KATSEYE has temporarily traded being pop stars for teaching, and ended up learning a few things themselves.
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The global girl group joined the digital series Celebrity Substitute ahead of the release of KATSEYE’s upcoming EP, WILD, which arrives on Friday (Aug. 14). In an exclusive clip shared with Billboard, members Yoonchae, Lara, Daniela and Sophia — who recently announced she would be going on hiatus — arrive at PS17 elementary school in Queens, New York City, where they are greeted by a classroom full of curious kids. (Megan sat out this adventure due to being ill.) But rather than the four ladies being the teachers, the students turn the tables on their celebrity substitutes by instructing the singers on the latest slang.
One student named Grayson — who is a self-identified EYEKON — kicks things off with a question that gets straight to the point and the heart of KATSEYE’s artistry: “How long does it take to make a song?”
Following Grayson’s inquiry, Yoonchae shares that the girls rehearse “every day” for around six hours.
“Six or seven!” Yoonchae and Daniela tease, prompting the kids to erupt into the now-viral “6-7” hand motion.
The group then gets a crash course on some of the more perplexing Gen Alpha vocabulary. Lara asks the students if they can explain what “skibidi” and “sigma” mean, only to receive an even more important lesson about the concept of “brain rot.”
“Do you know what brain rots are?” a little girl named Mila asks. “They’re sort of like, um, insults or like, mean things to say to someone.”
Lara, determined to put her knowledge to good use, asks the obvious follow-up: “How do I say it as, like, a compliment?”
“You can’t,” Grayson informs her, all business.
“Oooh, there’s no compliment,” Yoonchae responds, to which Daniela chimes in,”OK! So we won’t say that.”
The Celebrity Substitute episode will arrive just days before KATSEYE’s new WILD era. The group’s forthcoming EP drops Friday, with Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Pinky Up” and “Animal” setting the momentum of the release by reaching Nos. 28 and 24, respectively, on the chart so far.
Hosted by Julian Shapiro-Barnum, Celebrity Substitute has previously welcomed guests including Noah Kahan, Kehlani and A$AP Rocky for some unexpected classroom moments. Additionally, with each episode of the series, Amazon will help clear items from one teacher’s Amazon Classroom List, which is a tool that helps streamline how educators build and share resources for classrooms and students.
Watch KATSEYE get schooled in Gen Alpha slang in the exclusive Billboard clip below.
Watch the full episode when it drops on Celebrity Substitute‘s YouTube channel Tuesday (Aug. 11) at 8 p.m. ET.