Unexpectedly, the summer of 2026 is becoming the summer of Kara. Just last week, buzzy group RESCENE released a note-for-note cover of their 2008 hit Pretty Girl and now Young Posse have delivered a song built on a sample of the 2009 blockbuster Mr. While it’s nice to be reminded of K-pop classics, I wish the industry’s current producers could find a way to write new music as stunning as these originals rather than simply rip them off.
Young Posse are fresh off releasing one of the year’s worst tracks and have come back to terrorize us with a mixtape. By their very definition, mixtapes offer more artistic freedom and lower risk than a full comeback, which is the perfect set-up for a mess like Mr. 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, we might just have a worse Mr. cover/tribute than that ghastly attempt last year.
But while I have no desire to listen to Mr. 2026 again, I respect it a bit more than a straight-up cover because at least the girls try to do something different. In this case, they’ve sped up the original hook to chipmunk levels, thrown it over a bad trap beat and rattled off the chorus a few times without any real desire to give it the chutzpah it requires. Your assignment today is to go listen to the original and immediately play this revamped version afterward. I can think of no better contrast to represent how K-pop has changed over the past seventeen years. I’ll let you decide whether you think that change was for better or worse.
Hooks
7
Production
6
Longevity
6
Bias
5
RATING
6