I swear, for someone thought of as one of the OG dozens/visual merchants, the amount of actual talent he has is astounding. EXO being one of the greatest conglomerates of skill this industry has seen to this date just hasn’t worked in his favor.
Dance-wise he’s no Kai or Lay, but they’re also generational talents and easily rank as some of the best of all time. Even then, he’s shown to have held his own with them in the past. Along with Baekhyun and maybe Xiumin, he’s without a doubt the best of the rest, maybe even slightly above the other two. In any other group with a few rare exceptions, he’d be among the best dancers. Stage presence isn’t great tbf, but hey, a lot of people dig the “bored sultry emotionless sexy” look.
Rap-wise he’s not great, but neither are 90% of idol rappers, as someone who actually listens to western hip hop lol. I’d say he’s actually above average as far as Kpop goes. His lack of lines are always used against him, but EXO averaged like 15 seconds of rap per song, and considering Chanyeol’s far better it makes sense for him to take more of the shine. He can easily be main rapper for many, many groups out there — again, not because he’s a good rapper, because he’s not, but because the industry in general is lacking in this area.
He can’t really hold a note that well, but that’s not his job either.
I’m not saying he’s MJ or anything, but with the amount of glorified models with no musical or dance ability whatsoever being debuted, his reputation of being incapable really isn’t deserved. Place him smack dab in NCT, Seventeen or Stray Kids for example, all of whom I think are very talented groups, and he wouldn’t stand out at all, and would be around middle of the pack ability-wise.
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