“Ubermensch”: Where G-Dragon’s Reputation Meets The Road

Music ages faster than almost any other art form. As a result, most musical artists have a fairly tight release schedule, to fuel their fanbases and maintain momentum from casual listeners. K-pop is especially notorious for this, with most acts having multiple comebacks in a year, but even western artists have to have a two-to-three year turnaround or risk losing their cultural relevance. Doing otherwise, taking four or five or seven years between albums isn’t feasible for anyone other than the likes of Epik High, Daft Punk or Kendrick Lamar. They can do that because they have the creative genius to back it up. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, because the end result will be worth it. 

Until two weeks ago, I would have put G-Dragon on that list. But his first project in close to a decade, Ubermensch, highlights the risks of being someone who banks on their genius: there is no margin for error. Any dip in quality can halt their current momentum and even start casting doubts over their prior works. That doesn’t even mean “bad”, “fine” does the damage just as well. And Ubermensch is… fine. It’s got some great moments and some not so great ones.

From anyone else, I’d just shrug it off. But it’s not anyone else; it’s G-Dragon, one of the defining creative voices of his generation, the one who proved that idols could be artists. Kwon Ji-yong was this site’s universal pick for Best EP of 2017. How does he take eight years off and return with “fine”?

Ubermensch opens with “Home Sweet Home” featuring Taeyang and Daesung. Clearly, G-Dragon understood what was needed and opened with a classic “I’m back, bitch” track, a reminder to the audience of his star power and musical bona fides. It’s a defiant clap back to any who took his long absence as a de facto retirement, insisting that his golden days are still here and that he’s just returning home. It’s got a thrumming energy from the warped synths that match the playful bite of G-Dragon’s delivery and lyrics. It’s fun. But it’s also kind of anonymous. There isn’t much here that is uniquely GD. Even the third verse, where he stacks references to his previous releases just makes me think of Epik High’s “Prequel” which did the same thing only in chronological order with more deftness and instrumentals that make any listener sit up and say “Oh, right. That’s why they’re musical gods”; something that “Home Sweet Home”’s buzzy club vibe does not invoke.

Next is the pre-release “Power”, which carries on the noisy chaos and worship of GD’s prowess. Ironically, this is the true and superior “I’m back, bitch” track, what with the lack of any substance other than G-Dragon bragging about being the GOAT; this and “Home Sweet Home” should have swapped places on the tracklist. This is GD indulging in his privilege as a star, that he has the power to withstand any scandal and prove wrong anyone who doubts him. This is GD, no doubt.

Unfortunately, “Power” is let down by the production. Firstly, by layering the blaring synth honks over GD’s vocals so they’re more audible than he is, but mostly in the levels, in that there are none. “Power”’s instrumentals are flat. They don’t rise, don’t fall, don’t fade, don’t increase; they stay perfectly identical. Pair that with the short, repetitive nature of the beat, and “Power” is very easy to tune out. It’s not bad; it just doesn’t grip the audience, which, again, is not what you want from a song designed to remind everyone why G-Dragon is a star.

Next it’s on to the two title tracks. “Too Bad” with Anderson .Paak, best known as one-half of Silk Sonic (also a “they can release what they want when they want” act) is the first and it’s a gem of a track. Funky, slick, but with some slightly out of sync cowbell that gives an off-kilter feeling as the audience inevitably dances along–because with a groove this infectious, I don’t know how you wouldn’t. “Too Bad” is joy and carefree and quite possibly the textbook definition of “rizz”. Its bubbly, charming nature is a much needed breath of fresh air in 2025.

Unfortunately, the thought I had about “Too Bad” was “Of course I love it, it’s Anderson .Paak.” Everything about “Too Bad” is Anderson .Paak. It’s his style, his genre, most of the time his voice. G-Dragon is barely a feature, which is beyond strange considering his history of standing out as both one of two and one of five.

“Drama”, the other title track, is about as far from “Too Bad” as possible. It’s a gentle, introspective ballad that is absolutely all GD. It’s also where I started getting worried. “Drama” is where it hit how much of Ubermensch is in English. Really basic English. “Got it from her mama”, “You don’t like it when it’s nice”, “I’ve got the power”; these are basic phrases. And I don’t like digging at the efforts of people who can do much better in a second language than I can, but none of this was needed. G-Dragon is a legend; he didn’t need to pander to the international audience by favoring weaker lyrics in English when he built that legend via sharper, more meaningful lyrics in Korean. It’s GD, I can promise you people would have looked up translations. If anything, choosing weaker English lyrics over presumably stronger Korean ones makes G-Dragon look more like a relic of a bygone era than if he hadn’t, because instead of standing on his own skills, he’s chasing trends and fair-weather fans.

Sure, some blame can probably be placed on co-writer Diane Warren, who’s known for her simple, direct ballads, but the thing about Warren is that her straightforward style works incredibly well when it’s sold with full sincerity. That’s not happening here. G-Dragon can sell this kind of simple devastation but that’s not how it comes across. The MV might add some layers about celebrity news and the toxic cycles therein, but on its own? I don’t know if it’s the language shift or something else, but “Drama” sounds like a whinging little boy who has no right to call anyone else “dramatic” set to really boring music.

Next is “IBELONGIIU” (pronounced I belong to you). “Drama” might have been when I started to worry, but here? Here is when I had a much more concerning thought: was G-Dragon ever that good? And I fully concede that “IBELONGIIU” is a weird place to wonder that, given that it’s pretty good. Droning but in a melodic way, with a great atmospheric presence. There’s a fervent declaration of love and devotion, to the point of ownership, that does hit hard for anyone who’s had a partner that won’t commit.

But that’s kind of the problem: “IBELONGIIU” is pretty good. And given that this is track 5 of 8 and the best we’ve gotten are GD being a non-presence and “pretty good”, yeah, the doubts are being raised. When over half a project definitely does not measure up to the reputation, it’s perfectly valid to question if that reputation was truly earned, or if we were all just following the hype, too afraid to be the one to critique what everyone else had declared untouchable.

Thankfully, “Take Me” does a great job of reassuring the audience that yes, G-Dragon is actually that good. This is what I have been waiting for through all of Ubermensch. Tight production, a funky synth line, and pounding drums against a deceptively gentle guitar. Clean, precise, sharp, with just enough nu-disco to add a dance edge to an otherwise melancholic track.

Then there’s G-Dragon himself. This is his best vocal performance by a country mile. Earnest, pleading, and kind of pathetic, I have no doubts of this GD’s love. He is desperate for you to let him love you. You don’t even need to love him back! And again, I don’t know if it’s the discomfort of a second language or what, but he just sounds so much sharper and in control here, where most of the lyrics are in Korean. “Take Me” is manic. It’s addictive. It’s that “you sit up and pay attention from note one” song that has been sorely lacking across Ubermensch, and while its presence is a relief, it’s also kind of infuriating that we had to wait this long for it. 

Following “Take Me” is its dark twin, “Bonamana”. While “Take Me” is a light-hearted if somewhat fervent for a girl to just let G-Dragon love her, “Bonamana” takes that obsessive edge and leans way, way in. This is the selfishness behind such “selfless” love, because G-Dragon doesn’t seem to actually care about this girl. All he cares about are his feelings, his pain, how much he wants her. But then, she seems to be the same, relegating G-Dragon to her side piece, knowing he’ll happily take whatever scraps she throws him. It’s a dark, moody track of three chords and the truth, which fits as the truth that cheating is unhealthy and toxic has never been more clear. Top that off with GD’s menacing whispers that make you wonder if this obsession will end with a large death rather than a small one and “Bonamana” is another track that is so good it’s irritating. 

Ubermensch closes out with “Gyro-Drop”, which sadly returns us to the thudding noise of the opening tracks. It’s a return thematically as well, sending us off with one more round of G-Dragon luxuriating in his ego. “Gyro-Drop” is easily the best of the three, as the lyricism present means it feels a lot more earned and a lot less laurel resting. Plus, it’s got some 70s swagger to it that adds some much needed levity.  The warping and special effects are heavy, but again, it feels a lot more carefully considered and frankly like more work was put into it. The biggest issue is that, once again, the instrumentals overpower the vocals, and if they were relayered, “Gyro-drop” would make a hell of a closing banger. 

Over and over, as I listen to Ubermensch, all I can think is, “How?” And again, I want to be clear: Ubermensch is not a bad album. It’s solid. There’s a lot to like, and the one-two of “Take Me” and “Bonamana” is incredible. But how does a creative powerhouse like G-Dragon, who describes himself on this album as the GOAT, take eight years off and give us solid?

Maybe G-Dragon is the type of creative who needs pushback. He depends on the people around him to be honest and tell him when things aren’t working or need rewrites, and now that he’s switched labels, everyone is too in awe of him to give him speak negatively and we have the album version of the Bay of Pigs. Or maybe GD got that feedback and ignored it. Just bought his own hype in the interceding years.

Maybe he was concerned about not appealing to the newer audiences, given the shift in K-pop since 2017, and was trying to play it safe. Maybe he didn’t even want to return to music, but had financial pressures that forced his hand. Or maybe he’s delighted to be back and just has a bad case of ring rust. In any event, the overwhelming feeling is that Ubermensch was not worth the eight-year wait.

And that’s a dangerous position for G-Dragon to be in. It’s not good for any musician to have an album release below par. But for someone like G-Dragon, who has long been held up as a creative force to be reckoned with, it could be a death knell.

After listening to Ubermensch for the first time, I absolutely went back and did a deep dive into his discography, because those doubts lingered. Don’t worry, G-Dragon at his best is as good as we remember. Which thank fucking god, because G-Dragon was my first bias and the foundation of my taste in K-pop. If his skill was a collective fever dream, I’d be having to reevaluate 15 years of my musical perceptions.

But I had skin in that game. I had a personal reason to make sure that Ubermensch is an outlier, not a representative. But for those who didn’t know his music, how many would have just assumed we’d all gotten G-Dragon wrong for years? This is the kind of “alright but not great” that can not only kill his career going forward, but blot it out retroactively. If you don’t believe me, ask Arrested Development, the critically acclaimed rap group whose sophomore album was so meh it wiped them from the cultural memory.

On the other hand, it can be bounced back from. Human After All probably would have claimed Daft Punk’s Artiste Card if it hadn’t been quickly followed up with Alive 2007. 

And that is the keyword: quickly. If G-Dragon follows up Ubermensch with something very good, very fast, this will be a blip. The training wheels before the full return. But if not, this is the beginning of the end. If G-Dragon lets this linger, this will be how he is remembered: Good, but not great. Moments of brilliance, but not a genius outright. Overhyped. Overblown. Certainly not as good as we thought.

Quite frankly, the alarm bells should have started going off at the album title. Very rarely does the invocation of Nietzsche end well. Now, given the lack of musing on the death of Christian values and need for meaning to be derived from this life and love thereof, I can only assume that G-Dragon was drawn to the pop cultural idea of the superman. Which is a shame, because G-Dragon exploring Nietzschian affirmation would be fascinating.

Instead, it’s clear that the title was picked from hubris, from his belief that he was the superior being, or at least musician. And once upon a time– eight years ago, eight weeks ago, even–I would have agreed wholeheartedly. Alas, it was Ubermensch that revealed G-Dragon as far closer to the last man.

(Images via YouTube, Galaxy Corporation)