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The South Korean rapper promotes his first solo album in Spain and reflects on the price of K-pop success, the history of his country, and collecting art.
Kim Nam-joon (Seoul, 1994) seems genuinely surprised that a group of fans recognized him a few days ago on the streets of Bilbao. "You'd like to think that maybe in small cities, on the other side of the world, you can go unnoticed...", says the rapper, known as RM or even better known as the leader of BTS, the male K-pop band that in 10 frenetic years has broken all the records in the global music industry, Bilbao included.
Last summer its seven members announced a hiatus to develop solo projects and do their mandatory military service in Korea. Their fans, the ARMYs, 72 million on Instagram alone, are eagerly awaiting their reunion announced for 2025. RM assures that he is too.
He came to Spain to promote his album Indigo (released in December) and to visit the Guggenheim, Thyssen, and Prado museums, and the Picasso Foundation in Barcelona... "I've seen tons of Goyas and I've been caught by the eyes of El Greco, but I'll stick with Las Meninas", says the rapper. The first track of this amateur collector's album is called Yun, in honor of the abstract painter Yun Hyong-keun. "They call him the Asian Rothko, but what interests me is his life: he suffered the Japanese invasion and the war, and he was tortured by the government, but he never gave in. In his work, I see anger, sadness, complexity, beauty..."
Question. The track opens with the lines, "Fuck the trendsetter / I'm going back to when I was 9 / when I was more human." Does the stratospheric success of K-pop dehumanize the artist?
Answer. You start your career very early and as part of a group. There's not a lot of time to be an individual, but that makes K-pop shine: very young people, trying very hard at the same time... You generate an energy that you only have in your twenties. You fight day and night to perfect the choreography, the videos, and the music, and there is an explosion, a Big Bang. From 20 to 30, we invested all the energy and time we had in BTS. You get success, love, influence, power, and after that? The root of everything still remains: music... What was the question?
Q. Does the system dehumanize?
A. My company doesn't like how I answer this question, because I admit it in part, and then the journalists throw up their hands saying "it's a horrible system, it destroys young people!" But it's partly what makes this such a special industry. And things have improved a lot, in terms of contracts, money, and education. Now there are teachers, psychologists...
Q. Korean record companies train their artists for years, you lived with your peers from 16 to 19 before your debut as BTS in 2013. What did your parents say?
A. My mom spent two years, "Go back to school, you were so good at it, go your way, go to college, and make music a hobby!". But there was no turning back.
Q. The biggest lesson from your trainee period?
A. Dancing. I was incapable.
Q. And what did you lose by being a trainee?
A. College life.
Q. This worship of youth, of perfection, of overstraining in K-pop... Are these Korean cultural traits?
A. People in the West just don't get it. Korea is a country that has been invaded, devastated, and torn in two. Just seventy years ago there was nothing. We were getting help from the IMF and the UN. But now, the whole world is looking at Korea. How is that possible, how did that happen? Because people are working fucking hard to improve themselves. You are in France or the UK, countries that have been colonizing others for centuries, and you come to me with "oh God, you put so much pressure on yourselves, life in Korea is so stressful!". Well, yes. That's how you get things done. And it's part of what makes K-pop so appealing. Although of course there are shadows, everything that happens too fast and too intensely has side effects.
Q. What is the biggest prejudice about K-pop?
A. That it is prefabricated.
Q. What would your career be like if you had developed it in the alternative circuit or in another country?
A. I think a lot of times about the multiverse, and the lesson of Doctor Strange is always the same: your version of the universe is the best possible one, don't think of others. There is nothing better than being a member of BTS.
Q. Did you imagine this version?
A. Not at all. My dream was not to be a K-pop idol. I wanted to be a rapper, and before that, a poet.
Q. Among your influences there are rappers like Nas or Eminem, and groups like Radiohead and Portishead, but you never mention boy bands.
A. The Beatles were also called a boy band... I'm not comparing us, they were the creators of everything. But I guess you mean NSYNC or New Kids on the Block: bands whose pop music I actually liked, although I wasn't a super fan... What got me was rap: rhythm plus poetry.
Q. You say you get jealous of who you admire. An example?
A. Kendrick Lamar, always. And Pharrell Williams. He's living history. I'd like to be too, maybe in the future. That's why I don't paint: being jealous of Picasso or Monet would be too much.
Q. You do collect, how do you choose the pieces?
A. I've only been collecting for four years and I've been changing. My focus is 20th-century Korean art. But I'm not Getty or Rockefeller....
Q. You don't do it to invest.
A. I guarantee you not. If I wanted to invest I would buy black artists, women, and emerging Indonesian artists... My goal is to open a small exhibition space in about 10 years because I think Seoul needs a place with a young taste, but respectful of the Korean legacy, to which I would also like to bring artists like Roni Horn, Antony Gormley or Morandi.
Q. Have you always wanted to be a collector?
A. I have collected toys, strollers, or Takashi Murakami figures, then vintage clothes, then furniture. I love Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret , but my favorite is George Nakashima.
Q. In your album there are songs of very different genres, some critics say it's inconsistency, and others say versatility...
A. I think the word "genre" will disappear in a few decades. R&B, Hyperpop, Jersey Club, UK Drill, Chicago Drill, K-pop! They don't mean anything. Music is an accumulation of frequencies that puts people in a certain mood.
Q. Are you sick of the "K-" label?
A. You can get sick of Spotify calling us all K-pop, but it works. It's a premium label. The guarantee of quality that our grandparents fought for.
Q. Your album features Anderson Paak, Youjeen, or the elusive Erykah Badu, how did you convince her?
A. She knew BTS because her daughter is a fan, but that wasn't enough. I had to persuade her. I sent her a text with Yun's story, explaining why I needed her "wise queen voice".
Q. Sometimes you mix English and Korean in the middle of a sentence, how do you decide?
A. Words in different languages have different textures; the same message, with a different brushstroke. It comes naturally to me. I don't play instruments, I compose and create melodies with my voice, which is my instrument and most of my songs start with words.
Q. You have also gone through several identities, as a teenage rapper you were Runch Randa, in BTS Rap Monster, and then RM (for Real Me). Have you thought about using your real name?
A. (laughs) We all have a past, a black history, we say in Korea. Runch Randa was my nickname in a role-playing game, then I wanted to be, you know, "a rap monster!", then I matured... I prefer my name to be known by as few people as possible, I'm not John Lennon, or Paul McCartney, I can check into a hotel quietly and I like that.
Q. You have also changed a lot in the way you dress.
A. I went through XXL t-shirts and baseball caps. Then I got into high-end brands... Like Rap Monster, I started wearing only black and white . Now I'm into timelessness, I'm over trends, I'm looking for vintage jeans, cotton t-shirts, and natural things that don't scream "hey, I'm here!".
Q. Rumor has it that you are going to collaborate with Bottega Veneta, you were just invited to their fashion show in Milan.
A. I would love to. Although I lost interest in brands, fashion weeks, and that constant change of Pantone... Bottega is different, they don't use logos, they have a history with fabrics and leather, they don't even have Instagram, and they are beyond fads.
Q. How heavy is it to drag an army of fans?
A. You can't walk in the middle of nowhere without being recognized, and the standards to which you are subject weigh heavily. But you have to grow up and deal with it, not be pitiful like "oh, I just want to be normal!". Look, if you want to think that fame is a rock, it's a fucking rock; but for me, it's given me what I was looking for: getting influence and financial freedom as fast as possible to make the music I want, without worrying about the charts... I'm not there 100%, but I try to focus on the inside noise, not the outside noise.
Q. And how are you facing your thirties?
A. I've never experienced such a confusing time. For a decade I was the leader of BTS, and it was very stable and fun, always going upwards. In 2023 a lot of things changed, professionally and personally, although I can't tell you. As I'm about to turn 30, I like myself more than I did when I was 20. Now I will spend a year and a half in military service, which is very important in every Korean man's life. After that, I am sure I will be a different human being, hopefully, a better and wiser one.
Translated by BTS Charts Spain
