Rookie group CORTIS shows off teen swagger on debut EP

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When rookie boy group CORTIS first burst onto the K-pop scene in August with styles straight from the pages of a 2000s teen magazine, following in the footsteps of industry icons such as BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, making their mark seemed like a daunting task.

But the five teens who made up BigHit Music’s first group in six years — Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon and Keonho — have the swaggering confidence and youthful charisma to show they're up for the challenge.

Be it through their nostalgic styling choices or their energetic choreography, CORTIS made a splash with their debut EP, "Color Outside The Lines" — an impressive feat for a group with only five songs under their belt.

The group is a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year nominations. In a month, the young creator crew broke multiple records by debuting at No. 15 on the global Billboard 200, the highest among their contemporaries; amassing 48 million views for their three official music videos; and gaining over 7.5 million monthly listeners on music streaming platform Spotify. These are numbers and chart placements that even K-pop veterans struggle to achieve and most rookie groups wouldn’t even dare to dream of.

Apart from their musical talent, the boys of CORTIS also seem to know where they're going. In all five tracks of their debut EP, they unabashedly declare their desires: “I want the whole world to know my name.”

The band’s debut single, rock-influenced “What You Want,” screams this ambition from the rooftops. “Money, style, fame, love and what? / Ooh, take what you want / Enough's not enough to fill me up / Scarf it down, yuh, like a hippo,” the boys sing-shout over guitar riffs and a thumping bass, with conviction to spare. They welcome the throes of early fame, brimming with the fearlessness unique to teenagers. The album's final track is an English version of the same song, with rising rapper and track producer Teezo Touchdown lending a verse.

This vitality is also in the shimmery trap synths of the wildly viral “GO!,” declaring the band's arrival in the K-pop industry. The track spawned thousands of TikTok dance challenges, gaining a level of ubiquity that cements their place in this year’s top music lists. It’s clear from the get-go that the boys are eager to conquer, teetering on the edge as they transmit energy through every verse: “Bring the new beat / Bring the new hit / Bring the new sheet / I'm on the new sh—.”

In the frenetic “FaSHioN,” the teens wield rap verses about thrifting in Seoul’s Dongmyo flea market and making vintage discoveries in ongdae. The undeniably catchy EDM track is a shoutout to the stylings of Seoul, a playful rundown of the band’s sartorial tastes — sagging pants and all.

“JoyRide” takes listeners on a pensive drive along the California coast, ruminating about making music against a breezy bass and mellow acoustic guitar. The stream-of-consciousness lyrics paint a picture of reckless adolescence, as the boys talk about “hopping over walls” and “flipping like fried eggs, pancakes.”

The EP's penultimate track is the sparse, plucky “Lullaby,” an unfiltered meditation on sleepless nights from writing their first record. “I got work, you got work, but in this moment, quiet first,” are insomniac words to live by.

All five members of the band participated in the making of their debut EP, a rarity in K-pop but not a surprise for predebut followers of CORTIS. At 17, leader Martin has already produced a couple of chart-topping hits and worked on labelmate TXT’s “Deja Vu” and ILLIT’s “Magnetic” — two of K-pop’s best releases last year. Meanwhile, James, a former member of the now defunct project group Trainee A, also choreographed for them.

While CORTIS leans into the MTV-era independent spirit, choosing the less-traveled path with unfiltered musings, the band still benefits from the polish of K-pop's biggest label, HYBE, and working with big-name producers like Juicy J and Teezo Touchdown.

The EP is derivative at some points, inspired by hip hop heavyweights such as Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and A$AP Rocky, and making generous use of vocal editors. But it’s true to the music any 17-year-old boy would want to listen to or create.

There are records where it is obvious the artists were having a great time in the studio, hyping themselves as they glide over every bar, creating a sound that is a distillation of their youth. It’s clear that CORTIS had fun with this outing, bringing the same joy to the listener, too.

The brilliance of the EP lies in the sharp, irreverent wit of the boys’ candid lyrics. In “FaSHioN,” Martin calls out band member Keonho for questioning his outfit choices. Keonho then name-drops their billionaire producer, CEO "Hitman" Bang Si-hyuk in “GO!”: “I'm in hit mode / Wanna make a hit like a Hitman, so I reload.” In the English version of "What You Want," James declares: "Well, I want to ball like it's LeBron game."

These carefree lyrics are straight from the Gen Z zeitgeist — young, wild, free and swept up with wholesome ambition. There's no traces of the world's malice and cruelties, just pure, unadulterated teenage spirit, leaving listeners in anticipation for what's next.

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