Last year at Coachella 2022, 2NE1 reunited for the first time since 2015 to perform “I Am The Best,” While the reunion had a huge impact both on social media and the music press, it’s hard to put into words how much seeing 2NE1 back together meant to me as a longtime fan. Seeing lead rapper CL, legendary, unique vocalist Bom, ageless beauty Dara, and dancing queen Minzy back on stage together was the stuff of dreams.
So much of 2NE1’s history is fraught and full of what-ifs — what if 2NE1’s agency YG had allowed more of the music they recorded, including a full English album produced by will.i.am, be released into the world? What if their attempts to break into the US mainstream, with placements on reality shows like The Bachelor and in commercials for Windows phones, been successful? What if Bom hadn’t found herself in a scandal involving accidentally smuggling Adderal into South Korea — and, what if as a consequence, 2NE1 had been able to work together past 2014? What if Minzy hadn’t left the band in 2016, out of frustration over their stagnant state? What if YG allowed labelmates Blackpink to work with their remaining before 2NE1’s official breakup in 2017? It can be hard to remember sometimes that, when 2NE1 was active, they not only thrived, they dominated.
The track they chose to perform at Coachella, “I Am the Best,” is the lead track off of their 2011 EP, 2NE1. (They have multiple self-titled albums, which makes discussing their discography just a bit complicated. This is the second mini album.) “I Am the Best” is a legitimate classic of K-pop, the band’s most famous song and an enduring hit that won them countless awards, topped Korean singles sales charts, and even received American radio play —- still a rarity for K-pop artists singing in their native language. More importantly, in the context of 2NE1 itself, the song is a battle cry, telling the world that the band and their album cannot and will not be stopped.
The song title pretty much sums up what “I Am the Best” is about. Bom, in minidresses that show off her long legs, brags about how “this body is second to no one, all right”; rapper CL insists that “if we’re talking about my value, I’m a billion dollar baby.” The music video shows how much they’ve earned the right to brag — decked out in custom Jeremy Scott fashion and showing off their many gold records, Minzy dances through CGI backgrounds with impressive aplomb. Every member exudes confdence, and while bragging songs tend to sound forced, it’s hard to view “I Am the Best” as anything but accurate.
The second track, “Ugly,” is a 180-degree swerve into territory not often charted by pop music. The confidence of “I Am the Best“ falls away as the band reveals the insecurities that plague them. In the chorus, fully in English, the girls bluntly sing, “I think I’m ugly, and that nobody wants to love me/Just like her, I wanna be pretty, I wanna be pretty/Don’t lie to my face, telling me I’m pretty.” The girls distanced themselves from their competitors in “I Am the Best” by insisting they were better, and that does continue here, to a degree — Minzy, pushing aside pity others may feel hearing her, says, “Don’t tell me that easily you understand how I feel/I might resent you with my ugly and crooked heart.” Their feelings aren’t tempered by any softening words, either; the confidence they displayed earlier is a double-edged sword, now making them completely convinced of their own ugliness, both physical and mental.
I’ve always appreciated and loved “Ugly.” There aren’t many non-emo anthems to self-loathing, let alone ones that acknowledge how hard it is to be constantly comparing yourself to other, prettier people and feeling like garbage for it. The music video doesn’t quite match the tone of the lyrics, with the four members of the band breaking out of… maybe a prison for ugly girls? And then dancing around in slow motion and graffiting cars? Not everything about 2NE1 is perfect, but the song works well as an expression of extreme vulnerability, especially after such a bombastically self-assured opener.
“Lonely” is a natural continuation. CL’s first lines are “I know that you’re gonna hate me for saying these words right now,” but she and the rest of the band continue, describing a comfortable but dead love that they all feel they must leave. Their lovers have done nothing wrong, and 2NE1 readily admits this (as CL says, “You didn’t create this problem/All of this is my own fault”), but as Minzy explains, “I can’t stay, cause with you, baby, I’m so lonely.” The melody of “Lonely” is the softest on the album, with a simple acoustic guitar melody and the slowly growing sound of strings complimenting the girls’ harmonized voices as they express how hollow their relationships have become.
The simple music video effectively conveys the paradoxical isolation of their relationships – each woman walks through an empty set, seemingly transforming into another member of the group as they walk, obviously lost and downcast. They visibly go through all the stages of grief for this relationship, with one extended sequence following an exasperated CL giving way to a downtrodden Minzy turning into a placidly accepting Bom before settling on a truly bereaved Dara.
The album then settles into some serious tonal whiplash to give us “Hate You,” with its blunt opening line: “You really SUCK.” We have to assume that the ex everyone hates in “Hate You” is not the same man from “Lonely”, because he seems like a withholding tool – as Minzy explains, “The only memories I have of you are waiting,” while Dara spits that “half the words coming out of your mouth are lies.” Over a sparkly electropop beat, the girls lament that “this world is full of guys like you.” The bitterness spills out of every word: CL insists “I’m fine living without you,” a sentiment all her bandmates share. The last bridge of the song sees the girls cathartically throwing this man away in every sense of the word, marveling at how much better they feel without him in their life. They go so far as to say that they’re “erasing every memory of [you], right down to the bone.”
The whiplash continues in the video, which is a fully animated action adventure where the members of 2NE1 literally fight the hateful ex and eventually kick him to death. The animation style is a blend of anime aesthetics and setpieces with character designs reminiscent of Bratz dolls; each member of the band is rendered with huge eyes and spindly limbs. The video has a lovely sense of style to it, even if it isn’t the most well-animated, and the choice to animate it is pretty unique in the K-pop sphere. It also does a pretty great job of personifying (and then, later, monster-fying) the odious man of the song’s lyrics.
The one solo song on the album is a track from vocalist Bom, “Don’t Cry.” A complex song about the end of a complicated relationship where both parties still love each other but are pulled apart by circumstance, the high-energy disco stomper is an amazing showcase for the power of Bom’s vocals and tone. The small specific details of their relationship she outlines only make her plea to her lover, “please don’t cry,” more powerful – she laments that “love seems to change so easily/In place of our own greed, a painful scar is left,” and recalls that “every day, we are blinded by anger/What we were fighting about every minute, I cried every night.” The relationship was obviously fraught, but Bom moves forward from it with strength, insisting “the long journey is about to end/But someday, we will meet again/In the next life, we will see each other again.”
To close the album, “Don’t Stop The Music,” a commercial song meant to sell Fiore phones, ends things with a bang. 2NE1 wraps things up by imploring their audience to get lost in music, with Bom adding a romantic dimension, noting that “after this music comes to an end, I know that I can’t see you again.” Despite that, the song is far more about having the time of your life in the club – it speaks to the collective joy of dance, with Minzy telling everyone to “become one…so that everyone is rowdy” and noting that “the morning is coming now but the music won’t stop.” Compared to what came before, the song is admittedly slight. The celebration of the power of music, however, seems a fitting closer for an album this dedicated to jumping between genres, emotions, and the strengths of its members.
The six tracks on 2NE1 are a perfect encapsulation of the power of the band at their prime. I know I am just a bit biased, given that 2NE1 is my favorite girl group of all time. But albums like 2NE1 are why I fell in love with the group. Every song, regardless of its subject matter, has an alluring, inviting confidence to it. Songs like “Ugly,” reveal deep insecurities but speak of them with straightforward urgency and need; the narrators in “Lonely” might be conflicted, but they know for a fact that they can’t stay in their relationships. That confidence, at the time, carried them straight to the top, and has made them legends despite their ignoble end as a group.
I can’t wait for whatever the next 2NE1 reunion brings. I hope it’s something like this album.