BTS Members Best Solo Songs

Though he had released a couple of songs previously, Suga officially opened his solo career with the 2016 mixtape Agust D, the title of which was a clever reference to his hometown (Agust D backwards is Dtsuga, the Dt standing for Daegu town, where he grew up, and Suga standing for shooting guard — the position he played on his school basketball team). The brief interlude “Skit” offers insight into Suga’s supportive relationship with his older brother. It’s not a song, but rather a snippet of conversation between the two siblings as they share a couple of lamb chops and discuss the rapper’s promising potential as a solo artist.

J-Hope is one of BTS’s three rappers. Sadly, we don’t hear any vocals in this intro. But it sets up the concept for his debut solo album, Jack in the Box. Pandora — the mythological woman created by the gods — is “unable to undo what she had done” and “fell into despair” … until she discovered a beautiful creature. Can you guess who that beautiful creature is? To paraphrase the rapper: He’s your hope, you’re his hope, he’s J-Hope!

Except for three sentences, this interlude from Jimin’s debut album, Face, is instrumental. There are ASMR moments with snippets of the singer breathing and taking a gulp of something that sounds refreshing. When he says, “Wow, everybody, I really missed you,” you can almost visualize him making finger hearts.

On Right Place, Wrong Person’s short, penultimate interlude, RM asks, “When the credits roll do you hang tight?/Do you stay inside or go off to life?” While the lyrics can be interpreted as RM wondering about our film-viewing habits, it’s more likely he’s asking listeners to be patient. The ㅠㅠ in the title is Korean texting slang for crying, which indicates that he would be disappointed if we didn’t stick around to listen to “Come Back to Me,” the final track on his album. To make sure we’re paying attention, a sharp distorted brass horn honks throughout, creating a low octave reminder to stick around, because our man isn’t done yet.

A wistful ballad exploring a relationship long since over, Jin asks himself, “If I could turn it back/Would I be by your side?/ … I’ll be there in the background.” Wait, nobody puts Baby (I mean, Jin) in the corner (I mean, background), not even himself!

Somebody is singing at the beginning, but it doesn’t sound like Jung Kook. But it is! The vocal distortion is a good effort, but when you’ve got someone who can sing like Jung Kook, why disguise his voice?

V’s soft, distorted voice speaks of wanting his love to go on and on before kicking into the first verse, where he ponders, “What if I show you and make it all new … /But, baby, you’re still blue.” V’s vocals are on point in this song that is lyrically sparse.

Not to be confused with BTS’ cover of TVXQ’s “Something,” or the more famous Beatles song with the same title. RM sings more than he raps on this soft adaptation of Drake’s “Something.” “I don’t know whether you liked me,” he sings in Korean, “But it doesn’t matter.”

Jimin doesn’t sing on this one. Instead, we get a womp womp instrumental that would fit in at a circus. So what is the purpose of including this on his second album, Muse? It preps the listener for what they’re about to hear next, which is the delightful “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band.” (Keep reading for that one. You want a show? Jimin delivers.)

If “Over the Horizon” sounds like it could be the theme song for Samsung Galaxy smartphones, that’s because it is! The electronics company hired Suga to record a modern version of the instrumental. The guitar-heavy song exudes a dreamy quality as Suga whispers “Open this to the new world.” In 2022, Suga released an instrumental version that shares a similar jaunty vibe to BTS’ 2020 single “Dynamite.” 

“Our Island” is “Over the Horizon”-adjacent. The theme song is for BTS’ cute mobile game, BTS Island: In the SEOM, which you can play on your (ta-da!) Galaxy phone. Actually, you can play it on any smartphone. The instrumental is breezy, but also has a surprisingly sweeping quality to it that would work well in a film like Up. “Squirrel!” And cue the music.…

The combo of Jin’s silky vocals, the earnest guitars, and the lush strings creates an aural cinematic experience. With his voice soaring, Jin offers himself to soak up the tears of the one he loves.

Creepy music-box instrumentals, and J-Hope breathing heavily? Yes, we want more! 

V may look like a 21st-century idol, but his song choices reveal that he’s an old soul drawn to classics from the 1950s. Many iconic artists have sung this song, including Perry Como, who offered a peppy ode to the holiday. V’s version adds a contemplative flair with a solemn touch. 

Hitting those delicious breathy falsettos on this EDM track from his album Golden, Jung Kook lets everyone know that he is all about getting closer emotionally (and physically) to the silk-dress-wearing girl of his dreams. While he promises her he’ll be someone she can depend on, he is cognizant of his limitations. As the song goes, “We tried again, said I wouldn’t lie/But I lied again.”

This gentle piano number contains just one word: dream. This concept of dreams pops up often in Suga’s work (“So Far Away,” featuring SURAN, and “Snooze,” his hypnotic collab with Ryuichi Sakamoto and the Rose’s Woosung). Even when he’s a guest artist on Juice WRLD’s “Girl of My Dreams,” he can’t escape dreams.

It was in 2013 that RM adapted Drake’s music. On “Too Much,” he takes the Canadian rapper’s verses and takes it up to 11, translating some of the lyrics into Korean and adding his own unique additions. The song vacillates between gentle contemplation and ferociousness as he wonders, “To live comfortably and appropriately, I swallowed the flames that swelled up in my throat/Yeah, I’m disgusted with myself as well.”

Jimin kicks off Muse singing about romance and his desire to be with someone special. “I was in pitch black,” he sings. “But I couldn’t stop thinking of you all day long.”

Suga starts his rap off grunting like a cranky ahjusshi in “140503 at Dawn,” which refers to May 3, 2014. The significance of that particular date lies in the ordinary insignificance of his daily life. Through his lyrics, Suga maintains that his trainee life had been “100 out of 100.” But his “sociophobia develops and my human relations is 0.”

The early years of being in BTS meant that RM had to accept that he was an idol, and that his early years as a hardcore rapper would become part of his past. In this collaboration with DJ Soulscape, he tells his story over a groovy instrumental that Soulscape originally composed in 2007. Adding lyrics he wrote for the song, RM sounds almost giddy “officially rapping Soulscape beat …/I’m sickly rapping on Soulscape beat.” But lest you forget who he is, he sends detractors away with a caustic, “Fuck you, man.”

RM calmly contemplates solitude and the meaning of his life in this beautifully thoughtful song, asking, “Where is my meaning? I drift along endlessly.” The atmospheric number is punctuated by a possible answer: “Lost in life, lost in you.”

In Korean, 혼술 (honsool) is short for drinking alone. For Suga, the song represents the freedom from being beholden to anyone. It’s also about how in those times alone, he’s also burdened by having too much time to contemplate his solitary thoughts. The song starts off with distorted, slowed-down vocals that are creepy (imagine Pennywise chanting these lyrics as an incantation), but they set the tone for dealing with his worries — fame, disillusionment, and how alcohol numbs the repetitiveness of life. As Suga says, “I’ll worry about tomorrow’s worries tomorrow,” before quickly adding, “Fuck, I don’t care.”

“Blue Side” started out as the abbreviated outro on J-Hope’s 2018 mixtape Hope World. He released the full version of “Blue Side (Outro)” in 2021, stating that he wanted to address who he used to be and comfort 2018-era J-hope, who was always in a hurry. “I wanted to go back to the time when I didn’t know anything … /It’s not comforting my heart, blue,” he sings on the soft-rock number.

The English title “28” refers to Suga’s Korean age at the time he recorded this song. But the Korean title “점점 어른이 되나봐” — which translates to “I’m becoming an adult” — is the better descriptor for this laidback R&B/hip-hop track where Suga remembers milestone moments that didn’t alter his life much. Still, he wonders, “Shit, after I turn 30 like that/Then what would change?”

“Right People, Wrong Place” is the lead track off of RM’s album Right Place, Wrong Person. Confused? That’s the point. The contradiction of the two titles is meant to give insight into the uncertainty within RM’s own mind. “Right people in wrong place,” he sings, before switching up the phrasing to “wrong people in wrong place.” And just when you’re begging him to include a definite article in his sentences, RM’s already moved onto “wrong people in right place.” The free-style discordant jazz is a nice touch on this experimental song that’s right (or wrong) for all the wrong (or right) reasons.

It was a year of growth for Jung Kook in 2023. Besides releasing his debut solo album, Golden, BTS’ youngest member sang an understated and moving version of the Oasis song “Let There Be Love.” JK has long been a fan of sharing covers with his fans on social media. But this one was posted on BTS’ official YouTube channel. Noel Gallagher wrote the song, which was sung by his brother Liam, he of the distinctively raspy voice. Jung Kook sings the same lyrics, but with a gentler and more melodic delivery. Backed by a sparse piano, he sings “Who kicked a hole in the sky/So the heavens would cry over me?” Don’t make us cry, JK.

With his sweet, knowing vocals, Max starts the song: “There’s someone in the mirror that you don’t know/And everything was all wrong/So burn it till it’s all gone.” Suga jumps in rapping about the voice inside his head encouraging him to “yeah, yeah, yeah, burn it.” As the song continues, it becomes clear that Suga wants to burn brightly, without worrying about burning out. But if the two go hand in hand, he leaves us with these final words: “I hope you don’t forget — giving up decisively also counts as courage.”

RM and Krizz Kaliko have a nice back-and-forth flow about the pressure to be the biggest star in the world. Released a couple of years before BTS blew up worldwide, RM asks, “What’s Korea in this modern Asia, man?” He couldn’t have known then that with K-dramas, Korean films, K-pop, and his own artistry, Korea would become a dominant force in pop culture.

In the film Scarface, Tony Montana says, “I always tell the truth, even when I lie.” When Suga spits out, “Sorry I have no problem, shit/Mo money, more problem shit,” nodding to another kingpin, rap legend the Notorious B.I.G., it feels like he’s working through some of the lies that have become his truth.

Throughout “So Far Away,” Suga brings up dreams. (He uses the same cadence repeating “dream” on his 2023 song “Snooze.”) Suran adds an otherworldly feel to beautiful but sad melodies. (In 2017, Jin and Jungkook joined Suga on an updated version of “So Far Away” to celebrate the anniversary of BTS’ debut.)

If ever a song was a green flag, it would be this one. Jung Kook had this single prepared to release while he was still serving in the South Korean military. “I’m grateful for you …/I’ll never leave you/I’m better with you,” he promised ARMY. 

A 30-second instrumental sets up this song, which is less about religion than it is a vindication for RM. “Even if I can’t die a legend,” he says, “that’s OK because I’m my own legend.”

When RM went on vacation in 2019, he told ARMY he was namjooning. The word has since become synonymous with doing something intentional and relaxing that Kim Nam-joon (a.k.a. RM) would do. This could be checking out a new art gallery, hanging out with friends, or going on a bicycle ride along the Han River. Listening to this tranquil song feels like vicariously namjooning.

The alliteration of three Korean words defines “People”: saram (people), sarang (love), and salmyun (if you live). Without love, people can’t survive.

The first track on RM, “Voice” sets the introspective tone that resonates throughout the album. With a piano loop as the main instrumental, RM contemplates how to navigate the jealous accusations about his burgeoning fame. “I don’t know how you’ll be listening to this,” he says. “But even if you curse me, it’s good because in the end, you’ll find me again.”

Suga closes his D-2 mixtape with “My Dear Friend.” Speaking from his own point of view, Suga details seeing a good friend going to prison and supporting him, and then wonders if he could have done anything to prevent his friend’s downward spiral. As Suga works through his feelings of betrayal and guilt, Nell’s Kim Jong-wan says what he’s too angry to admit: “To this day, I still miss and miss you.”

RM’s “Life” is set to J. Dilla’s instrumental of the same name. RM rap-whispers the profound question “Why is there no opposite for the word loneliness?/Is it because we have no moments of not being lonely until we die?”

Crying in peace and partying are two things J-Hope daydreams about, because there’s always someone eyeballing him to catch him in the act of doing something, anything. Only in his daydreams is he free from the nightmares of reality.

RM showing off his freestyle rap skills and telling it like it is. “This is the kingdom/I am the king/You are dumb.” Word.

“Are you ready?” DJ Friz asks. In this one-minute intro, Suga spits out bars and brags about his Daegu roots and his current status. He has Billboard wishes and a “busy passport,” so everyone get out of his way.

J-Hope’s debut solo release includes samples from the Game and Skrillex’s “El Chapo,” and the notable line “I don’t wear a mask/That’s my motto.”

RM wrote “Uhgood” for BTS, before changing his mind and releasing it on his second mixtape, Mono. “Uhgood” is the romanization of the Korean title “어긋” — or being misaligned or off. The soothing song is atmospheric, with RM singing about feeling out of place. But he reassures himself that there is no need to feel less than, because “all I need is me.” 

V’s original plan for “Sweet Night” was to release it on a future mixtape or solo album. Instead, he let it be used on the soundtrack of Itaewon Class, which stars his good friend, actor Park Seo-joon. In that K-drama, Park’s character was torn between two women who represented his past and future. “Sweet Night” plays into how timing affects how we perceive those closest to us, rhetorically asking, “How could I know/One day, I’d wake up feeling more?”

One of RM’s greatest strengths is processing his complex, raw emotions and creating something intimate and therapeutic. Just as BTS was on the precipice of exploding globally, RM penned “Always,” a song on which he grapples with personal acceptance: “One morning as I opened my eyes/I wished I was dead/I wish someone would kill me …/The world has never understood me.” Without any vocal histrionics, RM’s gentle delivery conveys that he is in agony. But there is resilience in his voice that leaves the listener with hope for him, and for ourselves.

Just in case people forget, his name is Suga, as he declares at the beginning of “It Doesn’t Matter.” Contemplating his identity as both a rapper and a pop-music idol who “stole away young girls’ night, like insomnia,” he straddles the line, knowing that haters talk smack about his authenticity. In this 2013 track, Suga shows his affinity for incorporating traditional music into his work by including samples of renowned Korean pansori singer Ahn Sook-sun.

RM rhymes fantastic with elastic and boasts that he’s got the “thing thing thing.” Released in conjunction with the Fantastic film in South Korea, the song has a throbbing dance beat that almost makes you forget lyrics like “Special burn/Normal burn.” What? But Mandy Ventrice’s soaring voice stands out, asking, “Baby, are you down tonight?”

The song’s protagonist went to a club, drank too much, threw up, and got laughed at, making him too sad to dance. The song is set to a plucky guitar that ends with Jung Kook whispering his father’s advice, “’Cause you don’t need no one to dance.” The line is the somber cousin of the lyrics from BTS’ upbeat 2021 single “Permission to Dance”: “’Cause we don’t need permission to dance.”  

A short, captivating instrumental, “Interlude: Dawn” features a piercing guitar that sounds like a whammy bar was used to bend notes into submission.

Balladeer Jin is back singing an ode of thanks to ARMY, who waited for him to safely return after completing his duties with that other army. Set to a piano, Jin’s vocals shine as he promises that “if you need me, I will come to you.”

This moody, atmospheric song begins with birds chirping. Suga’s soft-spoken, calm delivery belies his repeated request to “set me free, knowing that it’s not what I want.”