I am WHO

The record

I am WHO is the second mini album Stray Kids released on 6 August 2018. ‘My Pace’ is the title track, and the record is the second in the ‘I am’ series, arriving five months after the debut I am NOT.

The album introduction on Bugs says the members again wrote and composed every track, and that the record sets out an unending questioning of the self. The same text describes ‘My Pace’ as a hip-hop song carrying the message of going one’s own way, whose lyrics console the impatience and unease that come from measuring oneself against other people, and whose sound joins hip-hop to rock. Of the other tracks it says ‘Voices’ puts the refusal to be swayed by the noises around one over a future-bass pop track, ‘Insomnia’ draws a night kept awake by crowded thoughts over a future and trap base, and ‘Awkward Silence’ takes the Korean slang for a moment that suddenly goes cold and sets it to a retro funk sound.

Reviews

Jeong Yu-na of IZM read the title track alongside the group’s image. The song, “which shifts in blunt, breathless turns, expresses Stray Kids’ rough image well”, she wrote, and closed: “at a point when boy groups are being softened, this kind of running and running, rookie-like energy is welcome.”

Mimyo of Idology (아이돌로지) took the record in the magazine’s new-release column. He placed the group like this: “in the end Stray Kids’ centre has been sitting in a diction somewhat apart from K-pop for a while now, and rather than hastily ‘correcting’ that they seem to be at the stage of widening their range of expression.” He then tied three songs together: “‘M.I.A.’, which balances a rough taste with a little ease, and the mischievous ‘Awkward Silence’, together with ‘My Pace’ and the chaos inside it, invite you to watch with interest the evolution of that strange experimental creature called Stray Kids.”

Among the tracks

Sara Conway of Clash chose two songs from this record when she picked the group’s eight essential deep cuts in 2025. One is ‘Awkward Silence’. “Their 2018 B-side ‘Awkward Silence’ leans into the emotional concoction behind these relatable moments of awkwardness”, she wrote. “However, the song also encourages us to keep a smile on our faces and see the bright side of every situation.” She read the group’s age into it — “as teenagers/young adults, Stray Kids understand that sometimes the only way you can come out on the other side is through humor” — and finished on the rhythm: “But, best of all, the bouncy rhythm encourages listeners’ spirits to remain high in the face of embarrassing or heavy moments.”

The other is ‘Insomnia’. “There’s a warped effect, a scrubbing effect, that accompanies the opening piano line of ‘Insomnia’”, she wrote, and the song “builds upon the question posed by the EP’s title: ‘I am WHO’.” Her conclusion is about what the arrangement does with the subject: “the group manages to make insomnia and anxiety spirals sound good with the track’s carefully crafted yet explosive energy.” ‘M.I.A.’, the song Mimyo named first, is the one the Bugs introduction describes as a hip-hop and R&B track whose lyrics miss “the bright you that I used to know”.