The seven members of the girl group XG are all Japanese, but they’re based in South Korea, and they sing in English. The group’s name stands for Xtraordinary Girls, and they’ve been around for two years; their debut single “Tippy Toes” came out in 2022. XG’s whole thing seems to be based on a relative fluency with straight-up rap music — they post cypher videos and stuff — and now they’ve released “Woke Up,” which is being marketed as their first full-on rap song. It’s some wild shit.

First off: “Woke Up” is a pretty good song! All seven Xtraordinary Girls can really rap. They’ve all got different ratatat flows, and they’ve got levels of charisma and energy that I was not expecting to encounter. The track careens along recklessly, and it reminds me a bit of early Brockhampton if they were all Japanese girls and if they had an absolutely unlimited music-video budget.

What is going on with this video? It’s like someone got Zack Snyder all jacked up on Pixie Stix and Adderall and made him run all his slow-motion scenes in fast-forward. The “Woke Up” clip is high-grade CGI sci-fi vomit, and I have no idea what’s going on with any of it. It’s compelling. I am compelled. This reminds me of when BigBang videos first started going viral in the US, leaving me to wonder what the fuck was going on. Experience it for yourself below.