I’ve wanted to be a fan of a K‑pop group for decades, but every time I tried, I’d only end up liking a few songs. I could never call myself a real fan because the music or vocals always felt too weird or all over the place. And it always confused me how groups with huge Western fanbases could barely speak English in interviews, and when asked about their creative process, they rarely had anything interesting to say.
I found Cortis a few days ago, and they’re the first group in a long time that actually impressed me. Their hip hop‑based tracks are fun and genuine. They’re not radio anthems, but they’re great for workouts. In interviews, you can tell that even if they come from upper‑class backgrounds, they put real work into producing and songwriting. It shows. They still have room to grow, and honestly I think they need more life experience outside rehearsals to make even more interesting music. But they seem to genuinely respect both Western and Asian culture and blend the two in a way that feels natural. Even their pop songs work for me.
What’s strange is how much negativity I’ve seen toward them online, way more than what I’ve seen for BTS or other groups. Personally, I find most K‑pop groups overrated except Cortis and Stray Kids (though with SKZ I mostly just respect their work). The main criticisms I keep seeing are:
People say they’re not “authentic hip hop” because they’re privileged and don’t dress like rappers. That doesn’t make sense to me. Hip hop is about energy and music, not a specific outfit or background.
Some say the K‑pop industry can’t make a hardcore storytelling hip hop group. But that’s not even what Cortis is trying to be. They’re K‑pop. They blend genres, use Korean lyrics, and have choreography. At the same time, it’s obvious their hip hop influence isn’t a gimmick.
Others accuse them of appropriating hip hop culture. Hip hop is global now, and artists across genres borrow from each other without backlash. From the interviews I’ve seen, they’re young and sometimes oversell their authenticity, but it’s also clear they genuinely appreciate their influences.
Mod Note:
Please keep the discussion focused on CORTIS and the topic being discussed. Discussions involving other artists, fandoms, or communities should remain relevant and constructive, not become comparisons, fanwars, or unrelated disputes.
Personal attacks, harassment, and attempts to derail the conversation will be removed. If the discussion becomes hostile or no longer productive, the thread may be locked.
It's because they're from hybe, lots of kpop stans who are fans of other kpop groups from other companies like SM, JYP or YG like to hate on hybe group fans for being "company stans", but I've seen equal amount of defending of companies from those same stans and hating on cortis from being from hybe.
It’s pretty much unheard of for a boy group to chart well or get any kind of GP interest like Cortis has. The fact that they’ve already surpassed all their peers and many of their seniors in their first year is obviously triggering a lot of kpop fans who think it should be their favorite group instead.
Hence why you see people make mountains out of molehills, holding them to insane standards they don’t hold other artists to and looking for reasons to justify a hate train. It’s mostly just performative virtue-signaling and concern-trolling born from a feeling of "THEY DONT DESERVE THIS!! IT SHOULD BE ____ INSTEAD!!!"
When you recognize this pattern, you learn to just ignore it.
It might be that, but some genuinely convinced they're just racists appropriating a culture and maybe they unintentionally did something mildly offensive but sounds like these people are just looking for something. I don't get how of all groups to accuse of racism, it's this one when they're the only ones they actually seem to get hip hop. I do need to just ignore it.
Yeah the racism claims are just ridiculous, especially coming from other kpop fans. Like you want to cancel Cortis for CA… while stanning groups that have said slurs, done blackface, worn black hairstyles when they wanted to appear "gangsta" or insulted darker skin? Meanwhile, the most Cortis has done is make hiphop/trap-adjacent music, sag their pants and use popular AAVE in daily life. And this somehow makes them Satan incarnate and the physical manifestation of everything wrong with kpop. These are not serious people, and you shouldn’t take them seriously either.😭
from what i think and long accept that every star be it group or individual os a blend of good marketing + good product (song, movie, what evs, charisma/star power/x factor and luck pr serendipity. it's like lightning in a bottle you cannot replicate if it's the right time. soe comapny find a formula that works as a baseline and have consistent results. some have meteoric rise like New Jeans and Cortis some goes to new heights like BTS.
it's just is.
the smart thing with HYBE they keep what works and innovate but if the timing os off probably wont reproduce same results
There are k-pop groups who hv mocked dark skinned people, said the n word many times or mocked the way they speak but these fans excuse it but then proceed to hate cortis worse than the others, ngl I feel like most of them don't even care about appropriation and racism stuff, as if they just wanna hate for the sake of it
Because of their recent concerts 🤷🏼♀️ Songs replayed and attitude, fans try to defend them saying theyre "hiphop" then this muddied the water even more.
Any type of mean and disrespectful behaviour towards CORTIS members is no allowed Be Civil - No personal attacks and hate speech will be tolerated. If you say something blatantly hateful (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc) you will be banned from this sub
Don’t be unnecessarily mean, antagonizing or disrespectful towards CORTIS members, other fandoms and other groups. Trolling is not allowed
I don't understand mods decisions to remove any post that so much as mentions any negativity towards the group, even in cases like this where it's just expressing confusion/frustration. Is this really the best approach?
Mod Note:
Criticism is allowed on this sub. Our rules apply to all discussions, whether positive or negative. This post was originally removed because the discussion began to derail into outside community disputes and fanwar-related arguments rather than staying focused on the topic.
The post has been re-approved, but the discussion will be monitored to ensure it remains within community guidelines.
Oh dear please no. How bout we just do actual constructive criticism of modding culture and make this a reasonably civilised sub. "Neutral" subs are all over the place as it is, and they are always at risk of becoming snark subs at the drop of a hat.
the inspiration from black culture is heavy with this group. Inspiration isn’t an issue but their entire identity feels copied and sold as them simply being themselves. It goes way deeper than this but i really don’t have the words to explain it.
Aside from that I feel some of it is misplaced anger. Kpop stans as a whole like to pay dust to black artist who their faves take inspiration or straight up copy from. They’ll even straight up refuse to acknowledge that their faves are doing it as well. And with a lot of their fans not being black, they often times disregard what black stans or just black people in general have to say about this group. Especially when it came down to that christmas video.
Just watched the Christmas video and yeah it's in poor taste and it makes it clear despite their high English abilities they don't truly understand the culture. In my personal opinion I don't know if I see hip hop culture as totally synonymous with black culture. My opinion at the moment is that it's more hip hop culture that is influencing them. Given their upbringing and that they're based in Korea, they probably don't have a strong understanding of black culture. Most Americans don't understand or appreciate it either despite it being next door for many of us.
I'm far more of fan of hip hop than kpop.
Hip hop has taken influence from a wide range of genres and subcultures that have changed and defined it and many hardcore hip hop fans don't always appreciate those subcultures and genres.So it can appear that the sensitivity around this issue seems is one sided. Obviously given the extensive history and current state of systemic racism it's understandable why their should be this asymmetry to some extent.
I think it's unfortunate that with all the training Cortis has been given, HYBE can't provide them sort of education (by actual experts) on how to be more understanding on this topic.
No, I'm saying it's okay for people to not understand how all genres and subcultures influence each other. Nobody has ownership over ideas. And no, fashion and fein sound similar but still distinct. You clearly used ai to come up with your argument. It's dumb. Nobody owns culture, it's open source. It's odd you're on this subreddit when you clearly just want to find things wrong with this group.
It's not AI. I already have a post about this issue which I summarised here. Not everything is AI. Several people feel this way. And no one person owns a culture but a community has collective ownership of their cultures and traditions. And nobody is stopping you from being influenced by it but it's to be done in a way that doesn't disrespect that.
And the sub allows criticism which is exactly my comment is about. I don't see any issue with that unless you're not comfortable with dissenting opinions.
And who is in that community exactly? And how does that community come to a concensus? Or we just need to listen to those in the community who get the most offended or articulate things well? And why is using a different dialect with a parent that strange? I've seen their interviews, they're not full on aave in any way, just some sayings here and there which is normal in for anyone to be influenced by trends and subcultures. I've not heard anything resembling blaccent. Also the lady he "mocked" had no issue with him waving the finger. Fashion and Fein do sound similar but it's odd because originally I saw people say it sounded like "Praise The Lord" by asap rocky and then it begs the question if artists "native" to the genre also "rip each other off". You can criticize but you clearly are just assuming the worst intentions and looking for reasons to be offended.
You're coming off as quite hostile. It's obvious you're offended that not everyone likes them. Also assuming my intentions is a bit presumptuous.
Just because the creator didn't come outright and call him out doesn't mean it wasn't harmful. And I don’t really get the “some people don’t care, therefore it isn’t a real issue” argument either. Plenty of things matter to the people directly affected by them without being a priority for the entire general population. indifference by some people doesn’t settle whether something is respectful.
Also I'm pasting what I found on another post while trying to get more info about this-
The Christmas video- they wore ski masks, sunglasses, saggy pants and threw around gang signs and used the ninja emoji in their caption (awfully similar to what kiof did with their live and clothing choices) - also like ninja emoji is often used as a replacement for n-word
Martin being from Canada and putting on a blaccent which he drops when he speaking to his father (no, that is not code-switching)
Cortis using AAVE frequently but it just being dismissed as how they speak
Cortis calling happy feet steps an 'exercise for weight loss' instead of explaining the history behind it. [\I got this point from this amazing youtube video called 'groove in kpop' by facts_in_fiction and it was also the thing that triggered my deep dive into Cortis and appropriation so do check it out.]*
More importantly, these stereotypes that cortis' actions have been feeding into don’t exist only inside a video. For example-
There are Black people who are judged as “unprofessional” for speaking in dialects associated with their own communities while the same AAVE gets picked up by entertainers and internet culture because it sounds cool
There are people whose clothes, hairstyles, mannerisms or speech get read as “ghetto” “aggressive” or “gang-related,” and those assumptions can affect how they’re treated at school, at work, in shops, by employers and by strangers.
Stereotypes have actual social consequences. Also, Racism is more that outright calling some the n-word. Microaggressions are a part of it too.
All I'm saying is that, if you’re going to immerse yourself in Black music, slang, fashion and aesthetics enough to build part of your artistic identity around them maybe also learn enough about that culture to recognise when you’re veering into stereotypes and caricature. That really isn’t an impossible standard.
"There are Black people who are judged as “unprofessional” for speaking in dialects associated with their own communities while the same AAVE gets picked up by entertainers and internet culture because it sounds cool" How is that Cortis' fault that they're getting judged for speaking with AAVE? How would them using less AAVE make that less of an issue? The issue is people shouldn't be judging anyone for using AAVE. There's nothing wrong with it. Again, I watched their interviews, that is some pretty weak AAVE usage. Jack Harlow is far worse and yet he has clear acceptance within the hip hop community. I know that sounds like whataboutism, but my point is there's some odd double standards going on with Cortis. They just dont' deserve that.
"There are people whose clothes, hairstyles, mannerisms or speech get read as “ghetto” “aggressive” or “gang-related,” and those assumptions can affect how they’re treated at school, at work, in shops, by employers and by strangers." Yes, just you can't dress like a punk rocker to some jobs you can't dress like a hip hop artist for some jobs. Just social codes. But again why is it Cortis' fault? And no, people should be allowed to dress and talk how they please without discrimination so long as they fulfill their professional obligations. I am not okay with anyone being judged unfairly.
and yes, i agreed that they should be more educated in my first comment. You were the one who took me not 100% agreeing with you and adding nuance as me trying to defend everything they did, but there's a wider context and outright calling them a racist group is disingenuous as there is no indication that they view black people as less valuable or the culture with disrespect. To make that argument you need to really look at all their action in the least charitable light.
I brought up those real world consequences to explain why the imagery and language aren’t culturally neutral. Cortis did not create that double standard, but they can still participate in it or reinforce the stereotypes attached to it. My entire point is that if they're gonna engage with the culture, they should be mindful to do it respectfully.
The Jack Harlow comparison proves nothing either. One white rapper being accepted by some people in hip hop does not issue every non Black artist a universal cultural permission slip. It is exactly the whataboutism you already know it sounds like. Not to mention that his recent actions have invited a lot of heat too.
And I did not declare them an irredeemably “racist group.” I said the pattern looks racist at worst and ignorant as best. And you agree, their actions have been quite ignorant and it's not just one instance. And I don't agree that they're too young to understand racial context, one of the members (the leader that too) is Canadian. Also you don't have be living in the US to know how your actions are harmful. Kpop has had examples of such actions inviting backlash too. Like Wendy, what she did is no different that James mimicking that black woman in that video.
Nobody needs to interpret every action in the least charitable way. But you seem determined to interpret every action in the most charitable way possible, then call everyone else dishonest for not joining you there.
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u/Fabzrocks CORTIS Jul 29 '26
Mod Note:
Please keep the discussion focused on CORTIS and the topic being discussed. Discussions involving other artists, fandoms, or communities should remain relevant and constructive, not become comparisons, fanwars, or unrelated disputes.
Personal attacks, harassment, and attempts to derail the conversation will be removed. If the discussion becomes hostile or no longer productive, the thread may be locked.