B.I Returns With Sleek Dance Track ‘Keep Me Up’

South Korean singer-songwriter and producer B.I dropped his new EP Love Or Loved Part.1 on Friday, November 18th. The record is led by the single “Keep Me Up” and its fiery accompanying music video.  

Produced by The Streotypes and written by B.I, “Keep Me Up” is a dancehall number that reinforces B.I’s expertise in the genre after his dance-led hit “BTBT.” “Keep Me Up” heroes a sense of dreaminess with lush synth and vocal reverb on the chorus, creating a hypnotic effect to push forth the message of the lyricism as he says, “I can barely sleep, babe, need you with me/ Her eyes take control of me/ And we get drunk off the vibes/ So whenever I’m home, don’t you ever sleep/ ‘Causе you keep me up, up.”  

B.I also adds clever touches of wordplay in the chorus, using the Korean characters ‘불’ and ‘꽃’ (‘fire’ and ‘flower’) and onomatopoeia with the letters ‘P.O’ (or ‘피어’ which translates to ‘blossoming’) to state that “fireworks are bursting” and “fire flowers are blossoming” within a single phrase. 

The music video for “Keep Me Up” seems to be set in the same futuristic universe as “BTBT”– clues that hint at this include the 8-track tape of “BTBT” that B.I holds at the beginning and flying cars in the background. The singer-songwriter and producer shows off his prowess as a dancer with sleek hip-hop based moves and the video stays choreography-focused for the most part.  

Love Or Loved Part.1 comprises a total of five tracks including “Keep Me Up,” “Middle With You,” “Tangerine,” “Endless Summer” and of course the pre-release single “BTBT” which dropped earlier this year. The EP is the follow-up to B.I’s 2021 record Cosmos.