20 essential Suga solo tracks
Moonlight
Suga chronicles his music career from working in a small music studio located in his hometown of Daegu, releasing his first mixtape album to yielding success as BTS in the self-reflective track. The only thing that hasn’t changed throughout the roller coaster of years is the bright moonlight up in the sky.
Daechwita
Incorporating Korean military traditional instruments and hip-hop sounds, this swaggering song identifies the rapper as a domineering king who comes from the lower class and revels in fame and wealth.
“I’m a king, I’m a boss,” declares Suga sitting atop a throne. Suga said he was inspired by the beat of Daechwita, the music played during the military march, which led him to shoot the music video at Korean historical filming sites.
What Do You think
Showing a more aggressive side to the rapper, Suga claps back at his haters in crude language and asks them what they think about his hard-won success. Then the musician shrugs it off and walks away, saying he really does not care.
Strange
Suga teamed up with his dearest bandmate RM in this critical track that evokes BTS’ early underdog nature.
Addressing all kinds of societal woes, from polarisation to the vices of capitalism, the two rappers raise questions as to the ironies and contradictions in this crazy world covered in “dust” and “lust.” The song ends in a rather depressive rumination, “If there is a god, let me know if life is happiness.”
28
The 28-year-old singer ponders ageing and adulthood in this appropriately titled track. Featuring Korean singer-songwriter NIIHWA, the song shows that the global superstar, who seems to have achieved everything, also wonders whether he has grown into the adult he used to dream to be.
Burn it
This hauntingly beautiful track blends Suga’s passionate rapping and pop singer MAX’S lush vocals in the chorus.
Spooky and eerie, it talks about wanting to burn down one’s past regrets and dark shadows until they become ashes. “I see ashes falling out your window/there’s someone in the mirror that you don’t know/so burn it till it’s all gone,” they sing.
People
Suga offers some deep insight into human nature in this much toneddown track. He calmly addresses that there’s no right or wrong answers to a multifaceted life, as one person’s ordinary could be another’s extraordinary. The song was originally written for bandmate Jimin’s solo effort about four years ago.
honsool
Referring to the term for “drinking alone” in Korean, the world superstar candidly opens up about his own fears and burdens when he strips away the glitz.
Confessing that trophies and stadiums sometimes scare him, Suga hopes to drink away the loneliness. The depressing instruments and slowed-down mechanical vocal sample sound like a drunken state of mind.
Set Me Free
Suga serves as an amazing vocalist in this slow-tempo dreamy song that is devoid of any rapping. This soothing song talks about one’s hopes to be set free from whirlwind of emotions that are most of them time uncontrollable with one’s will.
Dear My Friend
This emotional song sounds like an unsent letter to Suga’s long-lost friend.
He tells the hurtful story of how the two shared the same dreams together before their debut, but he had to see his friend stray as he fell down to a dark place and went to jail. Although they are out of touch, Suga still misses him even years later. Kim Jong-wan of Nell lent his soulful vocals in the chorus. – The Korea Herald/asia News Network