LISA | RaeRae Reacts | Music Video Review

FUTW

Vixi escaped the padded room. The budget followed her. The lyrics are still waiting for a better alibi.

Release file

• Song: “FXCK UP THE WORLD (Vixi Solo Version)”
• Official MV title: “FUTW (Vixi Solo Version)”
• Artist: LISA
• Album: Alter Ego
• Released: February 28, 2025
• Label: LLOUD Co. / RCA Records
• Alter ego: Vixi
• Director: Christian Breslauer
• Runtime: 2:55

First, which version is this?

Alter Ego includes two versions of this song. The standard “FXCK UP THE WORLD” features Future and runs 3:04. The Vixi solo version removes Future, gives the full record back to LISA, and appears as track 14. That solo cut is the version Christian Breslauer’s official video uses.

This matters because “Vixi Solo Version” is not another artist, a remix producer or a new LISA biography. Vixi is one of the five personas built for the Alter Ego concept. LISA’s official character page introduces her as the one people call the villain. Her colors are black and red, her lucky number is 13, and her assigned song is “F*ck Up the World.” They did not leave much room for a quiet misunderstanding.

I prefer the solo cut. Future’s verse adds another famous name to an album already crowded with guests, but it does not give Vixi a sharper identity. LISA sounds better when she has to carry her own threat from opening siren to final hook.

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Lyrics and meaning: the beat is guilty, and the words need a better lawyer

FNZ, ATL Jacob and Hendrix Smoke build “FUTW” out of warning sirens, heavy low end and trap percussion that sounds ready for an action trailer before LISA says a word. The production is blunt on purpose. It does not creep into the room. It kicks the door and assumes the invoice will be somebody else’s problem.

LISA attacks it with the clipped consonants and quick switches that have always made her strongest rap passages feel physical. The solo version gives her more uninterrupted space, and she uses it. Her voice stays hard at the front of the mix, the gang vocals widen the chant, and the repeated title does exactly what a crowd hook is supposed to do.

Then we get to the writing. Vixi causes havoc, ignores the phone, takes over stages, warns everybody to pick up the pieces and tells anyone asking for the old LISA to listen to the old music. That last point has teeth. Most of the rest is a villain resume written in all caps.

The title is repeated so often that the song starts confusing volume with evidence. I believe LISA can ruin somebody’s evening. I would like one specific example. Steal the mayor’s car. Leak the board meeting. Replace every luxury-brand gift bag with instant noodles. Give me a crime with paperwork.

The beat keeps the track moving anyway, and 2:55 is the correct length. A fourth round of the same declaration would have required Vixi to actually file a plan.

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Vixi escapes, and the budget follows her

The video starts with Vixi confined in an institution. She gets out, naturally, because nobody created a red-and-black villain alter ego to watch her attend group therapy on schedule. From there, the night expands into video games, dancing, joyriding and citywide mess.

Christian Breslauer directs this like a comic-book origin story that has no interest in waiting for the hero. The sets are dirty, glossy and exaggerated. Vixi moves through them in visual changes that keep her from becoming one red outfit repeated for three minutes. Sony’s official Japanese release note specifically points to the sharp choreography and numerous look changes, which are the two things holding the live-action sections together when the plot cheerfully stops obeying intake procedure.

LISA is convincing here because she does not play Vixi as a generic angry face. She looks entertained. The grin matters. Anybody can glare in red leather. Vixi acts like the escape is the first fun thing that happened all week.

The institution setup is also the weakest idea in the video. Pop has used padded rooms as shorthand for dangerous women so many times that the walls should receive residuals. The video escapes that cliche when Vixi reaches the city and starts treating the night like her own arcade. Before that, the image is familiar enough to arrive pre-explained.

The player is the single official LLOUD upload. It does not autoplay.

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The animation finally makes the album idea useful

The best conceptual move comes when the video shifts into animation and cycles through LISA’s other personas: Roxi, Sunni, Kiki and Speedi alongside Vixi. That is where Alter Ego stops looking like five photobook covers competing for shelf space and starts behaving like one world.

Vixi may be driving this song, but the animated transformations show that none of the five characters exists in a sealed room. They are visual routes into different sounds and attitudes, all performed by the same person. The video does not prove that every persona is equally developed. It does explain why the record needed more than a hairstyle chart.

I wish the live-action story had used that connection more. One brief animated run carries a lot of conceptual weight while most of the video lets Vixi have an expensive solo tantrum. It is a very good tantrum. I still wanted the other four to interfere.

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RaeRae verdict

The Vixi solo version is the correct version for this video. LISA does not need Future to certify that she can rap over an ATL Jacob beat, and removing him makes the alter-ego concept cleaner.

The production and delivery hit harder than the lyrics. “FUTW” keeps announcing destruction without giving Vixi many details beyond confidence, stages and havoc. The video supplies the missing evidence. She escapes, drives, dances, changes form and leaves a whole production department cleaning up after her.

Song replay: Yes, when I need three minutes of bass and bad decisions.
Best choice: Keeping the official MV on the solo cut.
Best visual idea: The animated handoff among all five alter egos.
Complaint: The villain needed sharper lyrics. The wardrobe cannot commit every crime.

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Credits and sources

Writers: LISA, Jaeyoung Lee, Michael Mule, Isaac De Boni, Jacob Canady, Derrick Miller, Nija Charles
Producers: FNZ, ATL Jacob, Hendrix Smoke
Vocal producer: Kuk Harrell
Mixing: Patrizio “Teezio” Pigliapoco
Mastering: Randy Merrill
Director: Christian Breslauer
Cinematography: Andrey Nikolaev
Editing: Mykyta Bereg
Production design: Alexander Delgado

• Official “FUTW (Vixi Solo Version)” music videoDaily+28.8KTotal views66.6M
• Official Vixi character page
• Apple Music Korea solo-version record
• Apple Music Alter Ego album record
• Sony Music Japan album and MV release note
• Recording Academy Alter Ego feature
• Money Today Korean album review
• Associated Press album review

Read the full LISA profile

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Bottom line

FUTW gives Vixi a padded room, a breakout and a visual vocabulary stronger than the lyric’s central provocation. LISA performs the character with commitment; the song is most interesting when containment becomes rhythm and least interesting when rebellion is reduced to one repeated phrase.

What changed every time I replayed it

Replay one follows the beat’s hard negative space. Replay two watches how Vixi changes eye contact before and after escape. Replay three separates performance from writing: LISA keeps adding physical specificity after the lyric has stopped developing.

The alter ego earns part of its name

Vixi changes movement, styling and visual behavior enough to register as a character, not another outfit. The musical identity is less distinct. That gap reveals the album’s challenge: alter egos must change sound decisions, not only the frame around them.

Production and enclosure

Hard surfaces, clipped percussion and deliberate gaps make the room audible before it is visible. The beat gives LISA space to turn stillness into threat. Once escape occurs, however, the production changes less than the story. Freedom is announced by image while the audio remains inside similar walls.

The counterargument

A direct empowerment hook does not owe listeners a thesis. True. The question is replay value. When the phrase repeats without new consequence, the visual team and performer must carry development composition could have shared.

What I would change

After the escape, change vocal processing or the drum grid so freedom has an audible cost. The room should not sound exactly the same once its walls have failed.

Canonical profiles

LISA · BLACKPINK

Receipts

LISA’s official Vixi solo videoDaily+28.8KTotal views66.6M is the exact tracked file.