by Chyenne Tatum
On May 17, girl group VVS posted a short video of their $TAY THE NIGHT B-side, also titled “V.V.$,” showing the five members lounging around a pool in swimwear and performing a snippet of the choreography. What should have been a straightforward promotional clip became an ethical debate when listeners focused on the song's suggestive lyrics – specifically a line referring to the members as "Pilate mommy" – set against equally suggestive choreography. It wouldn't register as a concern for a group of adults, but out of VVS' teenage members, one is still underage at 17 (Liwon).
The five-member girl group debuted in 2025 under MZMC Inc. with “D.I.M.M.,” a rap-heavy title track that represents the members’ rise from a small label to hopefully taking over the global stage. This accurately sums up VVS’s sound as a whole – one that’s heavily rooted in hip-hop with some R&B influences mixed in, and dripping with confidence. It sits within the girl crush lineage that 2NE1 established with their 2009 debut, centring female empowerment over the male gaze, but VVS push it further into overtly mature territory. That's where the problems start. In the choreography video for B-side "TOUCH IT," the tension between the group's concept and the ages of two of its members becomes impossible to ignore.
Combining VVS’s sharp hip-hop edge with slick sensuality, “TOUCH IT” represents the exact type of innuendo that one would assume. “All you wanna do is / Touch it, touch it / You know that I love you, wanna / Touch it, touch it,” the girls repeat on loop in the song’s chorus. Lyrically, this is definitely not the type of song a then-15-and-16-year-old should be singing, let alone being involved with at all. And it’s not even subtle enough to pass it off in a metaphorical sense when the song spells it out for us, starting with, “I got the curves of a Barbie anatomy,” and ending it with, “Touch me.” While the conviction and performance execution are commendable, perhaps this isn’t necessarily the right type of song for a group with members who are barely out of their teen years.
That brings us to VVS’s current era, $TAY THE NIGHT, the group’s second mini album and first comeback of 2026. While the title track itself, also called “$TAY THE NIGHT,” is pretty inoffensive, it’s a few of the B-sides where things become even more ethically questionable – namely, the aforementioned clip of the girls in swimwear by the pool for “V.V.$.” Not only do the members showcase a particularly suggestive part of the choreography in bikinis, but the lyrics of “Pilate mommy” are especially what drove the Internet to question the company’s intentions with this group.
VVS's fanbase has pushed back, pointing out that the youngest members are fully clothed in the clip and visible for only three seconds, and that the "Pilate mommy" line is delivered solely by Brittany, the group's 22-year-old eldest member. These are fair observations. But they miss the larger point. Whether Liwon is the one delivering the provocative material is secondary to the fact that they are part of a group built around a concept that isn't appropriate for their age. Participation doesn't require a speaking part.
Another example is in one of VVS’s other B-sides, “BOTTLE$,” where a male voice repeats, “B*tches and bottles” throughout the song. Although VVS members themselves have been known to swear in some of their songs, there's no justification for a man referring to women as "b*tches" in a girl group track – particularly one with a 17-year-old in the lineup. The reference to "bottles," as in alcohol, sits just as uncomfortably given that not all five members are old enough to drink. With a lineup of members over 21, this conceptual direction wouldn’t be a problem. But with VVS, it comes across as out of touch to the point many viewers feel it’s exploitative – that’s definitely not the type of ethos you’d want floating around and affecting the group.
Before VVS debuted, back when MZMC Inc. was still searching for and auditioning young talent, CEO Paul Thompson mentioned he wanted his first K-pop girl group to stand out from the rest and try concepts that most other girl groups weren’t. And while the ambition and drive are admirable, there are ways to accomplish that without your integrity and moral compass being called into question. The simplest solution is one the industry has resisted for years: don't debut minors alongside adults. But if a label chooses to anyway, the concept has to be built around the youngest member's age, not the oldest's.
Girl crush has been a reliable formula in K-pop for over a decade, but its prevalence has diluted its impact – most fourth-gen groups have cycled through some version of it, and the returns are diminishing. For VVS specifically, the more interesting creative question is what a concept built around their hip-hop and R&B sound could look like beyond the baddie aesthetic. The answer might already be in their own catalogue. Their pre-debut video for "Tea" was action-packed and visually distinct, and "$TAY THE NIGHT" frames the group as a crew pulling off a heist – both of which suggest an appetite for something more cinematic and concept-driven that doesn't require adult-coded imagery to land.
Some other concepts that could elevate VVS’s image while still being age-appropriate are: dystopian, post-apocalyptic, or a twist on concepts inspired by film noir and psychological thrillers. There are so many creative avenues for idols to explore beyond the simple cute, sexy, girl crush, or even baddie concepts. And for K-pop artists debuting underage, it’s especially important for the adults overseeing their careers to steer them in a direction that doesn’t prematurely push for maturity or down a path that inadvertently enables problematic behavior from the wrong type of audience.