ZICO and TELEVISION
On July 12, 2017, ZICO released his second solo mini-album TELEVISION and the dual title tracks “Artist” and “ANTI,” with the latter featuring G.Soul. The mini-album features four other tracks, including two previously released tracks, “Genius (Behind the scene),” and “FANXY CHILD.” While TELEVISION still features some heavier, grittier tracks, it is a bit of a departure from ZICO’s 2015 release GALLERY, but is no less exceptional.
The Music Videos
ZICO’s sixth digital single, “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” featuring DEAN and Crush, was released on November 28, 2016 prior to being included on the physical version of TELEVISION. As mentioned in last week’s Artist Highlight focusing on DEAN’s 130 mood : TRBL, “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” is widely considered to be the first release by FANXY CHILD, but it’s not the only track on TELEVISION to feature FANXY CHILD—ZICO also included track “FANXY CHILD” on the mini-album. The music video for “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” features the three friends as they walk across a rocky island, eat in a neon-lit garage, strut inside a church, and drive around in a Rolls-Royce. While there’s no plot, there’s just something so sexy about three men showing how powerful they are.
Another digital single that was included on TELEVISION is ZICO’s seventh digital single “She’s a Baby,” which was released on April 13, 2017. Befitting the soft ballad-like vibes, the music video is a pastel masterpiece, filled with soft ZICO visuals that are a far cry from the rapper fans saw in “BERMUDA TRIANGLE.” Something that isn’t talked about enough with ZICO is his ability to body any type of genre. His love of music pushes him to new heights, and his dedication to his craft shows in the various genres he experiments with and the different concepts he uses for his videos.
ZICO released the music videos for “Artist” and “ANTI” on the same day as the mini-album. The music video for “Artist” opens with ZICO watching himself on a television—a nod to the title of his mini-album, but also maybe a nod to his good pal DEAN, who also used a television and video version of himself in his music video for “bonnie & clyde.” The music video also features ZICO dancing on a side street with Block B member U-Kwon as well as the two fighting each other Godzilla vs. Kong style, ZICO embodying Naruto and using his Shadow Clone Technique to party with himself on a rooftop, and dancing schoolgirls.
While “Artist” is a lot lighter and more playful, “ANTI” is anything but sweet as ZICO opens the music video in black and white. The sound of heavy breathing overlaid with creepy music box chimes, paired with scenes of ZICO walking along a road at night before showing him in an open casket, are jarring when put together, painting an incredibly dark picture that hurts deep down to the core. It’s no secret that over the years, ZICO has endured a lot of hate from non-fans, and to hear the emotion in this track paired with the music video is painful. In an episode of Hack Zico on the Dingo YouTube channel, ZICO’s fellow Block B member Jaehyo said, “If you look at the lyrics for ‘ANTI,’ he wrote his lyrics as if he became an anti-fan. Although it hurt him to the core, he wrote these lyrics. He sang and recorded the song. The people who write hate comments about ZICO probably only heard ‘Artist’ from his album.”*
The Performances
While ZICO didn’t perform on any music shows to promote this release, the rapper did perform on two episodes of Yu Huiyeol’s Sketchbook. On the August 2, 2017 episode, ZICO performed shortened versions of “I Am You, You Are Me,” “Turtle Ship Remix,” “Okey Dokey,” and “Say Yes or No” and then performed “Artist” in full. Shortly before launching into his performance of “Okey Dokey,” ZICO introduced dance crew Rie Hata Tokyo and they joined him for “Okey Dokey,” “Say Yes or No,” and “Artist.”
On the September 6, 2017 episode, ZICO performed “ANTI,” with Babylon filling in for G.Soul, and “FANXY CHILD” with Crush and penomeco. Even though Babylon filled in for G.Soul during “ANTI,” he did not fill in for DEAN’s verse in “FANXY CHILD.” ZICO, Crush, and penomeco also performed “PARADISE,” the debut song of FANXY CHILD member MILLIC, with MILLIC onstage as well.
The Legacy
Chart-wise, TELEVISION was one of ZICO’s best performing releases to date. The mini-album peaked at No. 3 on the Gaon Weekly Album Chart and on the Billboard U.S. World Albums Chart. TELEVISION is ZICO’s only solo release to appear on the Billboard U.S. World Albums Chart.
While two tracks on the mini-album were released prior to their inclusion, all six tracks appeared on the Gaon Weekly Digital Chart: “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” peaked at No. 2 in 2016 while “She’s a Baby” peaked at No. 4, “Artist” peaked at No. 3, “ANTI” peaked at No. 12, “FANXY CHILD” peaked at No. 15, and “Genius (Behind the scene)” peaked at No. 36 in 2017. “Artist” also appeared on the Billboard K-Pop Hot 100 Chart, where it peaked at No. 78, and “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” and “She’s a Baby” appeared on the Billboard U.S. World Digital Song Sales Chart, peaking at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” is ZICO’s highest charting track to appear on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart and, interestingly enough, neither of the TELEVISION title tracks appeared on the chart.
As this album wasn’t promoted on music shows, there are no music show wins. That being said, ZICO did win a few awards at the end-of-year award ceremonies. At the 2017 Asia Artist Awards, ZICO took home the “Best Star Award.” The rapper also took home the “Artist Award” at the 2017 Korea Music Copyright Awards and “Best Male Artist” at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards. ZICO was also nominated at the Mnet Asian Music Awards for “Artist of the Year” while “Artist” was nominated for “Best Hip-Hop & Urban Music” and “Song of the Year.”
Other awards ZICO was nominated for were “Popularity Award” and “Hallyu Special Award” at the 2017 Seoul Music Awards, “Artist of the Year (Asia)” at the 2017 Urban Music Awards, and “Top 10 Artist” at the 2017 MelOn Music Awards. “Artist” was nominated for “Digital Bonsang” at the 2017 Golden Disc Awards, “Bonsang Award” at the 2017 Seoul Music Awards, and “Song of the Year - July” at the 2018 Gaon Chart Music Awards. Not one to be left out, “BERMUDA TRIANGLE” was also nominated for an award at the 2017 MelOn Music Awards, but unfortunately did not take home the trophy for “Best Rap/Hip-Hop Award.”
While it will be awhile before we get another release from ZICO as he is just about to hit the one year mark of his enlistment, we here at The Kraze know that anything he does create will be 100% pure ZICO, and we can’t wait.
*Translation from the video.