CORTIS's 'REDRED': A Second EP Shaking the Global Charts

In three lines.

• CORTIS is sweeping charts at home and abroad with their second EP 'GREENGREEN' and its title track 'REDRED.'
• First-week sales came to about 2.31 million copies — more than five times their debut.
• A No. 1 on the Circle Chart and an entry on Billboard's Bubbling Under: unfamiliar numbers for a rookie group.

CORTIS, the boy group from Big Hit Music, is putting up big numbers from their very second EP. The title track 'REDRED' lays the members' own production over a hard beat. Instead of polishing everything smooth the way a lot of new acts do these days, they chose to push, rough edges and all.

What the numbers say

The second mini-album 'GREENGREEN' sold about 2.31 million copies in its first week. On release day alone it moved 1.19 million, making it their first album to clear a million in a single day. Their debut EP had sold around 430,000 in its first week, so this is more than a fivefold jump. It held the top of the Circle Chart, and it landed on 'Bubbling Under Hot 100,' the doorstep of the Billboard Hot 100.

That's the last of the numbers. Now, the music.

What's lovely about 'REDRED' is that it doesn't hide its own color. Rather than detonating once in the chorus, the arrangement keeps the whole song pulled taut. Once you've heard it, the fact that the members had a hand in writing, composing, and producing makes easy sense — there's a clear intent, from the very first bar, to let you hear 'a sound we made ourselves.'

Records can always be broken by another team. But a group that grows up carrying an identity this distinct is a rare thing. That's why I'm already curious about what CORTIS does next.