A Triumphant Return for BIGBANG and G-DRAGON
Nearly a decade after their last performance together, BIGBANG returns more resilient than ever.
For BIGBANG’s biggest fans, “Still Life” marked the end of the group as we know it.
Released in the spring of 2022 after the group’s disgraced vocalist Seungri had been sent to prison, the track felt like a goodbye. It was a ballad, which was rare for the group, reflective of a career that had broken barriers for K-Pop groups. BIGBANG may have never scaled the same heights as BTS, but there would be no modern day K-Pop without BIGBANG. “Still Life”, though, felt like a resignation that they would never try to either.
Years before this, though, BIGBANG was known for loud, audacious music that allowed the singers to be punks and frauds. G-Dragon was the group’s leader and, along with Taeyang and T.O.P. wrote the majority of the group’s discography. Compared to most K-Pop groups, their music was refreshingly honest. In tracks like “Sober”, T.O.P. raps, “I seem like an adult but I’m really a child that’s really tall/ My young dreams are just faded fantasies/ My mood is like a vast wilderness/ People don’t understand me.” In “Monster”, one of my favorite tracks, the boys insist that though they may seem problematic they are not, in fact, monsters. Those words would be put to the test years later during the Burning Sun scandal as Seungri was implicated for sexual crimes.
Seungri’s crimes threatened to destroy BIGBANG’s legacy. For many VIPs, his actions were so heinous and disturbing that looking back at the group was too painful. And for some members of BIGBANG, like G Dragon, the pressure of idol stardom seemed to be too heavy to continue. His last EP, “KWON JI YONG”, stands as one of the best and most provocative works released by a K-Pop idol in history. “I need somebody/ Any goddamn body,” he raps on “SUPER STAR”, a searing portrait of the isolation fame gives.
But for the past seven years, he has been on hiatus. Occasionally stepping out for fashion events or spreads in high profile magazines, the rapper gave interviews. Last year, though, G-Dragon was accused of drug crimes by prosecutors. For a brief moment, his career, too, seemed to be on the fast track to ending. But then G-Dragon rose up and fought back. He took several drug tests, passed them, and spoke out against the false charges. This year, he announced that he would set up a foundation to fight drug addiction.
And then in October, he dropped “Power”. It's a rousing, blistering comeback anthem that, in true G-Dragon form, takes shots at all who betrayed or doubted him over the past decade. “A limited edition of the second generation, a masterpiece of the century,” he raps in reference to his status as one of the greats from second generation K-Pop. But I especially love the line, “Prove ‘em all wrong, I got the receipts,” which takes aim at the drug charges. This was not rap hyperbole: G-Dragon’s receipts were actually proven in a Korean court of law.
But G-Dragon’s biggest flex came this past weekend with the release of “HOME SWEET HOME”, his first collaboration with Taeyang and Daesung since the unofficial end of BIGBANG. The track is a surprise release, and offers a look into the future for the remaining members. “You say it's changed/ Show must go on, behave/ It's been a while since I sang an old song/ I'm feelin' like I never left,” G-Dragon raps in the opening lines. The track references some of BIGBANG’s biggest songs, including “Fantastic Baby”, G-Dragon’s debut album “COUP DE’TAT”. “You don’t even know ‘Untitled’,” he sneers at younger K-Pop fans. “Bull as shit”.
The message of “POWER” and “HOME SWEET HOME” is a forceful one: Put some fucking respect on BIGBANG’s name.
On Friday, Daesung, Taeyang and G-Dragon returned to the MAMA stage for their first performance together in almost a decade. The purpose was for G-Dragon’s fifteen minute set, which began with “Untiled, 2014” from “KWON JI YONG” before he slid into “POWER” and “HOME SWEET HOME”. But it was also a celebration for the members and a presentation of BIGBANG’s showmanship to a new generation of K-Pop fans. You may have heard a lot about BIGBANG, the group’s performance seemed to suggest. Now watch them prove you wrong.
Onstage, G-Dragon resembled a monarch with a pastel pink conductor uniform and matching hat. G-Dragon has never been an idol who sticks to gender norms, but I especially loved to see how he doubled down on an outfit that feels so out of step with the hyper-masculine look that is dominating K-Pop these days from groups like ATEEZ and Stray Kids.
His performance was the equivalent of a middle finger raised to the establishment. For everyone who tried to tear him down and ruin his career, he’s still here. Of course, nothing makes G-Dragon raise more than oppression and his performance reflected this: He seemed to revel in a return that was built on so much controversy.
But once BIGBANG arrived for their performance of “HOME SWEET HOME”, the mood shifted. For all of G-Dragon’s defiance, BIGBANG had to both reckon with their past and also look towards a future together that seemed almost impossible two years ago.
The biggest surprise of the night was that the three men performed two classic BIGBANG tracks, “FANTASTIC BABY” and “BANG BANG BANG”. Those tracks still carry a heavy punch, but perhaps the group has never had to swing as hard as they did on this night. By this point in the performance, the members had transformed the stadium in Osaka into their own BIGBANG concert. Their stage presence is still as massive as ever with G-Dragon attacking his verses like an assassin shooting to kill. For their part, Taeyang and Daesung sound as good - if not better - than ever as vocalists. The choreography was less tight than previous BIGBANG performances with Taeyang being perhaps the most gifted dancer of the three. But that rarely mattered: Where BIGBANG excelled was in how aggressive they were in reclaiming their spot as a legendary K-Pop group. By the final minute as they burst into a victory lap with “FANTASTIC BABY”, the group looked triumphant.
What was missing throughout the performance was T.O.P, whose deep voiced rapping often balanced G-Dragon’s frenetic energy. He was heard in key moments throughout the performance, specifically with the “BOOM SHAKALAKA” and “BANG BANG BANG” parts of both songs. But as his voice filled the stadium, he sounded like a ghost echoing from the speakers, a reminder of what Seungri’s scandals had cost the group. For T.O.P, who has openly dealt with mental health issues, BIGBANG’s success coincided with a dark chapter in his life.
Perhaps because he chose to not take part in this comeback, the lyrics of “HOME SWEET HOME” seem partially directed to him. “We alike dead or alive, your life? Still life/ It's so nice, I missed you a lot,” G-Dragon writes in the bridge about the group’s bond, before turning to T.OP.’s absence: “You're welcome back home, wherever you are.” The track is nostalgic, with an autotuned chorus that is reminiscent of “FANTASTIC BABY”. It’s also sentimental as the men acknowledge that no one will ever understand what they went through together.
BIGBANG’s members are now closer to forty than twenty; closer to middle age than the rebellious adolescence that they used to rap so heavily about. But onstage at MAMA, they seemed defiant once again. Refusing to go quietly into the night, I was struck again by what has always been the underlying motivator of G-Dragon’s art: His resilience.
