Is There a K-Demon Inside the Suupa? ‘World of Suupa’ Semi-Final Review

Is there a K-Demon inside the Suupa? On July 8th, Mnet’s ‘World of Street Woman Fighter’ (hereafter ‘World of Suupa’) depicted the four crews entering the semi-finals. The special judge for the day was Saweetie, an American female singer and rapper who was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammy Awards. The first mission of the semi-finals was the ‘Global Artist Performance Mission’ where each crew competed with Saweetie’s ‘Shake It Fast’ performance. K-D, from Motive, Aliyah from Age Squad, Minami from Osaka Ojo Gang, and Lee Jung from Banjuk took on the role of Saweetie.

On that day, Saweetie was impressed while watching Banjuk’s ‘Shake It Fast’ performance video. In particular, she said about Lee Jung, who took on her role, “I wanted to be Lee Jung while watching the video. Lee Jung’s gestures, presence, expressions, makeup, and hair were all perfect and beautiful,” and added, “Lee Jung was sweet at times, sexy at times, and aggressive at times. There were so many moments that it was dynamic. It was so good. If it were me, I would pay to see it. I would definitely pay for the merchandise. I am now a fan of Banjuk!” Meanwhile, Banjuk’s stage was themed around ‘Alice in Wonderland’, capturing a concept that was more fairy-tale-like than traditional hip-hop or sexy.

Other crews watching the video reacted with comments like “It feels like K-Pop.” Coincidentally, Banjuk’s performance strangely resembled , which has recently become a hot topic on Netflix. While other crews presented stages with unified costumes and movements based on hip-hop, Banjuk gave a sense of déjà vu as if watching a scene from with their various flashy costumes and relatively free movements. It felt like two contents created in completely different times and on entirely different OTT platforms were somehow influencing each other within the vast universe of ‘K-Pop’.

However, Saweetie ultimately awarded 1st place and an additional 100 points to Age Squad, who best expressed their music, character, worldview, and stage energy. Additionally, the global public evaluation results award 1000 points to the 1st place crew, with 100 points awarded to each subsequent rank. The second mission of the semi-finals is a dance film mission where the four crews complete a dance film on the theme of women, with the crew that takes 1st place becoming the main character of the main segment of the dance film divided into five sections. The final score of the semi-finals is determined by adding the bonus points from the two missions and the global public evaluation scores, with the bottom two crews facing a final elimination battle before the finals. ‘World of Suupa’ airs every Tuesday at 10 PM.