Play in this article ↓Stray Kids ★★★★★ (5-STAR): S-Class and the Third Billboard 200 No. 1
Published:
- Category: Album guide
- Artist: Stray Kids
KPOP NO1 Editorial · Sources checked November 10, 2026
Five stars is the top rating, and Stray Kids put it right in the title. ★★★★★ (5-STAR) came out on June 2, 2023. It's the group's third studio album and their first full-length release in about two years. Its title track is "S-Class" (특), and the album became their third Billboard 200 No. 1.
Here's the idea behind the title, the lead song, the twelve songs and the official videos to open.
The idea: five stars
JYP says the album came about two years after the second studio album NOEASY (August 2021), and the name carries Stray Kids' own stamp: five full stars as a direct sign of how special they are. The phrase "5-STAR" means top-class, and the confidence shows up in the track list. JYP album page (JYP's page is in Korean; the summaries here are our translation.)
The in-house production team 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin and Han) worked on every song. Hip-hop veteran Tiger JK wrote the lyrics for and featured on track 5, TOPLINE. He'd shared a stage with the group at the 2022 MAMA Awards.
The album followed MAXIDENT, which had topped the Billboard 200 and sold more than three million copies within a month, a first for JYP, by JYP's account. Our MAXIDENT guide covers that one.
Start with S-Class (특)
The Korean title 특 is released in English as "S-Class." Stray Kids' own comment calls it a song that is "Stray Kids-style newness and challenge itself." It carries the message of "the strangest among the strange kids, the shiniest among the special kids." The song moves through many sound sources and song forms, so it feels like several songs joined into one, with an addictive, unusual hook. JYP album page The music video went up on JYP Entertainment's channel on June 2, 2023 (Korean time).
Two teasers came before it, on May 29 and 30.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
Watch the original on YouTube ↗
Archival photo: dancers performing the choreography of Stray Kids' "S-Class" at the King's Night festival in Lviv, Ukraine, July 22, 2023. These are fans, not the group. Credit: Daeshiro, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Linked from Wikimedia Commons at a smaller size; no other edits by KPOP NO.1.
How the comeback rolled out
The comeback was announced with a trailer that went up on April 28, 2023, at midnight Korean time. JYP says it was built around "I AM GROUND," a game the members played as kids, as a playful self-introduction for the eight of them.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
Watch the original on YouTube ↗Before release, the channel also previewed songs in UNVEIL : TRACK clips. DLC went up on May 8.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
Watch the original on YouTube ↗The 12 songs
JYP's track list opens with 위인전, 특 (the title) and ITEM, and the release text names the rest. JYP album page
| Song | What Stray Kids say |
|---|---|
| 위인전 | Writing their own page in history, like the people in a biography; a heavy rock sound in the hook |
| 특 (S-Class), title | See above |
| ITEM | They don't need any special item; the group itself is the synergy; a game-like sound and playful lyrics that bring out each member |
| Super Bowl | A "big bowl" of confidence like the football final; spicy lyrics seasoned with varied expressions, and whispering that sounds like an ASMR eating video |
The rest of the album: TOPLINE (Feat. Tiger JK), DLC, 죽어보자, 충돌, FNF, Youtiful, THE SOUND (Korean Ver.) and Time Out.
Our take: the opening three songs, 위인전, 특 and ITEM, set the tone. Listen to those first, then go for TOPLINE if you want to hear Tiger JK.
A third No. 1, and the biggest week of 2023
5-STAR debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 249,500 equivalent album units in the U.S. Of those, 235,000 were album sales, and 98 percent of them were CDs. Billboard said it was the biggest sales week for any album that year, and the biggest since Taylor Swift's Midnights in 2022. The Korea Herald
That made Stray Kids the second K-pop act with three or more No. 1s, after BTS. Billboard also counted it as the 19th mostly non-English-language No. 1 album, and the third of 2023. Yonhap via The Korea Times In Korea, it had 5.13 million preorders and sold 4.62 million copies in its first week, by Hanteo Chart's count, records at the time.
"We were surprised by this news. We are so happy," the group said, thanking STAY. The Korea Herald
Official 5-STAR videos
Dates are the YouTube publication dates in Korean time.
| Type | Official video | Channel | Published, KST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailer | "★★★★★ (5-STAR)" Trailer | JYP Entertainment | April 28, 2023 |
| Track preview | UNVEIL : TRACK 1 "DLC" | JYP Entertainment | May 8, 2023 |
| Track preview | UNVEIL : TRACK 3 "죽어보자 (GET LIT)" | JYP Entertainment | May 15, 2023 |
| Teaser | "특(S-Class)" M/V Teaser 1 | JYP Entertainment | May 29, 2023 |
| Teaser | "특(S-Class)" M/V Teaser 2 | JYP Entertainment | May 30, 2023 |
| Music video | "특(S-Class)" M/V | JYP Entertainment | June 2, 2023 |
Keep exploring
New to Stray Kids? The Stray Kids starter guide introduces the eight members, and the STAY fandom guide explains the fans.
The albums around this one: MAXIDENT before it, and ROCK-STAR five months later.
Sources
- JYP Entertainment, ★★★★★ (5-STAR) album page (Korean)
- The Korea Herald, "Stray Kids tops Billboard 200 with 3rd LP '5-STAR'," June 13, 2023
- Yonhap via The Korea Times, "Stray Kids scores third No. 1 on Billboard 200," June 12, 2023
- Official YouTube channel: JYP Entertainment