Song Review:: NEXZ: Beat-Boxer- I'm Him {Pre-Release}

• Release date: 2025 October 27

• Album tracklist: Legacy, Beat-Boxer, I'm Him, Co-Star, Next To Me

• Album runtime: 14 minutes

 There are a whole lot of pre-releases that have all dropped at the same time, belonging to albums that are not all dropping on the same day. Fascinating. Also, that means that you all have lots to look forward to. Happily, the maknae is eighteen as of a couple of weeks ago. Happy birthday, Yuki! Also, this album looks like it's going to be longer than the last one I covered, so I am very happy about that one. Title track is questionably short, but this one is within acceptable limits.

My only question here is if that sound at the beginning of the music video is in the actual audio track or not. If it's not, I'm sad. The general thing the instrumental is doing is interesting, and I kinda vibe with it because there are a textures to the song and I really like that. However, the opening sound? I was catapulted back to childhood with the similarity to the THX sound effect. I want that in the official audio track so badly, partially because of that instant connection, but also because nothing else that I've heard recently has been like that and the subsequent novelty is absolutely delightful. The rest of the song is quite industrial, which is nice because even though I'm not overly a fan of it in this case, I appreciate it because it's very saturated and textured. I'll always support that, even when I don't like it. 

I wish it had more singing because think I really like the singing bits. Also, this reminds me a lot of JJAM by Stray Kids. A lot. So much. The majority of the song is a bit rap heavy and also a little bit shouty, which isn't something I thought I would be cool with generally speaking, but at least there's something going on and it's not trying to be background elevator music. And of course with the singing bits, that's also something that's very nice to be hearing, especially with how strong the rapping is.

Well, this is a bit of a bragadocious song, but one thing that it has to its benefit is that it isn't the title track. There will be those of you who disagree with me, but they're not even a year-and-a-half old, which generally doesn't incline me to believe that they have the street cred yet, not with second and third gen groups still so heavily dominant in the industry and fourth beginning to rise and break free from the older groups, but that doesn't mean they won't. This is why I'm okay with this kind of song as a b-side. The music video reflects this kind of expectation for the group to eventually be top of the industry in a very vibes and visuals way. It's not my kind of song, which is fine, and there are still some redeeming qualities even I can see. So, I hope they do well with it.