Toy shop in Vegas shared a story when namjoon visited to buy Pokemon cards. Look at the caption they wrote🥹🥹
"He's hands down one of the kindest celebrities we've ever had the pleasure of welcoming....He was incredibly warm and gracious with our entire staff..."
Namjoon🥹🫶
🐿 남준이 라이브 봤어요. 아무 댓글 안 달고 남준이가 하는 말을 들었어요. '앨범을 쭉 짚으면 투어가 더 의미가 생길 거 같고 곡을 받아들이는, 현장에서 듣는 사람들도 감정이 다를 거 같다' 말을 해왔었던 남준이라서, 앨범 작업하면서 너무 고생을 했고 그래서 남준이가 하는 말을 지켜봤어요.
🐨 I'm not a good dancer and I wanted to do the 2.0 choreo well, so everyday before our dance lesson, I arrived an hour early to practice and after we finished I stayed to do an extra 30 mins. Because everyday I would see Jungkook, Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung and I really wanted to be like them and dance expressively and with style. I watched them constantly and studied them and I watched the back-up dancers too and studied them. I have lot of good memories of that.
🐨: Because I'm not... you know, I've always been someone who isn't the best at dancing. So, because I really wanted to do well with the choreography for ‘2.0’, I would always arrive an hour before our dance lessons started to practice by myself first. And then after the lessons ended, I’d stay behind for another 30 minutes to practice more for ‘2.0’
🐨: Because whenever I watched Jungkook, Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung, I'd think, 'Ah, I really don't want to drag them down.' I wanted to execute the vibe coolly just like them, especially since I have years of experience under my belt too. So I always watched them, analyzed their movements, and analyzed the professional dancers.
🐨: Anyway, it's a song that holds a lot of memories. And so many people showed a lot of love for the music video, too. I think it was a really meaningful song that allowed us to step forward into something new while still keeping an essence that feels authentically like us. I'm also really grateful to Mikey, Charles, Jungkook, Hobi, and Taehyung for this song.
🐨 We are doing concerts and a tour again. And of course, this or that might have something we wished were different, and we all have something we wish were different. But we, with not one person leaving the group, not one person hurt, not one person taking a day off, are doing it safely.
🐨: First of all, before going into that...Right around the time Jin-hyung was discharged from the military—which was a year before the rest of us would be discharged—everyone’s mental state wasn't very good. So, when Jin-hyung got discharged, and around the time I played the saxophone... after his discharge, we all gathered together. I can’t quite remember if it was at Jimin’s house or my house... wait, I think it was Jimin’s house. We all gathered at Jimin’s place, and ah...
🐨: At that time, Jungkook was also going through a really tough period. Well, we were all having a hard time since we were all still active-duty soldiers (private first class). Jungkook was crying his eyes out, saying that as the older brother, I needed to work harder to hold the team together. We talked about things like that, and we had a lot of deep conversations among ourselves.
🐨: So we said, 'Alright then, since everyone is waiting for us, let's make an album as soon as we return and repay those who have been waiting.' I think that's when we roughly decided on a plan. And since all the members' discharge dates are clustered in June, the timing lined up well. I think we started setting up the song camp from the end of that year. Then the question became: who should be the 'captain' of this song camp?
🐨: To be honest, the term 'song camp' is a bit of Konglish (Korean-English). In English, it's usually called a 'session.' I was very used to sessions because I had done them with about 30 to 40 people within HYBE during my RPWP (Right Place, Wrong Person) album. I'm sure Jungkook and Hobi have experience with them firsthand too.
🐨: When it comes to sessions, there are sessions where the artist themselves participates, but in this industry, there are also 'pre-sessions' where the singer isn't directly involved—creating things that fit that specific musical world.
🐨: So, we decided that we would go to LA in July and August, gather together, and hold those sessions. I think we made that decision around the turn of the year, though I don’t remember the exact timeline. I remember I was really looking forward to that time, wishing it would come quickly.
🐨 I think I reached the sad conclusion that people dont really listen to lyrics anymore. so if my words reach anyone I hope they’ll listen to this album one more time and truly pay attention to the stories we’re trying to tell personally,that’s still something I quietly hope for