A 22-year-old wrote this after watching a leaf fall and it went on to become one of the nation's most treasured songs. Nobody's touching Namjoon's pen game bruh.
“There are methods of cheating but wouldn't it be better to make music in a more honest way?” — seokjin at mama 2019
He has been spitting bars since the very beginning
I don't think people fully understand the magnitude of this decision.
Some of the music industry's most respected producers, writers, engineers, and creatives worked on ARIRANG. A project built to the highest artistic standard. One producer even spoke publicly about hoping the album would receive Grammy recognition.
Then the Recording Academy introduced a category specifically for Asian pop.
And BTS chose not to submit.
Think about that. The biggest musical project of the year. One of the strongest commercial and artistic contenders. A project that could have competed across multiple major categories. It simply won't be in the race because the artists chose principle over prestige.
Moves like this don't happen often. When artists at BTS' level willingly walk away from the biggest stage in music, the conversation shifts because of what they refused to endorse.