Perhaps not quite the bestest though…
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[5.90]
Thomas Inskeep: Much more convincing as a “dope girl” than, say, Gwen Stefani, this former Wonder Girl gives a class in how to be a pop rapper with credibility in both spheres. And her guest Il-hoon (from BtoB) spits clean and quick, all to a bouncy, stripped-down beat. I love the tease of HyunA’s “You can touch me/Don’t touch me”: she knows what she wants, and when she feels like it, she’ll let you know, too. Not the best but certainly in the ballpark.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: It manifests as Mustard-wave via Iggy Azalea, only with the addition of some well-needed greasiness. Perhaps though, it’s Mustard-wave via Mustard — let me not indict other foreigners for Australia’s sins. Either way, it lacks the humidity or the freneticism of the best of its type. Fun though.
[6]
Madeleine Lee: The faux RnBass opening is promising, and the way Hyuna delivers “you can’t touch me/don’t touch me” — like ice so cold that it burns — is a peak example of the kind of slogan rap that she is the best at. Even the appearance of a more conventionally fast-talking rapper (Jung Ilhoon of Hyuna and 4minute’s labelmates BTOB) can’t diminish her power. Seeing to that instead is the chorus, which might have been planned as a place to catch a breath between the rap verses and that menacing “don’t touch me” hook, but instead just kinda hangs there, half-inflated.
[5]
Iain Mew: It’s the expected tuned-up hip-pop, but Hyuna doesn’t sound her usual confident self. It’s not that she’s overwhelmed by the track’s myriad forces so much as just going fast in different directions to them, best represented by the weird forced whooping that would be difficult to sound cool doing in any context. It’s not the first time the message has been that she’s the best, but she’s never previously seemed to be working too hard to prove it.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Amazingly, nobody had yet taken the Mustardese Minimalism and thought “Hmmm. You know what would be cool? If we took these weird grooves and then decided we were gonna marry them to new-jack swing style post-boogie funk”. Hyuna’s navigation in tease has been a particular skill for her, so to hear the cawwing of the Nic-Nac style snippets providing extra dread to the slink of this beat while she struts and turns her nose up brings an extra slam in each turn of the beat’s aggressive evolutions. Il-hoon provides a perfectly acceptable filler verse, but this could be Hyuna’s best record since “Bubble Pop”.
[8]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: People outchea consider “Because I’m the Best” a flawed retread of both Hyuna’s “Red” and 4Minute’s “Crazy” which is a forehead-slapper of a critical take: those were pop songs that simultaneously made a show of their messiness while covering it up via amalgamating huge swathes of hip-hop trends into their sonics and visuals. They were big and glossy but also tacky and disposable. “Best” is big and glossy but passes on overstuffed K-pop standards, bypassing now-tiring maximalism in the desire to be nothing more than a fat dumb banger. Like Crush’s stunning “Oasis” did earlier this summer, it plays with a hyper-powered, melodic version of familiar Los Angeles club sounds, and Hyuna sounds comfortable asserting herself in a way she never did on those earlier tracks. She sounds like she’s having fun, and that spreads to guest Il-hoon, who plays the spirited rookie to his host’s domineering club queen. In that moment, “Because I’m the Best” feels like a lesson passed from an industry veteran to a young lion: have fun, listen for good sounds, make bangers.
[8]
Patrick St. Michel: This is as above-average as modern K-pop gets — a song clearly biting moves from American pop, but being unconcerned enough to take it to some new places. “Because I’m the Best” is a Mustard-inspired number, but one where Hyuna can bring in a few wildcards (mainly, that late song bridge). Need to cut out that rap, though.
[5]
Alfred Soto: A bubblelicious track powered by handclaps and synthesized burps and Hyuna’s “Don’t touch me” tease, “Because I’m the Best” has the metamorphosing restlessness of K-pop at its best.
[7]
Jessica Doyle: Objectification 101: “cheap” as an efficient way of labeling someone as both sexually available and not worth much: the body as commodity. And Hyuna’s body is a commodity, just like that of any other idol: such is the nature of the beast. She’s been particularly vulnerable to the “cheap” label for a long time now, and her strategy has been to refuse to internalize it. Her lyrics veer between ordering thirsty listeners around and reassuring everyone of her awareness of her own attractiveness; she’s even, once, directly pushed back against the slut-shaming. In videos, meanwhile, she’s caging paparazzi; riding backup dancers’ shoulders; pushing Lee Joon into pools; spraying “ice cream” on her admirers; and so on and so forth. She’s the one determining her own value. “Because I’m the Best” is boring in its insistence on the theme, but the real offense is how goddamn cheap everything feels. The beat sounds like something Brave Brothers abandoned after two drafts; the concept seems to have been cribbed from reading three thinkpieces about 2014 Miley Cyrus; the choreography never gets past Twerking=Sexy; and even having Il-hoon as the feature makes you wonder if Cube blew the album’s guest-star budget on Yuk Ji Dam. Even the pink bra looks discount. Hyuna can do a lot to assert herself as sexy and self-regarding and valuable in the face of a system determined to label her otherwise, but someone let her down here.
[4]
Mo Kim: Beyond some genuine bounce in the synth motif’s step and a brief pre-chorus where Hyuna matches the escalating bravado of those foghorns with her snarl, “Because I’m the Best” is by-the-numbers swagger rap: asserting your superiority works much better when it doesn’t sound this complacent. Il-hoon acquaints himself well enough, but he’s all percussive thrust, no substance.
[5]