"Doom Dada" (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

:둠 다다) is a song recorded by the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n singer and rapper

T.O.P Choi Seung-hyun (; born November 4, 1987), better known by his stage name T.O.P, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He performed as an underground rapper before joining the record label YG Entertainment and ...

, released as a single via

YG Entertainment YG Entertainment Inc. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production compa ...

on November 15, 2013. It was written by T.O.P, who also composed the track with

Choice37 Robin Cho, better known as Choice37, is a Korean-American record producer, songwriter, and DJ based in South Korea. He joined YG Entertainment as a producer in 2009, and has since produced songs for K-pop artists including Big Bang, Blackpink, G-D ...

Release

"Doom Dada" was released digitally on November 15, 2013. The announcement was made through YG Entertainment‘s official website, with a teaser picture showing the rapper riding a motorcycle with a slightly creepy giant baby in the motorcycle side car. On December 13, a physical single album was released, including a CD with "Doom Dada" and its instrumental, unreleased music video making videos and a photobook made up of making of scenes.

Music video

Mirroring the video of his previous single, "Turn It Up", "Doom Dada" is also shot in black and white. The music video for "Doom Dada" was directed by Seo Hyun-seung. The music video references the

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's movie '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. In a scene, there are apes who find a bone and start experimenting with it. In the movie, it shows the evolution of the human race, but in T.O.P's case as it's a microphone, it's showing the evolution of him as a rapper. Another inspiration for the video was the

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

artist

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

. T.O.P wears an upside down mustache, designed in the same way as Dalí's. Additionally, two of the artist's painting are parodied in the video: ''Baby Map of the World'' and ''The Three Sphinxes of Bikini''. T.O.P stated that he "wanted to make a unique video that looks like a cult film with some fun elements, a video with a message. I wanted a lot of people to easily visualize the story behind the video."

Critical reception

"Doom Dada" earned the #1 position on ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

'' magazine's Top 10 K-Pop tracks of 2013, with the magazine describing the track as "unexpected and, from a pop standpoint, virtually impenetrable on the first go", adding that the "lyrical rhythms are both inviting and alienating, while the beats align to trap and M.I.A's jagged tribalism. But go deeper and recognisable cadences reveal themselves.... it's K-Pop but sly, frenetic and slippery." ''Dazed'' concluded that, with this song, T.O.P was leading the evolution of K-Pop.

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

praised the song, noting how the "melody is magnetizing with its whirring synths, tribal beats, and chanting, all of which pale in comparison to the rapper’s aggressive, multi-tonal delivery of his verses," and felt that T.O.P "revealed his true artistry" with this song.

Track listing

Charts and sales

Sales

Release history

References

External links

Music Video

Official Website
{{authority control 2013 singles 2013 songs T.O.P songs YG Entertainment singles Korean-language songs Songs written by T.O.P