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Ahead of Stray Kids’ performance at Lollapalooza, Crystal Bell reflects on the K-pop group’s monumental year and how their story continues to unfold.
In late 2017, roughly six months before their official debut, Stray Kids dropped "Hellevator," a song that expressed their hunger to succeed as idols. Through blistering rap verses and bubbling intensity, it captured the emotional volatility of their trainee years and the "cruel and fearful days" of adolescence. "My life was rock bottom, an edge of a cliff," Seungmin sings, determined to climb higher in the face of adversity.
Nearly seven years later, and some might say Stray Kids are on top of the world. Their eighth EP, ATE, recently bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making them the first group ever to debut at No. 1 with their first five charting albums. They scored their highest entry on the Hot 100 with "Chk Chk Boom," which debuted at No. 49, and they released another song, "Slash," as part of the Deadpool & Wolverine soundtrack. They also headlined two international music festivals in July — I-Days in Milan and BST Hyde Park in London — and will take the stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago as one of Friday's headlining acts. Oh, and they just crossed eight billion streams on Spotify, a feat that, while impressive, doesn't satiate their desire for more.
Ahead of the group's 100-minute set at BST Hyde Park, Bang Chan told a group of reporters, "Numbers in general are infinite, we still have a long way to go." If you're wondering just how high their Hellevator goes, in an episode of All About Stray Kids Radio, hosted by Bang Chan and Felix, Changbin compared it to Seoul's 123-story Lotte World Tower. "We have to go even higher," he says.
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That relentless drive for more is best expressed on "Runners," a standout track on ATE. They're no longer standing on the edge of a cliff, anxious about the future. "Come and try to push me off," Seungmin sings, as Han's voice pierces the sky: "On the edge we'll never fall 'cause we're the runners."
For Stray Kids, running is as central to their identity as the number eight. In the visual for "Hellevator," they run through an open field at twilight, leaving past troubles behind them; in "My Pace," they dash toward their future; for "MIROH," they leap across rooftops while chanting, "It's not hard, in this rough jungle / It was me who ran into it, I'm okay"; and for "The Tortoise and the Hare," they follow the flow of time forward, taking things at their own at their own tempo. They've never cared much about the destination, preferring to prioritize the process of getting there. With a song like "Runners," it's clear that even amidst so much success, they still have the same rookie hunger — not to break more records or do bigger numbers but to reach people through their music.
"As the producers and creators of our music, hearing that Stays gain strength and confidence from it, that’s all that matters," Bang Chan said backstage in London. "Numbers, results, a big thank you. But for us what matters most is if people out there need it, they can gain strength from it."
For the most part, they've been able to accomplish this on their own terms, making music that feels authentic to them without sacrificing their identity. The highest-grossing movie in the world right now, Deadpool & Wolverine, features a Korean trap song from a group of Korean artists. Its single artwork, hand-drawn by Nuri Kim, includes many traditional Korean folk elements: a tiger wearing a hanbok engaged in a sword dance, mountain ranges and waterfalls in the style of irworobongdo, and "Slash" inked in Korean calligraphy. And while Stray Kids took a bit of a creative detour with their English single, "Lose My Breath," this past May, the pop-R&B track taught them the right lessons.
In the intro video for ATE, Changbin talked about the lengthy process of making the title track for the EP. 3RACHA created more than 15 demos before landing on something that felt right. "Originally, it was more, like, not the usual Stray Kids style but the more mainstream pop style that people are familiar with," he said. "We wanted to make popular music with a slight touch of the SKZ style. But after we were finished, the music didn't feel like Stray Kids music. It felt like the music wouldn't live up to our fans' standards. So we started back from square one and added mainstream music into classic Stray Kids-style music."
For all of its genre-crossing, ATE sounds distinctly Stray Kids. "I Like It" is the group's sharpest and purest pop effort in years, a mix of bright chords and whirling synths. Han's "또 다시 밤 twilight" ventures into jazz and bossa nova, while "JJAM" relies on Changbin's two biggest strengths, clever wordplay and power. The festival version of "Chk Chk Boom" swaps the song's Latin flavor for euphoric EDM drops perfect for the Lollapalooza crowd. The eponymous "Stray Kids" is already a fan-favorite for its sentimental references to the group's past work, including "Lonely St.," "Blueprint," and, yes, "Hellevator." "Stray Kids still gonna rock on the Hellevator," they sing, "Yeah, we head to the top."
Yet, the self-referential track is more than fan-service; it's a promise. Before the EP's release, all eight members renewed their contracts with longtime agency JYP Entertainment, ensuring that their journey together is far from over. Stray Kids will continue to ascend, both musically and professionally, each step fueled by the same rookie determination of their youth. Their story is a marathon, not a sprint, and they're just getting started.
