Wassup Blackjacks! Welcome to the 2nd edition of YGLadies: “Staff Picks”. This monthly series will delve into the ‘Best of’ just about anything related to 2NE1. If you haven’t seen it already go check out the First Edition!

Here you guys will be the ones voting in a poll that follows each month’s article, choosing the topic that we dive into each month! Thereafter, we will allocate five different staffs from YGL’s awesome team to discuss the topic of the month. Their insights will then be compiled in a write-up just like this one, of what we consider to be the top choices on each topic.

This is a way for the Blackjack community to take a walk down the 2NE1 memory lane as well as to discuss what would be in the future for our fierce foursome. It is also an opportunity for all of you to get to know some of the awesome people here that are part of the team that runs YGL by reading their thoughts on certain 2NE1-related subjects! We’re killing 2 birds with 1 stone as they say, well not literally of course.

We look forward to your participation both by sharing with us your thoughts and by voting on which topic you would like to be discussed next month!

This month’s topic: If 2NE1 could collaborate with any Korean Artist or Group, who would you choose?

Read on to find out if what you think matches with our Staff’s thoughts!

5) CN BLUE: Chosen by-

Baby_pink09 is one of our illustrious project managers.
She helps do the nuts and bolts work of getting projects to South Korea.
She also compiles messagebook messages (by the hundreds) and collects member ideas for gifts/events.

She is a little shy, but if you see her around… definitely say hi!

As a person who listened to Rock music before I got into the world of KPOP, I would love to see 2NE1 collaborate with some Korean Rock Bands and show a whole new side! However it has been hard for me to find any Korean Rock which suited my taste, until I found CN Blue! Although their style is more “pop rock”, I found their music and image to be very interesting and engaging. After seeing 2NE1 do “Ugly”, I began to think that this style could actually suit 2NE1! CN Blue’s music is light, funky and unique, something which they have in common with 2NE1.

Moreover even if commercialized, both groups are always emotionally connected with the songs they’re performing. You can feel that undying energy coming from them, the passion and love they have for Music, especially when they’re on-stage. If CN Blue and 2NE1 really got together to work on something, I have no doubt that it would be amazing. I think they could create something different….something people can relate to. Put simply, it would indeed be a very unique collaboration.

Check out one of my favorites from them…hard to pick since they have so many catchy tracks:

4) LEESSANG: Chosen by-

crazyxcami is a fitting name for our zany senior uploader.
She is one of our small but dedicated team of A-Team Uploaders who’s job it is to scour Korean & Japanese sites for pictures, videos, and news about the girls. She also manages our Gallery of all the marvelous 2NE1 pictures. In fact, long before we released it to members, she, with the help of one other staff member, painstakingly added each photo ONE BY ONE to the Gallery; we are eternally grateful to them.

In her spare time, she runs a site you may be familiar with ygfamilyy.tumblr.com

If I were to choose of a dream Korean collaboration with 2NE1, I’d pick Leessang! Leessang’s discography insinuates R&B with hints of reggae to hip hop; in my opinion, those are genres that would fit best with the variations of 2NE1’s voices. Don’t get me wrong! I love 2NE1’s club bangers and electronic sound but it won’t hurt to have more of a chill but not too mellow of a song. The thought of this ideal collab came to me when 2NE1 performed a reggae remix of their hit “I Don’t Care”.

It reminded me a bit of when Leessang once released a special album featuring the talented singer, Jung In. Those kinds of collaborative style and songs in my humble opinion would suit 2NE1 perfectly, it would be a dream come true if they fully explored the type of hip hop they dabbled in 2009, but kind of lost track of recently.

A personal favorite of Leessang’s, would be the 2009 hit- Can’t Breakup Girl, Can’t Breakaway Boy. I will seriously die if 2NE1 did something like this…

P.S Besides the actual collaboration wouldn’t it be fun to watch the behind the scenes of the recordings? 8 & 4D goddesses Park Sisters mixed in with Rising Variety Superstar Gary and Witty Gil?

…Not to mention. . .DIGITAL MONSTERS LESSANG + ALL KILL QUEENS 2NE1 = MASSIVE HIT! With that said, I truly believe a collaboration between them would produce a satisfying result that not only myself would enjoy but the general public.

3) AFTER SCHOOL: Chosen by-

xPromiile keeps the site looking great, as well as designs all matter of graphics for the forum. She also loves to draw, which has also come in handy for us.

Check out her graphic in her Design Thread and show our talented Illustrator some love.

BlackJacks and Play Girlz need to bear on this one with me. I’ve liked After School for quite a long time now because they’re not some average girl group, just as 2NE1. They’ve got some attitude, are confident and have fun in what they are doing. An collaboration between these two idol groups would be like a Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwich,
because they are totally different kind of girl groups. But if you combine them together you would need to deal with an onslaught of sexiness and fun on stage.

Although both idol bands have totally different concepts as well as music, they have shown again and again that they are willing to evolve and challenge themselves. Therefore despite being outwardly clashing, I can imagine the two groups rocking the stage together as if they have never been doing anything else besides that! It was 2NE1 and After School’s various wonderful Beyonce covers that had me looking forward to them doing something together, they are awesome so check them out!

Here is a mash-Up song, that I would recommend. I love the combination of 2NE1′s distinct vocals and After Schools catchy instrumentals. Do you see why I picked this collaboration…?

2) BAP: Chosen by-

ShrooMIR♥05 one of our rookie Moderators, but a quick learner.
She loves new rookie groups and really adores Pretty Boy members that come from non prettty-ish group image . You can find her mostly in CL’s Thread, Introduction Section and, Art Gallery section .  She will be 17 -soon- and though she used to have a phobia against dogs, now she just dislikes them  .

She is REALLY FRIENDLYYYY so say HI when you see her around.

I have always dreamed about Song/Stage collaborations between 2NE1 and other groups from outside of YG. I also like to shippair them with new rookies LOL. And of course B.A.P’s swagginess(?) out of all rookies, certainly stood out the most to me this year! In my opinion they have a similar image to 2NE1, slightly awkward on Variety Shows, but really amazing in their live performances and full of energy onstage! When they debuted, they performed with fierceness and did not go for the same image and sounds as other Korean Group’s debuting at the time.

BAP has none of the cutesy pretty, excessive winking and overflowing aegyo routine, that certain Boy groups haunt me with (a bit like 2NE1 right?!!). I choose them because I believe that their charisma will stand up against 2NE1′s, hence they are not going to be overshadowed by 2NE1′s fierceness, energy & over-flowing confidence. THEY BOTH WILL 100% SHINE WITH THEIR OWN CHARM IF THEY WORK TOGETHER! I’m getting excited just thinking about it keke.

(P.S : Oh I LOVE DAEHYUN >_<)

Check out this awesome Mash-up of 2NE1 and BAP! (see what I mean?)

1) SHINee: Chosen by-

jaybee238 is an experienced Moderator who has been with the team for a while. She’s a mature unnie and a really diligent staffer who we enjoy having on the team. She loves CNU and currently has B1A4 in her sights as well.   She is a true ‘YG Stan’ though. She’s so gentle to her fellow dongsaengs, and has guided many new Moderators well. 

Spend some time just to chat with her this amazing moderator.

Korean dream collaboration? SHINee immediately came to mind! I have been wishing to see 2NE1 and SHINee do a joint stage even before Etude announced SHINee would be joining Dara in promoting the cosmetics company . Although this was not what I had imagined as all 4 girls weren’t part of it, it was still something that got me very excited and gave us taste of what the collaboration could be like.

I was really amazed when I first discovered the quintet through watching their Lucifer performances. I thought they were just another ‘pretty boy’ group but they definitely proved me wrong. Their impressive dancing coupled with their controlled vocals is one of the best! I mean, who else can sing with such stability, while doing those crazy difficult choreographies? They also have this very strong presence on stage that I could easily associate with 2NE1. Both groups exude so much charisma when performing live that you won’t be able to take your eyes and ears off of them. It would be awesome if they could perform an electronic pop song like Lucifer or I am the Best which will highlight 2NE1’s fierceness and SHINee’s confidence. If ever this collaboration were to happen, we could surely expect a stage full of energy and power!

Imagine 2NE1 singing lines like…”Loverholic, robotronic, loverholic, robotronic” LOL

What do you think of the choices our Staff have made? Who would you like 2NE1 to work with? Share your views!

Also make sure to vote for what Topic you want us to explore next week!

Compiled by: MzKyu@YGLadies & Taz@YGLadies

Contributors: baby_pink09@YGLadies, crazyxcami@YGLadies, xPromille@YGLadies, ShrooMIR♥05@YGLadies and jaybee238@YGLadies
Edits: as tagged via various tumblr users

Tags: leessang, shinee, staff picks