Do You Know, BTS? First and foremost, let’s talk about their Leader, RM! 
He was born Kim Nam-joon on September 12th, 1994 (he’s 26) in Dongjak-gu, South Korea. He later moved to Ilsan-gu (at about four or five years old) and pretty much grew up in that area. He’s always loved writing and started with poetry, soon becoming intrigued with rap music at the young age of 11 years old. He was a very bright student, learning English as a kid after his mom introduced him to the American TV show, ‘Friends’. She bought him the DVDs and he’d watch them over and over; first with subtitles, then without, etc.
By middle school, he was adding music to his poetry and began to consider his words lyrics. He shared these compositions to online hip-hop communities and by the age of 14, was rapping in local hip-hop circles. He continued to become more active in the Korean underground hip-hop scene and gave himself the moniker, “Runch Randa”.
In school he scored in the top 1% in the nation on his college entrance exams and it’s been well-noted he has an IQ score of 148 (quite high, mind you). He’s brilliant- but WE already knew that!
He continued to pursue his music and auditioned for Big Hit Entertainment (BTS’s label) in 2010; by then his moniker had evolved to Rap Monster. He was offered a spot with the label and BAM! The early days of BTS officially began! Eventually Suga and j-hope were brought on-board too and the original concept was for these three to be solely a rap/hip-hop trio. Other aspects (and the addition of more members and a switch in concept) evolved and the group BTS, as we know them now, debuted in June of 2013.
From the very start, Rap Monster was firmly in place as the group’s Leader. Since that time we’ve seen him mature into a very polished performer, songwriter and producer of BTS’s music as well as his own successful mixtapes: ‘RM’ and ‘Mono’. (Mixtape = releasing a collection of solo songs.) He’s also written and produced for a wide variety of other artists too. In the past decade, RM has become very highly regarded within the worldwide rap/hip-hop industry. Which is no surprise. When you LISTEN to him, he truly is one of the best ever with a mic. He blows us away every time!
What we love so much about RM is his strong, solid, comforting and respected demeanor. He truly steps forward with BTS and leads his six hyungs. As he is fluent in English, he is always the spokesperson for the group. One of our favorite stories is how in the early days when he’d hear or see poor press or negative comments on social media, he wouldn’t translate the truth for the other members. He didn’t want to make them sad or worried. Instead, he’d spin it into something positive and use it to build them up.
You see it in how they just LOOK at him, whether it’s in interviews or photos- all our members admire RM so much! Jung Kook has repeatedly said he chose Big Hit (after receiving several offers from different labels as a young 15-year-old singing prodigy) because, even in those early days, he was totally in awe of RM. And Jin, our oldest, has often said that even though RM isn’t the most senior of the group, he’s THE perfect choice to lead them.
Personality-wise, he always seems fairly calm and has been open about striving to learn to love himself more and he’s always wanting to become a better version of himself (don’t worry—we’ll eventually get to that UN/Love Yourself speech of his). He loves nature and gardening (he has several sweet plants and bonsai trees he’s regularly caring for and claims working with them soothe him; look for him tending to his little friend—as he likes to call them—in the ‘Life Goes On’ MV) and he’s super passionate about contemporary art.
He loves to read and of course, loves writing, creating and listening to music. He also loves fashion and being the tallest of the members, we must admit, everything he wears looks pretty darn good. Especially when he flashes us those famous dimples! And he makes us laugh on all those series episodes (Bon Voyage, Run BTS, etc.) because he’s often a bit clumsy, has a tendency to lose either his phone or passport and honestly? Chopping veggies or peeling potatoes can be a real struggle, ha! But it all makes him that much more relatable for us and oh-so-endearing!
Trust us, although this a rather long post, it BARELY scratches the surface on all there is to know about RM! And we’ll delve into even more as the week continues. Still, we hope this gives you a good start towards understanding his ‘Then and Now’ story.
We know that you, like us, will come to LOVE yourself some RM! Although you probably already do!
Thanks for reading and please feel free to like/love and share this post!
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: OneLuv BTS | Bio Content: Various Sources
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