[SM Station] Single Review: Heechul, Shindong, Eunhyuk & Solar – Charm Of Life

Release Date: December 8, 2017

Tracklist: 

1. “짬에서 나오는 바이브 (Charm of Life)”

Total Runtime: 00:03:50

Recommended for: Those who like hip-hop songs, or Elfs in general

Not Recommended for: Anyone who dislikes hip-hop

This is a collaboration between the members in charge of rap in Super Junior (Heechul, Shindong & Eunhyuk) and MAMAMO’s Solar. This hip-hop and slightly diss-like track is inspired by notable rappers of South Korea, as the Suju members were seen dressing like them. Eunhyuk as Go Jwanghwan, Shindong as KillaGramz and Heechul as Nucksal. This leads to high expectations for the members as well as Solar as many fans were anticipating a cool but enjoyable track to listen to.

The song starts off with Solar’s lovely voice before Eunhyuk takes over, rapping the introduction lightly, introducing this unique collaboration before Solar picks up from there and sings again.

While watching the video, it cracked me up several times because of the SJ members who tried to remain cool while posing for the video for several seconds and swaying their arms left to right while plastering slightly emotionless looks. Heechul’s rap was very impressive and honestly, I wanted him to feature in a song and rap because his endless ‘crying raps’ in JTBC’s Knowing Bros, a Korean variety show, is making a deep impression on me. Shindong’s rap was lowkey lit, he did it so effortlessly and I was surprised nonetheless.

The interesting part of this video is that while Heechul and Shindong were rapping, the original rappers were standing next to them, grooving slightly while trying their best to look smug. Unfortunately, Eunhyuk did not have any rap parts and that made me highly disappointed. As a fan, I was initially looking forward to Eunhyuk’s rap but I was left a little bitter because all he had was the introduction and seen grooving to the music with the members and original rappers. However, I do hope that Eunhyuk has more chance in future and that he has a solo song by himself.

This song has rocketed, charting on various charts and Super Junior was seen trending on Naver, a Korean portal online. Despite this, Heechul was accused by some netizens, calling him a misogynist due to his lyrics. In response, Heechul clarified himself and strongly denied the accusations but refused to explain himself further as he did not wish for his fans to get hurt over such accusations. Instead, he wished for the people to ‘live happily and peacefully’ and not to create unnecessary tensions.

This song is a rather good song to unwind and jam. After all, the Super Junior members have proved themselves capable of rapping effortlessly due to their 13 years of experience. I hope other Super Junior members get to collaborate with other artists and wow us with a stellar performance.