given the length isn't what I would have expected, which does make me deeply concerned for the amount of repetition versus variation in the lyrics, something I'm fairly concerned with in general as you're likely aware. 

Minhyuk rolls through the song with more power than anything, and he's got such a smooth rap this entire song that at first my brain thought he was singing, and he certainly does at some points, though not his ballad voice he's got when he needs to pull it out. This is simply a lot of rapping, and while I appreciate the sound of the harder, faster rapping, this slower, more powerful rapping is more like what I'd normally listen to. He's got a couple of points where he switches it up and goes harder, more in line with the sound of the instrumental, but they're not often. And I'd have to look at the lyrics, but I suspect that I was correct with the instrumental with the conclusion that he's probably got at most two verses with everything else some sort of chorus. It's my only real disappointment in the song: the length. 

As a side note, y'all, you need to watch one of his stages. Because, wow. And also, he did a challenge with Soobin and it's genuinely a little scary how similar the two of them are.

You know, I'm surprised that this song didn't go viral because we've got both Minhyuk showing a lot of skin, and by a lot of skin, I mean, it's probably about as much skin as he shows at Water Bomb, which is a lot, both in terms of surface area and comparable duration. And the thing is, I'm not sure he had to do much extra working out for this because from what I can tell, he just kind of looks like this most of the time, which is insane. He's one of those people who genuinely just seems to enjoy working out. but he's not a closet gym rat. He's a loud and proud gym rat. But, you know, also because that is a man in his prime. He's almost thirty-five, y'all, and showing the kids how it's done. Okay, enough commentary on his body. We've got a touch of a storyline, something about boxing. Mostly it's half vibes and visuals, and half performance. The panther is a nice touch though. I appreciate the feline connection there.