On June 1, 2016, YG Entertainment revealed the first member to its newest girl group (the first in seven years since 2NE1), BLACKPINK.
Kim Jennie, known as Jennie, is a singer, songwriter, dancer, and rapper who originally debuted in August of 2016 in BLACKPINK alongside Jisoo, Rose, and Lisa.
While in BLACKPINK, Jennie released her first solo single “SOLO” in November of 2018 and would later debut her second solo single “You and Me” during the Born Pink tour as a part of her solo performance in 2022.
In 2023, Jennie made her acting debut on HBO’s The Idol and contributed to the soundtrack by being featured on the song, “One of the Girls” alongside The Weekend and Lily-Rose Depp.
The album, Ruby, released on March 7, 2025, marks Jennie’s first solo release after departing from YG Entertainment for solo activities, but remaining in the company for group activities in 2023.
The album was released through Columbia Records and Jennie’s very own company, Odd Atelier, founded in 2023.
Ruby, consists of a total of 15 tracks, “Intro: Jane with FKJ”, “Like Jennie”, “Start a War”, “Handlebars” (Feat. Dua Lipa), “With the IE (Way Up)”, “ExtraL” (Feat. Doechii), “Mantra”, “Love Hangover” (Feat. Dominic Fike), “Zen”, “Damn Right” (Feat. Childish Gambino & Kali Uchis), “F.T.S.”, “Filter”, “Seoul City”, “Starlight”, and “Twin”. The tracks on the album consist of both English and Korean lyrics with its primary focus being English.
The album explores several different genres such as pop, hip-hip, and R&B and has a runtime of 41 minutes 30 seconds. It is made to show themes of love, faith, confidence, and empowerment.
Out of the 15 tracks, 5 of them stood out to me – “Seoul City”, “Love Hangover”, “Damn Right”, “ExtraL”, and “Like Jennie”. I find myself replaying them the most since they’re a combination of loud with a more powerful tone as well as more calm and “chill” songs.
“Seoul City”: My top track off the album, “Seoul City”. It’s an R&B track with guitar and a smooth and calming melody giving it an addicting sound almost dreamlike. The song shows off Jennie’s self-confidence, desire, and demonstrates some pride in her Korean heritage while also showing themes of love and desire. In the song, Jennie expresses her desire of affection with lyrics such as, “Give me hug, need your love, touch my thigh”. She also sings, “Flying lights, paradise,” which shows the euphoric feeling she feels in a relationship and ties in the dreamlike sound that the song has. Jennie also uses wordplay by using the words soul and Seoul in the same way. ”In Seoul city (Ooh-ooh), I see your soul, Seoul city, I see your soul”. She discreetly mentions South Korea by stating the country’s international dial code number, +82, as a way of showing her pride since she practically gives her country a shoutout. In the 2nd verse, Jennie continues exploring her confidence with the lyrics, “I could give you life”, stating her self assurance in being able to bring happiness and a way of escape into her relationship.
“Love Hangover”: It’s the second single off the album, the 8th track on it, and my #2 song. The song is a collaboration with actor and composer, Dominic Fike. “Love Hangover” has a mixture of bass and drums in the background and can be considered a “slow-burn” pop song since it’s easy to follow without it being too fast or too slow. It focuses on the toxic attraction between two people in an on-again off-again relationship and how it ends up leaving them with a “Love Hangover”/the aftermath of returning to someone who brings more harm than happiness over and over again. In the lyrics, “We say it’s over (Uh), but I keep f****** with you (Yeah), and every time I do, I wake up with this love hangover”, Jennie expresses her constant inability to leave the person she hates to love by continuing to go back to them. She continues in the chorus by stating, “Ah, s***, I did it again (Call me back, call me back, call me back)”. Fike comes in in the 2nd verse by rapping “She gon’ leave me, but she wants to keep me on, what’s up with that?”, where he focuses on the mixed signals and confusion one can experience in a situation like this. He also highlights how the people in the relationship can have a physical attraction to each other despite having a weak emotional bond. “One minute, we’re growin’ apart, and next, I’m in her apartment, just watchin’ her get naked and not thinkin’ with my heart.”
“Damn Right”: Featuring Childish Gambino & Kali Uchis, “Damn Right” is the 10th track off the album. It’s a mixture of R&B and pop with a more chill and laid back feel to it. The song focuses on themes of self-empowerment, self-love, love, confidence, and independence. In the first verse, Jennie seems to highlight herself coming back better than ever after a break up. “Popped up on you solo on my lonely s***” and “And you saw me whip my hair in the wind playing Beyoncé, putting that good work in like a fiancé.” Her reference to Beyonce can suggest Beyonce’s influence on people and that Jennie herself can also have the power and confidence that Beyonce is most known for. Kali Uchis comes in in the 2nd verse with her angelic like voice and continues the patterns of self-confidence, “Damn, I look so pretty when I’m overseas.” She follows with the lyrics, “I introduce you to the finer things” and “I’ll make your troubles disappear.” Both of these lyrics can show off her influence and power since they can give the impression that this is something that can be effortlessly done by her. Finally, Childish Gambino comes in in the 3rd verse and ties everything together by incorporating themes of love. He mentions, “I been with models, they was alright, yeah, but they ain’t you”. With this he highlights that no one can compare to the person he is addressing, regardless of how attractive they might be. However, he closes the verse by insinuating that the person in question might be more complicated than expected, “I said she was the sweetest ’til she made me a liar” and “She did me something dirty but she did it with style”.
“ExtraL”: It’s a collaboration with Doechii and much like “Like Jennie” it’s a song filled with confidence and embracing inner strength where Jennie goes by her own rules. It’s a mix of pop and hip-hop beats which go very well with the lyrics giving it a catchy rhythm. The song starts off with the chant, “Do my, do my ladies run this, ladies run this?”, and is followed by Jennie’s first verse. “All of my girls looking good and they got they own money” and “This for my girls with no sponsor, they got they own fundin.’” One can speculate this to be a reference to herself since she started her own label and is releasing her own music with no restrictions. Similarly, Doechii makes her independence known by stating that she doesn’t make any decision in order to please anyone but herself and especially not men. “In the boardroom looking bored ’cause I’m not here for pleasin’ the men, not here to reason with them.” In the chorus and bridge, the duo proceed to sing the lyrics, “Ridin’ ’round, foreign cars, top down, starin’ at the stars, yeah, attitude, so don’t start s***, big moves, only extra large, yeah” and “Work, work, this might hurt, I sweat hard, wet T-shirt, extra large, ain’t scared of the dirt”. Both of these verses go back to the overall meaning of not just the song, but also the album. Where both artists reflect on how far they’ve come and how they’ve earned their success through hard work.
“Like Jennie”: It is the second track on the album and the fourth pre-release from the album. It’s a song that shows off Jennie’s self-confidence and that despite all the hate and negativity she remains untouchable, irreplaceable, and is unapologetic for her success. It opens up with the lyrics, “Special edition and your AI couldn’t copy”, insinuating that no one else can nor will ever be like her. She keeps up to the theme of the song in the chorus by asking, “Who wanna rock with JENNIE?”, where she’s asking who’s willing to join her in her confidence. The lyrics, “Haters, they don’t really like (JENNIE, JENNIE, JENNIE, JENNIE) Cause they could never ever be (JENNIE, JENNIE, JENNIE)”, only solidify the idea of her being unapologetic and irreplaceable. As for the music it’s a mix of a big drum and 808 bass tracks. Overall, it’s a very catchy and powerful song with a lot of meaning for the artist.
Overall, I would highly recommend this album and, I’m giving it a 9.5/10. I think Jennie nailed it with her first solo album as each track has a different sound from the one before it. It can be quite addicting to listen to and overall has something for every mood.
