Every time I walk. Every time I run. Every time I move. As always, for us.
Jung Ho-seok, known professionally as j-hope, is a South Korean rapper best known for being a member of the boy band BTS. j-hope released his first Solo Side Project, the Hope World mixtape, in 2018. An official solo album, Jack in the Box, was released in 2022, making him the first BTS member to be promoted as a soloist. Along with the solo work of fellow BTS rappers RM and Suga, j-hope's solo work is primarily focused on hip-hop.
In April 2023, j-hope became the second BTS member, following Jin at the end of 2022, to enlist in the military. A special album, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, was released a year after his enlistment.
Solo discography:
Studio Albums
- Jack in the Box (2022)
- Hope on the Street Vol. 1 (Special album; 2024)
Mixtapes
- Hope World (2018)
Non-Album Singles
- "Chicken Noodle Soup"
(featuring Becky G)
j-tropes:
- Album Intro Track: "Intro" from Jack in the Box is a reading of the end of the "Pandora's Box" story.
- Album Title Drop:
- Hope World is dropped in "Base Line"
- Jack in the Box is dropped in "Pandora's Box".
- Anaphora: The chorus of "On the Street", though one line breaks it up slightly."Every time I walk
Every time I run
Every time I move
As always, for us
Every time I look
Every time I love
Every time I hope
As always, for us (On the street, I'm still)" - Concept Album: Jack in the Box is about seeking hope when the world feels like a Crapsack World.
- Darker and Edgier: Jack in the Box is darker than Hope World. It and Jimin's Face are also the darkest of the BTS members' solo albums.
- Epiphora: "Daydream" has two back-to-back cases of this, which are Korean lines with English suffixes."My character's like half and half. Who knows?
A public figure's striving life. Who knows?
Abstaining from large cravings. Who knows?
Always out of breath for daydreaming. Who knows?
Wanna cry in peace, I know
Wanna party like crazy, I know
Wanna be fluttered with love, I know"
(English translation) - Humans Are Flawed: A recurring theme in Jack in the Box, especially on "Stop (There Are No Bad People In The World)""Yes, I watch the news
But what's that?
Deadly criminal, are people really like that?
Actions of humans are worse than brutes
It is so dirty, so foul
I wonder if they call themselves human"
(English translation) - Instrumentals: "Music Box: Reflection" is, as the name suggests, an Ominous Music Box Tune interlude.
- Large Ham: j-hope can be very energetic in some of his raps, such as "Hope World" and "Arson".
- Lucky Charms Title: "= (Equal Sign)"
- Minimalist Cast: j-hope is the only person on screen in the "Daydream" and "Airplane" videos.
- Miniscule Rocking: Excluding intro/interlude/outro tracks:
- Hope World has "Base Line" (1:29)
- Jack in the Box has "=" (1:54)
- Longest Song Goes Last: Hope on the Street Vol. 1 ends with "Neuron" (4:33)
- Multilingual Song: Although English is omnipresent in Korean Pop Music to the point of not being noteworthy in most cases, "Chicken Noodle Soup" is notable in that it also has Spanish in it, courtesy of Becky G.
- Nightmare Face: The demon faces of the backing band in the "More" video.
- The Oner: The "Arson" video has a lengthy section of j-hope walking to the camera amid a fiery disaster area, followed by a smoke-screen transition into another one of the camera walking alongside him.
- Performance Video: "On the Street" shows j-hope walking/dancing/rapping on a New York City side street and dancing in a subway station, intercepted by J. Cole rapping on the roof of a building.
- Sampling:
- "Chicken Noodle Soup" samples a song of the same name by Webstar and Young B.
- "What If..." samples "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" by Ol Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan.
- Singer Namedrop: "Pandora's Box" has the lyric "J to the hope."
- Soft Glass: The "More" video has a scene of shards of glass frozen in time and surrounding j-hope and the band, who are unaffected when the shards fall as time resumes.
- Solo Side Project: The Hope World mixtape is a collection of songs he recorded during his spare time from 2015-18 while recording several albums with BTS.
- Special Guest: All but one track on Hope on the Street Vol. 1 (the solo version of "On the Street") features a guest, including fellow BTS member Jung Kook and Yunjin of Le Sserafim.
- Time Stands Still: The "More" video has a scene where the camera walks through multiple rooms, most notably an office with spilling coffee and flying papers, while doors to the rooms open, leading to j-hope and his backing band before time resumes.
- Title 1: Hope on the Street Vol. 1
