[1] With the group's label founder Lee Soo-man serving as the executive producer, composition and production for the album was contributed by Matt Schwartz, Tommy $trate, The Stereotypes, Timothy 'Bos' Bullock, Deez, Yoo Young-jin, Ryan S. Jhun, MZMC, Adrian McKinnon, Shin Hyuk, Josh Cumbee, Andrew Choi, Sara Forsberg, LDN Noise, and others.

[2] Upon its release, NCT 2018 Empathy received mixed to positive reviews from music critics over its "compiled" tracklist and the overall solidity.

It also experienced international success, peaking at number five on the Billboard World Albums while becoming the first NCT release to appear on other European charts.

[4][5] The label then introduced NCT 127, the Seoul-based unit with number "127" representing the longitude coordinate of South Korea's capital on July 1 with seven members for its initial line-up: Taeil, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, Winwin, Mark, and Haechan.

[12][13] Prior to their official introduction, member Kun was featured on the Chinese version of "Without You" in April 2016, having performed live with NCT U.

[14][15] NCT 2018 Empathy consists of fourteen tracks in total, including an instrumental intro and outro and one extended version of a new song.

The new recording material includes "Boss", a future-bass hip-hop track with "heavy bass riffs" which is produced by Mike Daley, Mitchell Owens, Tiffany Fred, Patrick "J. Que" Smith and Yoo Young-jin.

[16] It is followed by "Baby Don't Stop", an electro-hop, synth-pop track co-produced again by Yoo Young-jin with contribution from producer Matt Schwartz and Ryan S. Jhun.

It possesses an "impressive" minimalist sonic composition with "addictive" drum and bass riff, expressing the sensation of an immediate love.

It was described as a "sorrowful" old-school hip-hop influenced track, with member Taeyong, Doyoung, Lucas and Mark rapping and singing about how "today will eventually become yesterday".

Produced by production team LDN Noise, Deez and Adrian McKinnon, the song offers a "softer side" for the nine-member unit in comparison to their signature intense hip hop style.

[19] In contrast, the teen-aged sub-unit NCT Dream also offers their "rebellious" side with the electro-hop bombast of "Go", featuring heavy hi-hats and snare lines that resembles more of a hip hop venture than the group's usual "youthful leanings" of their earlier discography.