Of course it's understandable when it comes to forming a group that people are put together with a certain goal in mind. If you've seen some k-pop groups together you would see the disparity in overall visuals and also height. Sure everyone knows that XG is not k-pop. It's a Japanese group with Korean producer and they sing mainly in English. But probably because the performed in Korea and also even in this MC Cocona uses "unnie", you can't completely tear them off. The concept of 'xtraordinary girls' seems simple and I think it wasn't only to find talented, as mentioned they're young but they're striking. And I think they also have balls to experiment (heck Cocona shaving her head Sinead O'Connor style).
I have no idea what type of vision their producer Simon has, so I can only assume it. I don't know why exactly he decided to go to Japan in search for talents, only assume that the Korean market might be thinned out, since Korean entertainment when it comes to idols debuted so many groups through years. Recently I always have a question about many groups - can they sing live? Those Music Bank and Inkigayo programs are not in the scope of research, since it's ibvious they use not only the original track but original vocals from the track to fill the gaps of live performance, have no idea how they call it nowadays.
Japan on the other hands loves pop, loves kawaii and sometimes many indie bands can get their own niche, but what about hip-hop and rappers? Don't mention South Korea, there are many talented rappers no doubt, but when it comes to girl groups I feel like it's just a position and the person in question might not really be too into it? Assumptions. But also some of the rap is 1) more like reading than rapping and 2) let's be honest, this has a lot to do with accent. What I like about XG is that they were ready for the international arena right away and when they sing I can understand what they sing. Even though Japanese also have a heavy accent and won't be able to pronounce 'r' and 'l' differently, even if their life depended on it. All said in good humor with no negative energy.
Back to the vision, so Simon comes to Japan, girls go through strictess draft and become a team. You can feel that they don't aim just to sing in their own corner, after all prior to this some k-pop groups and let's mention Psy, who let everyone know that there is such energizer somewhere in South Korea, opened doors for Asian groups. It's not like they were the first ones, no, it feels like during this period the stream of groups going to international arena grew and became steady, instead of this arena waiting only for one specific artist and not giving a damn about others. It's not only groups, k-pop and k-drama hand in hand did this. Earlier I remember some aimed to make US releases, but now people became smarter maybe :) they sing their own, but still perform outside, without needing to conquer the foreign charts, their original songs aimed for domestic market can do it too. Thus in year or two XG already traveled to several countries and from concert videos you can see how welcomed they are. Although it sounds all materialistic like some business plan, but hey :D
The other part that I truly like about their rap is delivery and content. Unlike k-pop which I listen to a lot actually, a lot of rap in k-pop sounds silly to me, or flat. It's like a bunch of random words put together. What about being cool, wearing famous brands etc. It's like look at my success and be jealous and that's it. XG might also have lyrics about success, but there is something about how they put words together, how they rhyme and deliver which makes the content feel better. I honestly feel like a pigeon that shook its' head while listening and I still do, because it's so addicting. So far I couldn't say anything bad about any of their releases. It actually feels diverse from hip-hop to ballads to something more pop and each time I always think to myself after listening to their new song - damn, they did it again :D