This & That (EP)

Background

In 2025, Stray Kids released the studio album Karma and the mixtape Do It, which extended their record as the first act to top the Billboard 200 with their first eight entries. Karma became the best-selling 2025 album in South Korea with 3.03 million copies. The band also appeared on DJ Snake's track "In the Dark" from his album Nomad. The IFPI ranked Stray Kids as the second best-selling artist worldwide in 2025. On January 1, 2026, the group posted a video outlining plans for a new album. In March, JYP Entertainment announced that member Seungmin had a stress fracture in his left ankle, and on July 2, it was revealed he would miss some content filming due to slow healing.

Music and lyrics

This & That is a hip-hop, electronic, and pop record with eight tracks totaling twenty-five minutes and eleven seconds. The in-house production team 3Racha co-wrote all tracks, reflecting personal experiences of growth, challenges, relationships, and comfort. The opening track "Run It" is a pop and alternative hip-hop song with a worldbeat rhythm, brass, and marching drums, conveying unstoppable progress. The title track "This & That" is a hip-hop song with a chill, relaxed sound, departing from previous lead singles.

"After You" is a dance-pop and progressive house track about love at first sight. "Farming" uses hip-hop rhythms and electronic sounds, inspired by the slang "aura farming" and gaming terminology; Billboard's Jeff Benjamin noted it recalls Missy Elliott and Timbaland. "I Do" offers comfort with pop and rock elements. "Way Out" is an acoustic hip-hop and electro-R&B song with trap beats and guitar, featuring the word "good-bye" in Japanese, Spanish, Korean, and French.

"Back Then" is an alternative pop track inspired by a television drama Han watched, about looking back on a past love. The EP closes with a "Festival" version of the title track.

Release and promotion

On June 22, Stray Kids announced the EP This & That and its supporting Run It World Tour via a teaser video for "Run It". On July 6, the band uploaded a video titled "Test" adopting the format of Yoo Byung-jae's web show Hate Scary Stuff, featuring Yoo monitoring the members exploring an abandoned house; the video ends with a truck displaying the EP's title. The official trailer and physical pre-orders began on July 8; the cinematic video shows a protagonist receiving an LP from Seungmin and entering a truck, entering a world where everyone has the faces of Stray Kids members in various roles.

The next day, a 3D-animated promotional itinerary showed stickers on orange boxes from a truck. The track list was revealed on July 10, with an image of coffee cascading from paper cups inscribed with song titles and credits. Four sets of concept images were teased: a coffee concept, members in decorated trucks, Y2K styling in mint outfits, and vintage yet sophisticated photographs. The band teased tracks through the "Unveil: Track" series for "Farming", "After You", and "Back Then", and a street-styled retro EDM mashup video.

Commercial performance

According to Hanteo Chart, This & That sold 1,895,617 copies between August 3 and 9, 2026, and 3.28 million in its first week, an 8% increase from Karma. On the Circle Album Chart dated August 2–8, it debuted at number one with 3,475,460 copies, including 3,124,490 CDs, 300,000 Fans albums, and 50,970 LPs. In Japan, it reached number one on the Oricon Albums Chart and Combined Albums Chart, selling 104,000 copies. It topped charts in Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and reached top-five in Australia and Germany.

It received gold certification from SNEP. In the United States, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's ninth US number-one album and extending their record for the first act to debut the first nine entries at number one. It earned 369,000 album-equivalent units, including 357,000 pure sales and 12.21 million on-demand streams, their biggest sales week in the US. It also topped Top Album Sales, Top Vinyl Albums, and World Albums for two consecutive weeks.