It breaks my heart that they're so used to being treated like outsiders that the bare minimum feels extraordinary. Seeing them genuinely surprised just because Zane said he listened to "Arirang" says everything.
What song did you think #BTS will perform at the first FIFA World Cup Final halftime show?! 👀⚽️
🇺🇸July 19 at 3PM ET | 🇰🇷July 20 at 4AM KST
#BTSXWorldCup2026
🖋Every artist creates their art with the intention of having people see it, watch it, or LISTEN TO IT. Yoongi and RM came from the underground rap scene, but like everyone else, they wanted their music to reach as many people as possible. They also wanted the chance to make money and give themselves and their families a comfortable life—like ANYONE who didn't come FROM privilege and has both feet on the ground.
🌟What separates them from rappers like this guy is COURAGE. They had the courage to swallow their pride and take a chance on making their rap and music in a different setup and environment. And it worked.🌟
Ever since then, part of Korea's underground rap scene has had beef and resentment toward them, as if BTS were somehow responsible for the fact that they chose to stay there out of pride and couldn't build the same success for themselves. 🌟BTS made HYBE possible, not the other way around. It's not HYBE getting them feat. Is them giving HYBE a name/reputation to go after that.
The result of their courage? SUGA sold out an entire hip-hop tour with D-DAY. RM released one of the most acclaimed rap albums in recent years. J-Hope continues to find success while reaching an even broader general audience.
🗣BTS is the result of underground rappers having the COURAGE to swallow their pride for a chance to make a living from music and succeed.🗣
No amount of petty resentment is going to change that.
Dear whoever you are,
Your "20 years of struggle" doesn't give you the right to disrespect j-hope, especially when you clearly haven't sat with an album as critically acclaimed as “Jack In The Box”. And don't put him in the same sentence as idols from other labels who use company influence to collab with whoever's trending.
j-hope and BTS started from the bottom if you didn’t know that, a struggling company, zero industry privileges, even mocked by parts of the Korean hip-hop scene early on. They didn't get here on luck. They got here on preparation meeting opportunity. Big Hit didn't make BTS, BTS made Big Hit /HYBE what it is today.
Korean music critic Randy Suh put it well in a 2018 piece: "j-hope doesn't really owe the Korean hip hop scene much because it isn't where he got his start. He has since said with confidence that his musical roots are the 1980s and '90s hip hop that he grew up dancing to"
He didn't come up through the underground rap scene, but he spent his late teens studying it and building a flow that's entirely his own. That groundwork is what made him the first South Korean artist to headline a major U.S. festival, not a Big Hit connection, but raw talent. That's also where he met J. Cole in person, told him he was his muse, and exchanged numbers. That friendship started artist to artist, not through some HYBE rep making a call. 🤨
“on the street” with J.Cole is j-hope’s way of paying respect to one his early hip-hop inspirations. He gave Jermaine has more bars in the song, that’s how much he respects him.
j-hope only collaborates with people he genuinely respects. Korean hip-hop legends like Yoon Mirae and Gaeko who joined him on "Neuron" didn't show up because he's popular. They showed up because they believe in his skill, and because he's cited them as inspirations since day one.
Years in the game don't automatically make you more deserving than someone else. Sure, some artists lean hard on their label, can't rap or sing live, and still get everything handed to them. But j-hope has never been one of them.
Twenty years of experience should teach you the difference between resenting someone’s success and understanding it. j-hope’s is the kind you study, not the kind you dismiss.
some reflective thoughts from sean evans about the bts x hot ones episode and also how intentional they were with not doing much promo but picking programs they think ARMY would enjoy 😌💜