Review: BLACKPINK - Square One

YG Entertainment has finally debuted their first group in seven years Blackpink. The foursome is a multinational group consisting of: Kim Jisoo, who is from Busan, South Korea; Jennie from Anyang, South Korea but grew up in Auckland, New Zealand; Rosé, from Melbourne, Australia, and Lisa, from Bangkok, Thailand.

They made their debut with double title tracks "Whistle" and "Boombayah".

"Whistle" was written by Teddy and Bekuh Boom, produced by Teddy and Future Bounce. The song starts off with Lisa and Jennie rapping a catchy well-known lyric: "Make' em whistle like a missile bomb, bomb, Every time I show up, blow up uh" over a distinctive whistle sound, accompanied by a bass beat and finger snaps. While listening to the song, you'll hear a shift in the production. During the rapping parts, it'll consist a slower hip-hop beat with drums and it switches when Rose and Jisoo sing their parts. The pre-chorus takes a different approach, an acoustic guitar sound that's slightly more pop than hip-hop. It gets you hyped, but unfortunately goes back to the original beat. The main chorus itself is lacking, more could've been  done to the arrangement. Maybe more instruments, lyrics and or vocals would've took it to another level.

"Boombayah" was written by Teddy and Bekuh Boom, produced by Teddy. This cut is more uptempo and has a combination of genres that includes dance, pop, and hip-hop. Unlike "Whistle", I like how it does have some type of climax. When the pre-chorus kicks in, electro synths and hand claps are introduced, Jisoo and Rose (especially Rose) takes it home with there vocal abilities. Another highlight of the song, would probably would have to be Lisa's slay-aged. Her rapping in this track sticks out the most to me. Her overall presents just screams TALENTED.

When I first heard both of songs during their LIVE showcase, I honestly wasn't too impressed. I had to listen to them a lot (I mean a lot) in order for them to grow on me. Like everyone else, I was waiting for two years for the group to debut and I did feel like we didn't get the highest quality of music. At times the production can seem a bit dated and does take TOO MUCH inspiration from 2NE1. I feel like YG should've strive to make them different, when it came to the music. Yes, I like both tracks and its catchy, but having catchy music and throwing flashy music videos with it isn't enough. It wasn't nothing game changing about for me personally.

YG Entertainment has plans to release more music by the group, before the end of the year. They've stated that BLACKPINK's debut album is done, so I'm curious to hear what those tracks sound like.