BTS’s J-Hope is gearing up to release his much-awaited second solo album, Hope On The Street Vol. 1, on March 29, 2024.
While this album and its accompanying documentary are meant to be special gifts for ARMYs while the rapper is away fulfilling his military duties, it is also a longtime passion project of his. As a result, J-Hope seems to have left no stone unturned to make this record an iconic one with multiple featuring artists. His groupmate Jungkook, his junior HYBE idol, Yunjin of LE SSERAFIM, and Korean RnB singer JINBO are some of them.
The title track of the album, “Neuron,” features Korean Hip Hop artist Gaeko and the legendary Yoon Mirae. The song’s title drew fans’ attention immediately, as it referred to the name of the dance crew J-Hope belonged to before becoming a trainee. The title alone made it clear how intricately this album would be intertwined with his journey as a dancer.
But there’s another, a sort of prophetic level of association of the song with J-Hope’s pre-debut times, and it all ties to the featuring artist, Yoon Mirae. In BTS’s memoir book, Beyond The Story, it is mentioned that when J-Hope auditioned for BigHit Entertainment (now BIGHIT MUSIC), he chose Yoon Mirae’s song “Black Happiness” for the rap category. Though as a complete stranger to rapping back then, he felt that he didn’t do well enough to secure a place among the trainees at this label.
Now, a little over ten years later, J-Hope has reached a full-circle moment by collaborating with the same artist with whom he started his rapper journey. This incredible story even got a warm acknowledgment from the Korean hip-hop legend Tiger JK, who is also the husband of Yoon Mirae!
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— 아빠 최고 peace peace peace (@DrunkenTigerJK) February 27, 2024
From fearing that he failed his audition to becoming a global-scale artist who features legendary artists on his album, J-Hope’s career graph is one for the history books!
