Before The Release of Ruby:
On March 7, 2025, Jennie released her first studio album named Ruby. Previous to the release of this album, she had released music and been a part of the popular K-pop group Blackpink, managed by YG Entertainment. Jennie and her three other members, Rose, Jisoo, and Lisa, received many awards. This included the MAMA Award for Best Female Group 2022, 2020, and many more.
After the release of BLACKPINK’s latest album titled BORN PINK, the members have ventured into solo music. Rose released a chart-topping song with Bruno Mars named APT, then her first studio album Rosie, and a song for the F1 movie. Lisa has dropped many pieces of music, including an album named Alter Ego with songs featuring Doja Cat, Tyla, Future, and many more. Jisoo released an EP named Amortage with the title track Earthquake.
Before the release of Ruby, Jennie released solo music under YG’s label. Her first solo endeavor is a single called SOLO and was released in 2018. Then in 2023, Jennie Kim was a part of the cast for Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd’s HBO show, The Idol, and featured in a song for the show called One Of The Girls.
The song One Of The Girls is sung by The Weeknd, Lily-Rose Depp, who is also a part of the cast for The Idol. The song also currently has around 1.8 billion streams on Spotify and is Jennie’s second most popular song on Spotify. In the same year as the release of One Of The Girls, Jennie released a solo single under YG’s label, You & ME.
The Album Ruby:
Jennie released her first studio album on March 7, 2025, with a tracklist of 15 songs. Throughout the album, she features singers such as Dua Lipa, Doechii, Childish Gambino, and many more. A quote from an article from North by Northwestern written by Brad Sontay-Tzun called, “‘Ruby’ redefines BLACKPINK’s Jennie as an artist in mesmerizing debut solo album,” and the quote says, “Jennie focuses on her autonomy and self-exploration throughout Ruby, diving deep into what it means to be her authentic self.” I put this quote in my article Pop & R&B Music in 2025 when doing a quick overview of this album because I feel like it explains the themes of this album very well. I feel like a lot of the songs in this album are also very powerful, such as ExtraL (feat. Doechii), Zen, like Jennie, etc.)
This album, I feel like also has diversity in the music. As I said, there are powerful songs in this album that have powerful meanings, such as confidence and exploration. But there are also calmer songs in the album with the meanings of being there for other people, thinking/reflecting on the past, etc. Another reason why I feel like there is musical diversity in this album is because of the instrumentals.
In this album, the instrumentals fit the meaning and lyrics of the songs very well. In her high-powered songs, you can hear louder and more noisy instruments. In her softer songs, like Twin, where I feel like she is reflecting on a friendship that has drifted apart, the instrumentation is the opposite, where there is just a mellow guitar.
After the release of this album, she went on a short tour for the album called The Ruby Experience. The experience toured during early March in Los Angeles, New York, and Seoul. During the tour, she sang most of the songs on the album, with energetic dancing also featured. I’m hoping that she will go on another tour for this album especially since it has been doing so well and is such a breakthrough album for her.
Top songs of Ruby, in my opinion:
Some songs I really like in this album are like Jennie, Mantra, Start a War, and ZEN. I find that I really like like Jennie and ZEN since they are both such powerful and energetic songs. I also really recommend watching the music video for like Jennie, since the choreography is so powerful and matches the songs very well. Also, the instrumental for the song Zen is so beautiful and compelling at the same time.
I feel like I like Mantra because of the energy the song and lyrics portray, and how confidence-boosting it is. The song Start a War has such a strong meaning, and the way I interpret it is being there for your significant other through the ups and downs and protecting them. One lyric from the song that I feel like shows this is, “But if somebody try to start some, Im gon’ try for you, I’ll fight for you, go off for you, I’ll start a war.” I honestly really like all the songs in the album, and my favorites change from time to time, but these are my current favorites. I do encourage you to listen to the full album.
