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K-Pop Spotlight: OnlyOneOf

This self-producing boy group, composed of leader and vocalist Love, rapper KB, vocalist Rie, dancer YooJung, rapper Mill, vocalist JunJi, and beatmaker Nine, debuted just six months ago and already have two mini-albums and three music videos under their belts. After their ambitious debut with Savanna and Time Leap, the septet is back with their latest title track, Sage, off their new mini-album Line Sun Goodness. We caught up with the boys amidst their promotions to chat about their comeback, self-care, and Hogwarts houses.

How would you describe your current sound and how it differs from your debut tracks Savanna and Time Leap?

Nine: I’ve been working on beat making and truly believe I’ve improved the quality of my beats since our debut. I am so excited about our work on our track OnlyOneOf me. Of course, I love our other songs, too, but whenever someone compliments OnlyOneOf me, I can’t contain how happy I am that we helped to make that song. We’ve also enhanced the details of our vocals since our debut, because our team has such a unique collection of tones. There is still a lot more that we are working to do better!

KB: I tried to express a sexier and more desperate tone of rapping for Sage in comparison to our debut. These days, Nine and I are trying to pay attention to the smallest details of a song to learn how to compose better. We are really proud of the three songs on this album that we helped compose.

Love: I’ve really tried to challenge myself as a vocalist on Sage by singing with an emotional, begging tone. I sang more softly and sensually on Savanna and Time Leap.

YooJung: I’d say Sage definitely shows a matured and restrained sensuality compared to Savanna.

Rie: Yeah, Sage is more intense, with more tension!

Mill: I tried to record the tracks as if I were on a stage…so I think my voice came out even more sensually? The fans can tell us if that’s true!

If you had to choose only one musical artist to listen to for the rest of your lives, who would it be and why?

Rie: Post Malone! He continues to release music that feels fresh and modern, so I could listen to him for a long time and still be surprised by his music.

Mill: I’ve been listening to a lot of emotional music lately and pH-1 is one of my favorite artists for music like that, so I’d choose him.

JunJi: I will definitely pick BTS Jungkook’s songs! I feel like I could die in peace if I listened to his music :)

YooJung: Hmm…there’s this fantastic group called OnlyOneOf that makes spectacular music! Hehe.

What was the most challenging part about preparing for your first comeback?

Nine: I’ve practiced really hard to be able to make diverse facial expressions on stage!

YooJung: I’ve also tried hard to get better at making sophisticated expressions that tell the story of our music.

KB: I wrote tracks for this album day and night! We all study music and composition as hard as we can and try not to hesitate to try new genres and sounds. For this album, we continued to work on establishing our own sonic color that feels unique to us.

Rie: Our debut was a pretty sensual concept, so I’ve put in my best effort into creating a more powerful image for Sage.

Mill: Definitely my new bright red hair style! I think it has really changed my image and definitely help our team tell the story of Sage because it references the lyrics.

JunJi: Sliding with knees!! It definitely hurt to learn and is really difficult to do! There are ways to do it in a way that don’t hurt, but I’m still struggling to do it perfectly :( But it looks really good on stage! :)

If you had to sort yourself into a Hogwarts house, which would you choose?

YooJung: This is very easy. Nine, KB, JunJi, and Mill are all Slytherin. Love, Rie, and I are all Gryffindor. And we have fans from all houses, so they help complete our school!

Best self-care tips?

KB: I like spending time in the sauna.

Love: I like walking alone late at night, listening to music. It helps clear my head.

Rie: I also like spending time alone and going fishing!

YooJung: I’ll use beauty tools to give myself a really relaxing facial massage :)

JunJi: I like watching seafood mukbangs.

Mill: I watch sports on TV at the end of the day.

Nine: My favorite way to relax is eating ramen while watching a rerun of the Korean reality show Infinite Challenge.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people may not know?

KB: I think I’m getting taller still.

Love: When I like a specific food, I will eat it every day for an entire week.

Rie: I can cook a huge amount of ramen at once and keep the noodles from getting soggy! I am called “Noodle Rie” because of this.

YooJung: I know almost all of the spells from Harry Potter (Petrificus Totalus!) and I grew up studying Cha Cha and Ballroom dance.

JunJi: I am always singing in my free time, no matter where I am.

Mill: I’m really good at annoying JunJi :)

Nine: I’m really good at jumping rope and I can make a sound effect that sounds like the echoes of a karaoke machine.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Nine: The Korean artist Insooni gave us great advice which is that “fans will notice if you’re lazy, so practice hard and be honorable to yourself. That hard work will be recognized.” This advice continues to helps us all a lot.

Love: Exactly. Don’t cheat yourself out of hard work. Using shortcuts will get you someplace faster, but will lead to mistakes in the long run, so work hard and practice fair and square.

KB: Good things will happen if you think positively and put in your best effort!

YooJung: Even if you fail, always try your best.

Rie: Life is his who enjoys it. Don’t regret anything and embrace challenges when they come.

Mill: I like a piece of advice that our creative director gave us, which is that our team will grow stronger and last longer if our members are considerate of each other and look out for each other. We are a family.

The video for Sage has a very futuristic vibe—what are you most looking forward to as a group in coming years?

KB: We really want our music to grow and get better as we grow as people, composers, and performers ourselves. In the future, we hope to make music that falls well on many ears and gives comfort to many people.

Want more OnlyOneOf? Check out their video for Sage and follow along with the conversation here.

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bonus:

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happy 20th birthday, Tiny Queen! (03.26)

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KING OF MONSTERS (1/2)

hey everybody, welcome to the first-ever Weird Biology two-part special! This week we are going to be examining an animal so UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING WEIRD that it’s going to take two entire posts just to cover the basic facts!

so get ready to put your hands in the air and flail in horror as I introduce you to that Supreme Sultan of Strange, that Tyrant of Existential Terror, the Once and Future King of Monsters: the one! the only!

FLAIL EVERYBODY, FLAIL

the Naked Mole Rat is a buck-naked rodent related to neither rats nor moles. they may be royalty, but just from looking it’s difficult to tell if they’re even a mammal or not. (yes, but just barely. really.) 

the Naked Mole Rat reigns in the Horn of Africa and is most closely related to Porcupines and Guinea Pigs (both of whom will deny this if you ask them). despite its lofty position in the pantheon of weird, it spends its entire life underground in lairs so hellish that they would give Hieronymus Bosch nightmares.

speaking of nightmares, I had a dream where one of them threatened to peel me once. make of that what you will.

the Naked Mole Rat lives in a complex of completely dark tunnels, where the oxygen content is so low that it would kill most mammals within minutes (including you). the tunnels are only wide enough that one Naked Mole Rat can squeeze through at a time, as they don’t seem to consider personal comfort a virtue. gee, I wonder why.

since the Naked Mole Rat lives in such inhospitable territory, they have developed a number of terrible, terrible, terrible adaptations to cope. if there ever was an animal that had evolved to survive Hell, this would be it.

survive Hell? nay, I shall RULE IT, as is my right.

these adaptations are what give them their true and rightful status as Weirdest of Weird and Strangest of Strange. ALL HAIL, KING OF MONSTERS.

Naked Mole Rats grow to be only about 4 inches long and weigh about 1.2 oz (which is still too much Naked Mole Rat, let’s be honest). this small size lets them wiggle around in claustrophobic close quarters with ease, where mere peons like rats and mice would struggle. the Naked Mole Rat’s loose disgusting prune skin also helps them to squeeze through traffic jams in the tunnels (because royalty does not observe right-of-way). it also helps that they literally cannot feel pain in their skin. I wish I was making this up. 

HAIL TO THE KING. HIS SKIN IS LOOSE AND HE HAS NO CAPACITY FOR FEAR OR PAIN.

technically Naked Mole Rats can see just fine, but they prefer to sprint around in the dark with their eyes shut because vision is for lesser creatures. (fun fact, they can sprint backwards as quickly as they can move forwards! wow! isn’t that a fun fact that you’ll never be able to forget no matter how hard you try!)

Naked Mole Rats use their teeth to dig new tunnels. (since the only remaining major ruling adaptation they lack is hands. be grateful.) like the rest of the Naked Mole Rat, this is way more fucked up then it sounds because those teeth are actually on the outside of their mouth, like tusks. as horrible as this fact is, it kind of makes sense because otherwise they would just be swallowing dirt all day. not even the Naked Mole Rat wants to be swallowing dirt all day. dirt is for peasants, like humans and dogs.

also each tooth is independently mobile, like a pair of chopsticks. there’s no real reason for this except to give you nightmares.

Naked Mole Rats are herbivores, feasting on tubers and the occasional researcher they find while digging. (perhaps all royalty should follow this method.) and they don’t eat very often, because their energy requirements are stupidly low. this is because the Naked Mole Rat stands alone above the rest of mammalkind as having a singularly special adaptation *DRUMROLL PLEASE*:

they’re cold blooded.

like all true Royals.

that’s right, the Naked Mole Rat may have more in common with reptiles than with other mammals. they don’t keep a stable body temperature, a trick that lets them have a far slower metabolism than they should.

this extremely slow metabolism lets them go long periods without eating and survive low-oxygen environments. it also gives the Naked Mole Rat the longest lifespan of any rodent. which is… *paper rustling* huh. 

30. FUCKING. YEARS.

(yeah, that definitely says years. jesus.)

the next time you see one of these, think about how it might be old enough to have college debt.

oh, and in addition to that freakishly long lifespan, they’re invulnerable to cancer and we don’t know why. it fucking figures.

must be good to be King.

(tune in next week when I’ll talk more about the family life of the Naked Mole Rat! it’s not easy being royalty, let me tell you.)

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thanks for reading! you can find the rest of the Weird Biology series here.

if you enjoy my work, maybe buy me a coffee so I can avenge my family.

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John Cena confirms he’s part of the BTS ARMY – and loves J-Hope’s mixtape

John Cena is one of the world’s most famous wrestlers, as well as a Hollywood actor. 

And now, he can add another thing to his ever-growing CV – official member of the BTS ARMY. 

The 40-year-old had everyone convinced that he was a secret K-pop fan after he uploaded pictures of Supreme Boi and BTS’s J-Hope to his Instagram account. 

However, John shares pictures to Instagram without any captions or hashtags, with his bio reading: ‘These images will be posted without explanation, for your interpretation. Enjoy.’ 

So when we met John as he promoted his upcoming comedy Blockers, we had to ask him – do these pictures mean he’s part of the ARMY? 

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, John laughed: ‘See, if I were to explain, that would defeat the purpose! Although I will say, Base Line is my favourite track on the J-Hope mixtape. I also like Hangsang. 

‘What started as a happy accident has turned into something wonderful. I’ve been introduced to a new piece of culture, which I think is fantastic, because I’m learning through social media.’

John continued: ‘It’s a very rare occurrence, so I’m very happy to say… yeah, screw it, I’m in.’ 

And judging by his love of the Hixtape and his J-Hope picture uploads, we’re guessing we know John’s favourite member of BTS. 

© Emma Kelly @ METRO

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Report: White Man in Local College Class Will Not Shut the Fuck Up

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shoma uno + yuzuru hanyu matching icons for anon

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when you show up to practice and find your fiancé as a meme (store/insta)

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180316 Metro Entertainment’s Tweet

Wrestling legend @JohnCena tells us all about his love for @bts_twt and J-Hope as he pledges allegiance to the #ARMY

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two guys + two girls + having fun + doing music = KARD

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Mirai Nagasu & Adam Rippon on the red carpet of the 90th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018

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This is one of my favorite childhood stories.