From Agust D with love

First, there’s SUGA, the BTS member. When SUGA produces music for an artist other than BTS or himself, the song’s title is followed by his producer credit: “Prod. SUGA.” And then there’s Agust D, his alter ego that’s made an appearance for his two mixtapes, Agust D and D-2, as well as his album D-DAY, due to be released on April 21. As Agust D, he creates a full record of his life as SUGA the BTS member, SUGA the producer and Min Yoongi, the everyday man.

In 2016, just after BTS began their runaway success with the 2015 release The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, SUGA put out Agust D, where he examined his life from his “arrival in Seoul on November 7, 2010” (“724148”) until he found “success even my family couldn’t have foreseen” (“give it to me”). By the time he put out D-2 four years later he had become a global superstar and labelled himself someone who could be “born in a ditch but rise up a dragon” (“Daechwita”).

In the span of that time—back in the early hours of May 3, 2014, before The Most Beautiful Moment in Life had yet to come—SUGA, as Agust D, spoke to “pretending not to feel lonely, not to feel bothered, just fine, make it look like I’m extra tough, while there’s a wall in my way” (“140503 at dawn”). He had arrived at his D-2 era: a time when “change comes to all,” including himself, in “a void I felt because I fly so high” (“Moonlight”)—a level of popularity that had no end in sight. SUGA takes a good look at himself in all his albums as Agust D—albums that ultimately chart where he got his start and who he’s becoming.

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