More From the K-Pop Fringe: 2NE1

I once worked with a guy at Tower Records years ago, and though he didn't listen to J-pop at all, he did appreciate a catchy, well-crafted pop tune, (and was a fan of artists like SClub7 and the like) so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when I hooked up with him recently and found that he had been getting into K-POP!

I related to him that I did know a smattering of korean artists like Shoujo Jidai, KARA, 4Minute etc, and while he did acknowledge those acts, the one group he was really into was a 4 girl unit called 2NE1, and even made a point to log onto his work computer to show me their stats! LOL! At the time, the song he was playing for me was a hip-hoppy-ish number called "Can't Nobody", and I have to say, it was pretty catchy stuff!

Since that time, I've been delighted to find that 2NE1 not only recorded a Japanese version of the song, but had released complete japanese version ALBUMS as well!! And out of all these new tunes (well, new to me, anyway), the most kewl and catchy of them all just HAS to be their totally-full-of-attitude number HATE YOU!

Growling with swagger and defiantly stating that they're "Fine Livin' Without You!", I was DYING to see these girls in action singing this one, but sadly, it seemed like the only PV they've released of this features the girls in an all-animation form. Cool, but I REALLY wanted to see the chicks burn this one out, so in the end, I latched onto this ULTRA COOL performance of the girls doing the original Korean version of the song kickin' it LIVE...Soooo cool!