HUTA(이민혁) - HUTAZONE Album Thoughts(Kpop)

   I don't check for how the idol group BtoB is doing nowadays. I've been out of the loop on a lot of idol group's activities that I use to listen to. Are they even still together? They are probably on break as a group while doing music as solo artists. Each member seems to be releasing albums. What must be stated about some of the BtoB solo's that I've heard is how good they turned out to be. Their all complete Bop tunes and I would expect Lee Min Hyuk's first solo album to be nothing less than great. The teaser for his music video peaked my interest one night after I stumbled across it on Youtube.

Track List:
01. HUTAZONE
02. YA *Title
03. 너도? 나도! (Feat. 소연 of (여자)아이들)
04. 아무렇지 않은 척
04. 아무렇지 않은 척
05. 꿈인가 봐요 (Duet. 육성재 of 비투비)
06. 낙화(落花) (Interlude)
07. Fallin’
08. ALL DAY (Korean Ver.)
09. Purple Rain (Feat. CHEEZE)
10. 오늘 밤에 (With Melody)
11. Waiting For You

   HUTAZONE comes at listeners wrapped in a normal manly concept that I don't see enough of. It's a style that was popular in Korea during the early 2000s that saw a decline, killing off groups like 2PM as years went on. You don't know if Minhyuk is a rapper, vocalist, or model went you reference his album. He juggles all three titles in eleven tracks. There's some features from time to time, even landing help from his group mates to harmonize a melody. YA is a power pop rap song produced using electro beats and vocal edits for a more cool gentlemen sound. Huta revolves around singing outside of rapping. My guess is that he is more of a rapper who can sing enough to be passable. He performs songs about love being a troubled emotion before you get to the happiness within. I like how he can switch up his flow without losing the intensity of his rapping. The tracks also range from Jazz pop where some tracks showcase saxophones, piano, and guitar creating a dance friendly number, to ballads that balance rap well into the slow mood. Every feature adds a strong element to the tracks and all the tracks match each other equally in quality. This causes HUTAZONE to be listenable from front to back. There's no skippable tracks in sight. Good job producers who helped make this album a good body of work.

   Lee Minhyuk seems to be weaker at singing but he can defiantly sing good enough to make music as a vocalist. His weaknesses are apparent as the album plays out that he isn't equally good at both. The rapping on the album wins by a long shot mostly because you can hear how he feels more at home when he spits. Those changes in rap flow seem so easy coming from him. Kind of like he switch up like the flick of the wrist.

   HUTAZONE is a pretty good album. I would recommend the album to BtoB fans or people who like Korean rap. Yes, it's more like Kpop rap but he does the genre justice in his own way.