ITZY plays game with new song 'Mafia in the Morning'

Members of K-pop girl band ITZY pose for photos during an online album showcase, Thursday. Courtesy of JYP Entertainment

By Dong Sun-hwa

The title of K-pop girl group ITZY's new hip-hop song ― "Mafia in the Morning" ― may make you scratch your head at first. During Thursday's media conference, the band said it came from a popular party game here called "Mafia."

"It is a song about hiding and showing emotions to win the heart of a crush," member Yeji said.

Simply put, the objective of the game in "Mafia" pits a team of mobsters and regular people against each other, with the mafia team bumping off the other side while the regular people must catch them. The game, also known as "Werewolf," models a conflict between two groups: an informed minority and an uninformed majority.

"Mafia in the Morning" is the lead track off ITZY's new mini-album "GUESS WHO," which is scheduled to come out at 1 p.m., Friday (KST). Park Jin-young, the founder-producer of the five-piece act's agency JYP Entertainment, participated in the song's creative process.

"It was the first time that Park has directed us for a recording," Lia said. "He gave us a lot of advice. For instance, when we were inside a recording booth, he suggested we dim the light so that we would be able to concentrate more on delivering our inner feelings."

Yeji added that Park paid great attention to each member's performance.

"He told us that the public would be able to witness ITZY's growth through our performance this time," she said. "I was so thankful to him for encouraging us."

Their dance performances are highlighted in the music video, too. Ryujin said it was filmed at 10 different locations.

"It was such a new experience," she said. "We have many scenes of us performing powerful and synchronized dance movements."

"GUESS WHO" also offers five other songs, including "Sorry Not Sorry," "KIDDING ME," "Wild Wild West," "SHOOT!" and "TENNIS (0:0)."

After ITZY unveiled the album's teaser images featuring two different concepts, it generated a big buzz online. For the "Day" version, the singers mostly gave off a dreamy vibe, but for the "Night" version, they transformed themselves into chic and charismatic women.

"We tried to show our duality and make good use of two contrasting concepts to add more fun to our music," Chaeryeong said.

Asked about the group's great popularity among millennials and generation Z ― defined as people born between 1980 and 2010 by some scholars ― the members said the messages of their songs seem to have played a big role.

Ryujin said, "I think confidence and outspokenness are the characters of our generation and we have been relaying relevant messages through our songs since our debut. I think this helped us interact with millennials and generation Z."

Chaeryeong elaborated, "We all belong to the same generation and share similar worries."

Wrapping up the session, they opened up about their hopes.

"We hope we can pass on our positive energy to people through our music and performances," Chaeryeong said.

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