He might have an outwardly bright and cheery disposition, but BTS's main dancer j-hope is also incredibly focused and driven, the group’s ultimate professional. In 2016, when BTS released “MAMA”, j-hope’s gospel-music-inspired solo song about the sacrifices his mother made to give her son the opportunity to make it as a dancer, he sang a line that translates to: “I made a promise to myself that I must succeed for sure/And with that one promise/I became the son I am now.”
Born 정호석 (or Jung Hoseok) in the Korean city of Gwangju in 1994, j-hope trained for six years as a dancer and was a street performer in the underground dance team Neuron before moving to Seoul in 2010 to become a K-pop trainee under Big Hit Entertainment. While there, he learned how to rap from fellow trainees and future bandmates Kim Namjoon (aka RM) and Min Yoongi (aka SUGA). In 2013, the three rapper-producers would debut alongside JIN, Jimin, V and Jung Kook as 방탄소년단 (or Bangtan Sonyeondan), aka BTS. The group would go on to become one of the most successful pop music groups of all time.
j-hope was one of the first members of BTS to find success with his solo work. In 2018, he released the seven-song mixtape Hope World, which was the highest-charting work from a Korean soloist at the time of its release. In 2019, j-hope collaborated with American singer Becky G for “Chicken Noodle Soup”, and in 2023, prior to beginning his mandatory military service, j-hope released “on the street”, a collaboration with rapper J. Cole.
j-hope made his solo album debut in 2022 with the ’90s-hip-hop-influenced Jack in the Box. Across 10 tracks, j-hope explores themes including anxiety about an uncertain future, the value of empathy in an often intolerant world, and his own tireless ambition amid phenomenal success. On the album’s lead single “MORE”, j-hope highlights the last of those subjects, singing six years after his musings in “MAMA”: “My work makes me breathe, so I want more.”