Battle of the B-Sides:: Woodz (UNIQ/X1): Stray

 Sorry for the wait, whoever suggested this! I had the May theme all set up, so I arranged June so that this would fit in well, because I listened to this song after you suggested it and went "Okay. I need to step outside my comfort zone a bit." Which is why, if y'all noticed, I added two new rappers to the Expanded Offerings line-up to help set Woodz up a bit in his capacity of metal for this song, and specifically rappers that were being a bit more aggressive than I've done on here previously. It's all for my good. Not that I don't listen to metal on occasion; I've got several work playlists that are basically just metal and heavy rock so that I can have screaming expressed in my soul without me actually doing it out of frustration. Never have I related to an anime more than Aggretsuko. I highly recommend it.

Woodz has had a pretty illustrious career already, originally debuting as the main rapper of YueHua's boy group, UNIQ, in 2014, then debuting as part of the extremely short-lived survival show group X1 in 2019, younger brothers to the beloved Wanna One. Then, while he was in the military, one of his b-sides blew up (and is still at number 11 on Melon's Top 100 right now, which is wild for an unpromoted, three-year-old b-side) and helped him get six of his seven end-of-year award show wins so far. I look forward to seeing how far he can go.

Stray was released in 2026 as the sixth track of his full album, Archive. 1. Woodz (Yena, Super Junior, Eden, Eunha, ONF, Babylon, and Boycold) is the only lyricist. He's also one of the composers, along with Nathan (i-dle, BOYNEXTDOOR, Jamie, BTOB, Yena, JO1, Pentagon, The Boyz, GOT7, Seventeen, VANNER, Sandeul, Eden, Stella Jang, ZEROBASEONE, JUSTB, Babylon, and MC MONG) and Hoho (BOYNEXTDOOR, Pentagon, Yves, Yena, VANNER, and Daesung).

And the music video is the submitter's favorite part of the song, and which makes life easier for me because when B-Sides get music videos, I don't have to yap about just the song.

Rapper Woodz is back like he'd never left, laying the smack down like only someone who survived and came out the other side can. 

The song is full on rage against the machine though, and I mean that literally and metaphorically. I mean, the song screams (pun intended) 2000s Rage Against The Machine, as in the band. This is a rush of violent drums and feral guitars, both electric and bass, unrestrained in its ferocity, and still managing to let Woodz be the central star of this song. As he should be. The moments where his singing is wrapped up in the muffling effects before that gets dropped to reveal his actual voice clearly feels like he's exposing himself and his vulnerabilities and his feelings. 

Anger, of course, is a secondary emotion that exists to protect the delicate, malleable, little soul from feelings like shame, fear, guilt, and pain, and while I could dig into the lyrics analysis and treat it like I would poetry (which I can do even if I don't particularly like poetry), I'm not going to because this is not an academic paper where I'm trying to glean meaning.

But that just means that the moments where he removes the effects and his voice is just him are so precious. It's very sweet in the midst of all the aggression and rage and the obvious hurt that's exposed by the gap in the audio armor.

And the styling of this music video is so aggressively garage band with an obviously handheld camera and hard lighting from what looks like a single source (maybe two on occasion) and night vision at one point. Even the lighting is aggressive, y'all and that swinging lamp kind of reminds me of a horror movie. You know the type: the teens are exploring the abandoned building that for some reason has power still and there's just one light swinging ominously until whatever flavor of monster shows up, hitting the light as it comes into the room. Or a very messy interrogation room that has had to have plastic put down on the floor for easier clean-up.

And Woodz is feeling himself here. There is headbanging and strutting and wobbling that mic stand around like it has personally offended him. My two favorite parts to the music video are when Woodz is sprawled on the floor like he's a lounging lion (and I just checked because I wrote that and went "You know what would be funny with that description? If he was a Leo." That's an August 5th birthday, so he is in fact a Leo and that's now a funny description), and when he's standing over the glass with the camera looking up at him. 

There's also something particularly amusing and charming at the very end of this music video with how he's just smacking on that gum like he's an angsty teenager again.

This is a fancam from his concert in Incheon in March of 2026. I have to compliment the fan first on the camera and video quality because wow that is clear and the angle is really good as well.

Woodz is just strutting and screaming his way across the stage while the dancers just go absolutely ham with tumbles and flips and flinging the confetti all over the stage, and I am here for this.

He paused to grab a sip of water right there at :07, which was smart because he's about to put a lot of strain on his vocal cords, which may have been the cue for the band to finish and transition to Stray. I love how he has the crowd shout "비행"  as that's a great chanting moment for the song. And speaking of the audience, I have to say how much I love the "비행"  chanting, at 2:53, there's a woman who goes "Whoa" after his scream so clearly that I just have to smile.

There are fireworks and smoke and confetti, and I'm surprised that the confetti didn't catch fire with all the sparks flying around. That's a general concern of mine at concerts, but I'm eyeing the amount of confetti here because that's a lot.

And there we have it! Submitter! Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this post! I know it was short, but I may add more performances over the next few years as this gets a little older and he performs it more. It'll be interesting to see how the song evolves as he cathartically screams out that hurt.

I really need to give y'all a name. I'll think about that this week. Maybe I'll name y'all after something in one of my favorite video games. If you've got any song suggestions for me, like the lovely Submitter for Stray, please drop a comment giving me at least artist and title, or you can fill out The Form for something more orderly and completely anonymously so that I'm the only one who knows you've suggested it. I don't care if you think you're the only person who listens to the song. I want to celebrate that song with you.

Thanks for reading, Dearest Readers! We're heading into the next patch of discharge posts through the end of June because Ren and Jeonghan are almost out, y'all! Pledis's Pretty Boys are almost done! And if you're familiar with the next song I'm doing, you'll know which one of the two I'm doing it for and why. Yes, I think I'm funny.

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