Time for some R-rated Bangtan

BTS has been clearly telling you they're bulletproof, but not boys anymore. So are y'all listening?

Reader advisory: there are some adult themes and language today. I think you can handle it. If not, this is your chance to bail. Let’s go (JK voice).

When I first got into BTS, around 2018/2019, I was amused with how some parts of ARMY discussed the seven men. It was like they were 12-year-olds, so sheltered in the lock-down dorm of Bang PD and their work spaces that Korean child protection should be called on Big Hit. The babies. I wasn’t around for the 15-year-old JK phase. I didn’t see him graduate from high school and have Yoongi look like his proud dad.

When I got into BTS airspace, the adulting - college level antics - was underway. The tats, especially’s JK’s sleeve and Jimin’s random pieces. My God, they are drinking? Is that Taehyung smoking? What is this flirting drama?

They looked, sounded, and their tats/piercings/abs and elite body roll skills sure looked like grown-ass manfolk to me. Agust D was dropping all the shibal saekkei’s on his mixtapes. And these were the things we saw and heard. I can only imagine the stuff that is stored deep in the Big Hit secret vault. To be clear, the guys were doing nothing wrong. Just being normal adults. The protective, shield-your-eyes Army’s were not letting them grow up.

Some segments still see them as virginal, pure beings of light to be protected, all living together stacked in bunk beds in their fancy dorm in the clouds.

Thankfully, Chapter 2 of BTS is all about the Dynamite to blow this kid stuff up. The Festa 2022 video said bye to the dorm, and said the words we know - hello, they all have their own places, and have for a while. After all, who wants to live with Jin playing video games in living room 24/7, or JK having his mattress issues?

But if you did not get that memo, check out j-hope’s Jack in the Box, RM’s Indigo, and now Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 from his upcoming solo album Face. Three VERY different approaches, three different sounds, three different men saying their truth. This is not copycat crap.

These three, in their distinct ways, are telling us that they are grown, flown, and ready to own. The shirts are coming off, haha, and Joon’s even dropping some grown-up sexy stuff with So!YoON! (I hear a Prince groove in this. Damn. If you choose to take Joon’s verse any other way than it was intended, as in ahem, saying his favorite place is in bed…then you are choosing to be obtuse.)

Yeah, they’re damned grown men who are finally saying what they say - like the big swears. The Bangtan swear jar is open, and I want to throw a $100 in it for encouragement.

I want more. (Hobi voice).

They literally are telling people to fuck off. LITERALLY. In English. With the subtitles telling you heard what you heard. Joon telling the fake side of fame, the computer programs ruining our lives and the fools to go. Hobi telling those who hate him and BTS to fly a kite. Now, our precious modern dance warrior Jimin, straight up sheds the shirt and tells his haters - twice - to go fuck themselves.

May the congregation say AMEN. Be free. Be light. Be positive.

Thanks to Jimin and Hobi’s versions, that bon mot is the funkiest, coolest, best choreographed version. Even Joon put bounce grooves behind his swearing. We can dance (if we want to) and diss. It is still so clear - they are taking charge and giving back some of what they have endured. Best part is that they are still standing, survivors of the brutal game of fame and the music industry.

Yoongi’s album is coming sometime April-June, and we need to buckle in for that one. Who knows what the resident musical genius (lab) has been up to. But it will be good. You know that much.

Let them be them. Let men, who are from 25-30, be grown. We don’t need to protect them from the world. They want to break out and be themselves. I am happy they are being given the freedom, the big budgets for production, the ambitious vistas to make their creative videos, and the power to be scared…but bravely forge ahead.

They are being rewarded for fueling their passions (Joon’s back in the studio, Hobi gifted us with the brilliant In the Street with JCole…). We are feeling their nerves and excitement, enjoying their creativity and music, and squeeing with pride. Those who choose to diss BTS as shallow, stupid boy band crap only do so at their own peril. They don’t know. Until they do know. And then you cannot unsee the real.

The sad reality is it took their impending service stints in the Korean military to unlock this door. Jin’s gone, Hobi’s leaving soon, and it looks like Joon may be next. Who knows. This bright burst of creative goodness should fuel them while they are gone, leaving us wanting more. The guys hopefully will be back in 2025-26 to be an even more potent force.

So bring the good shit on. It’s only starting.

And let me know in the comments what you think about BTS Ch. 2 so far!