G-DRAGON · RaeRae Reacts · Performance Review
Anderson .Paak owns the hook, G-DRAGON dances around the pocket, and RIEHATA turns “TOO BAD” into the rare performance video that understands control is more interesting than throwing every move at the camera.
Song: “TOO BAD (feat. Anderson .Paak)”
Artist: G-DRAGON
Album: Übermensch
Song release: February 25, 2025
Performance video: March 3, 2025
Featured artist: Anderson .Paak
Main choreography: RIEHATA
Runtime: 2:33
First, the song
“TOO BAD” is only two minutes and thirty-three seconds long, and Anderson .Paak spends a lot of that time holding the center. The drums arrive already relaxed, the bass sits low, and .Paak makes the hook sound like he wandered into the studio, found the exact pocket, and refused to leave.
G-DRAGON’s verses are short. He uses that space well, slipping between Korean and English with a lower, looser delivery instead of attacking the track. The contrast works because .Paak gives the chorus its bounce while G-DRAGON keeps nudging the rhythm sideways. Still, I wanted another full verse. This collaboration is fun, but the feature sometimes feels closer to shared custody.
The production does not chase a giant drop. It runs on drum feel, bass, clipped guitar and small vocal turns. That makes it easy to replay and also means the song can disappear if you are waiting for a dramatic bridge or final explosion.
Released with G-DRAGON’s third studio album Übermensch on February 25, 2025, “TOO BAD” arrived as one of the album’s title tracks. The record was his first solo full-length since Coup d’Etat in 2013. The song does not walk in carrying twelve years of ceremony. It wants to flirt, move and get out.
The performance video understands the assignment
The official music video has celebrity cameos and a bigger visual joke. This version removes that distraction and asks whether the groove can survive with G-DRAGON, RIEHATA and the dancers in a filming space. Yes. Easily.
G-DRAGON enters looking like somebody emptied a very expensive accessories drawer onto one person and somehow lost the argument. Korean release coverage identifies a multicolor beanie, black shearling earmuffs, horn-rimmed glasses, a teal scarf, yellow sneakers and a pink piece at his waist. Together they look intentional because he never performs as if the clothes are wearing him.
The choreography is not built around constant full-power hits. G-DRAGON lets his shoulders, knees and feet sit inside the beat, then tightens a move when the percussion gives him a reason. The dancers bring sharper edges around him, which makes his looser timing read as a choice.
RIEHATA did not mistake busy for funky
RIEHATA created the main choreography and appears in the video. You can watch the rhythm travel through two performers with different centers of gravity.
Her choreography gives the backup dancers real work without turning G-DRAGON into the least mobile person in his own performance video. They frame, answer and sharpen him. He drifts, accents and pulls focus back with timing. The best parts are the seconds when the group hits hard around him and he delays just enough to make the beat feel wider.
RaeRae verdict
I like the performance more than I love the song. “TOO BAD” has an excellent pocket, a hook Anderson .Paak can carry in his sleep, and enough G-DRAGON weirdness to keep it from becoming anonymous funk-pop. It is also very short, very safe, and a little stingy with the actual G-DRAGON verses.
RIEHATA cannot add another verse. What she does is show why the record works anyway. The beat leaves room. G-DRAGON knows how to use room. The dancers know when to close it around him.
Replay: Yes.
Best reason to watch this version: The groove is the entire set.
Complaint: Give G-DRAGON another verse and let Anderson .Paak keep the hook. Everybody wins.
Credits and sources
Lyrics: G-DRAGON, Anderson .Paak
Composition: G-DRAGON, Anderson .Paak, Bongo, Alissia, Yohan
Arrangement: G-DRAGON, Anderson .Paak, Bongo, Alissia
Main choreography: RIEHATA
- Official performance videoDaily+3.1KTotal views9.9M
- Official G-DRAGON content record
- Official Übermensch release teaserDaily+267Total views1.7M
- Apple Music album record
- Maeil Business / Star Today performance report
- OSEN performance report via ChosunBiz
- Soompi release report
The official MV makes charm look like crowd control
The performance film proves the groove can survive in a stripped filming space. The official music video uses the opposite strategy. It fills the frame with bright color, dancers, costume changes and faces you already know, then lets G-DRAGON stroll through the commotion like he scheduled all of it between appointments.
Karina’s cameo is short and specific. Korean release coverage described the pair keeping a close distance through roughly twenty seconds of dancing before she whispers at the end of the sequence. That is enough to create an event without pretending she became a co-star or a featured singer. Bada Lee and former YGX dancers give the wider scenes more snap, while G-DRAGON keeps refusing to dance as if the camera is grading his range of motion.
The styling is loud, but the visual joke is control. Sets, dancers and celebrity cameos keep arriving. G-DRAGON rarely looks rushed by any of them. The official MV sells his social gravity; the RIEHATA performance video explains the rhythm underneath it. They are distinct video treatments of one song, so they belong on this one canonical review.
