Review: Hip Hop Duo Geeks Shows Southern Swag In 'Siren' Guest Rapper Swings Helps Group Get In Touch With Their Darker Side [VIDEO]

If a K-pop fan seeking a new artist to follow checked out the track "Wash Away (featuring Ailee)" from the South Korean rap duo Geeks and moved on, they would not be getting an accurate representation of the group's talent.

The Mariah Carey-infused track, released Monday along with the first full-length Geeks album "Backpack," is teenybopper pop, as saccharine as it gets.

Yet in a savvy marketing move, the group's label Grandline Entertainment also released another music video last week to coincide with the Geeks album's release.

Clocking in at under two minutes, "Siren," featuring the rapper Swings, is a powerful homage to the Southern swagger of Lil Wayne.

You could play this track in a hip hop club during primetime Friday night bump and grind and although the half-Korean, half-English rapping might raise a couple eyebrows, too many heads would be bumping for most to notice.

The video for "Siren" is dark and stripped down like the song.

Featuring the band performing to a packed theater, the lighting is mostly provided by a strobe and the hand held camerawork gives it a homemade, raw feel.

Upon further listen, the difference between "Siren" and "Wash Away" is indicative of a greater dichotomy throughout the entire Geeks album.

In a sound that would seem to imply an Outkast-like creative rift between the two members of Geeks, roughly half of the songs on "Backpack" have the dirty hip hop sound of "Siren" while the other half have the catchy but embarrassingly poppy qualities of "Wash Away."

This is of course not the only thing that could be responsible for creating such a bi-polar sound on "Backpack."

The wrong producer could have been desperate to match the success of the group's breakout single the 2011 smooth R&B hit "Officially Missing You."

Geeks could also be under pressure from their management to reproduce radio-friendly sound of "Officially Missing You."

But it's difficult not to hear the sharp rap delivery on "Getting On You" or the Frank Ocean overtones of "Lights On" and wonder what Geeks could be if they weren't tethered to the sanitized sound that took them to the top.

If bandmates Louie & Lil Boi found a producer that recognized their potential for bringing badly-needed international cred to South Korean rap, there's no telling what Geeks potential would be.

This will not happen until the band delivers a full album with the hard-edged urban sound of "Siren."

Check out the new Geeks music video "Siren" RIGHT HERE:

Tags
Geeks
Siren
backpack
Wash Away
Officially Missing You
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