RaeRae Reacts
WICKED
ALLDAY PROJECT made two performance videos because one room could not hold this much audacity.
WICKED
ALLDAY PROJECT · FAMOUS · June 23, 2025 · 2:37
ALLDAY PROJECT debuted with two title tracks and apparently decided subtle introductions were for other people. “FAMOUS” told us they had arrived. “WICKED” sounds like they kicked the door again because the first entrance did not make enough noise.
This is Brazilian funk, trap, R&B, and drill packed into two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. The beat does not glide. It stomps, jerks sideways, drops its shoulder, and keeps moving before you can decide whether the last switch was rude or brilliant. I like it. I also understand why somebody else might hear it once and ask what exactly just happened to their speakers.
The answer is five people with very different performance instincts being allowed to keep them.
Song file
According to the official release credits, “WICKED” was written by Theron Thomas, Vince, Bailey, Annie, Courtlin Jabrae Edwards, Woochan, Tarzzan, Tommy “TB Hits” Brown, Amanda Ratchford, and Youngseo. Dominsuk and 24 produced it. Josh Gudwin mixed it, and Chris Gehringer mastered it.
That member credit matters. The verses do not sound like one anonymous songwriter assigned five interchangeable mouths. Each person gets a pocket that fits.
Annie comes in sharp and controlled. Woochan attacks the rhythm like the beat owes him money. Tarzzan leans into the strange texture instead of sanding it down. Bailey moves through the track with a dancer’s sense of where the body will hit before the sound arrives. Youngseo brings the cleaner vocal tone that stops the entire thing from becoming two and a half minutes of flexing in a parking garage.
The hook is deliberately simple. “Wicked” repeats until the word becomes percussion. There is no giant melodic chorus waiting to rescue anybody. The rhythm is the chorus. If that kind of minimal hook irritates you, this song will not apologize.
My actual first reaction
First thought: Oh. They are not trying to make a polite co-ed group.
Sound check: Bass first. Brazilian funk pressure underneath it. Rap pockets that change shape by member. A hook built to be shouted by a crowd that already knows the choreography.
The moment I leaned in: Woochan’s section. He sounds completely at home, which is impressive because this beat is actively trying to trip people.
The side-eye: The song ends right when I am ready for one more escalation. Give me another thirty seconds. I have needs.
Current status: Added. Loudly.
What the song is doing
“WICKED” is not interested in proving that ALLDAY PROJECT can blend into one smooth vocal unit. It sells contrast. That is the better choice for this lineup.
Co-ed groups can get trapped in a very obvious arrangement. Let the men rap, let the women sing, place everybody in neat alternating sections, and call the contrast a concept. ALLDAY PROJECT does not completely escape gendered expectations, but “WICKED” is messier in a useful way. Bailey’s dance authority affects how her lines land. Youngseo’s cleaner tone is not treated like decorative frosting. Annie gets to be clipped and cool. Woochan and Tarzzan do not occupy the same rap personality.
The song keeps changing who owns the room.
That also explains why the sparse chorus works better here than it would for a less distinct group. The hook is common ground. The verses are where the members get territorial.
Performance video Ver. A: MOVIE SET
Ver. A gives “WICKED” a world. The members move through a film-set environment with enough visual clutter to feel expensive but not so much that the choreography disappears. This is the version I would show somebody first because it lets the group behave like characters, not only dancers.
The camera keeps the energy mobile. Individual shots establish personality, then the group formation snaps everybody back into the same frame. That push and pull is the real concept. Five solo energies, one project.
The styling understands the assignment too. Nobody looks dressed for the same exact fantasy, but the silhouettes still belong in one video. That is harder than matching five outfits. Matching is easy. Coherence without cloning takes taste.
Performance video Ver. B: BASEMENT
The basement version strips away most of the movie-set distraction and makes the performance answer for itself.
This is where Bailey becomes especially important. Her presence changes the standard of the room. The choreography cannot be merely clean when one of the members is a choreographer and dancer with an international résumé. Every transition gets inspected. Every formation has to survive a full-body camera angle.
The basement is also less forgiving to the members who are still building group chemistry. You can see where the five-person machine is already dangerous and where it is still new. I prefer that honesty to edits so frantic that nobody has to hold a formation for longer than half a second.
Woochan has the most natural musical attack for me. Bailey owns space. Annie photographs like she has known the camera for years. Tarzzan brings a deliberately loose edge. Youngseo supplies the contrast that keeps the lineup from becoming one long sneer.
Easter eggs and surprises
Every member has a writing credit. This is not a case where the group’s personalities were added only after the song was finished. The official credits list all five members among the writers.
There are two official performance videos on release day. The choice separates cinematic personality from formation work. Ver. A sells the people. Ver. B sells the machine.
The song was part of a double-title debut. “FAMOUS” arrived with a full music video before the single album. “WICKED” arrived on the official release date with both performance versions. The rollout introduced range before the public had time to lock the group into one sound.
The slang is doing double duty. “Wicked” can mean bad, dangerous, or extremely good. The group uses that ambiguity exactly as expected. They are the problem and the flex.
The debut argument aged well. In 2026, the Korean Music Awards named ALLDAY PROJECT Rookie of the Year and specifically pointed to “FAMOUS,” “WICKED,” “Look at Me,” and “One More Time” as evidence that the group was not a one-time curiosity. That does not mean every listener has to love this song. It does mean the co-ed experiment landed as something bigger than debut-week gossip.
What worked
- The members sound distinct instead of interchangeable.
- Woochan understands the beat immediately.
- Bailey’s performance authority gives the choreography actual stakes.
- Both video versions have a reason to exist.
- The hook is simple enough to survive all the production switches.
- The song commits to being strange. Half-hearted weirdness is worse than no weirdness.
What did not
- Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds is stingy.
- The minimal hook may feel unfinished if the verses do not grab you.
- Some transitions hit before the previous idea has fully landed.
- A first-time listener can spend so much energy processing the beat that the individual writing gets missed.
RaeRae verdict
“WICKED” is a debut song for people who would rather start an argument than wait politely to be noticed.
It is not my choice for the group’s prettiest song. Pretty is not the job. The job is to make five people with different histories look like a group without scrubbing off what made each person worth recruiting. On that level, it works.
I would still like another verse. I would also like the bass to stop behaving like it pays rent here. Neither request will be honored.
Replay status: Yes.
Best version: Ver. A for personality, Ver. B when I want to inspect the choreography.
Biggest strength: Five separate performance identities remain visible.
Biggest complaint: The song leaves before the party has finished ruining the furniture.