RM

RM
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**Kim Nam-joon** (Hangul: 김남준), better known as **RM**, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the leader and the main rapper of BTS, also he is notable for his large input in songwriting and production in the discography in the group.

As a solo artist, he has released two mixtapes: *RM* in 2015 and *Mono* in 2018.

## Early life

Kim Nam-joon was born on September 12, 1994, in Ilsan-gu, South Korea. He is the elder of two siblings and has a younger sister.

As a child, RM largely learned English by watching *Friends* with his mother. As a student, he actively wrote poetry and often received awards for his writings. He posted his work to an online poetry website for roughly one year, where he received moderate attention. Through this, RM grew interested in pursuing a literary career but decided against it. At the age of 11, RM became interested in hip-hop music after hearing Epik High's "Fly" in fifth grade. He found that the song had provided him comfort, and, due to this, decided to look further into the genre. Following an introduction to American rapper Eminem by his schoolteacher, RM grew interested in lyricism, printing lyrics he felt were "cool" and sharing them with his friends. RM transitioned to writing lyrics then, stating that his poetry became lyrics when it combined with music. In 2007, as a first-year middle school student, RM began rapping in local amateur hip-hop circles, creating his first self-composed recording for the first time using the program Adobe Audition (then called Cool Edit). He later participated in his first concert in 2008. RM eventually became more active in the underground Korean hip-hop scene under the moniker "Runch Randa", releasing a number of tracks and collaborations with other underground rappers, such as Zico.

In school, RM scored in the top 1% of the nation in the university entrance examinations for language, math, foreign language and social studies and had an IQ of 148. RM's parents were strongly opposed to his interest in a musical career due to his academic achievements, and initially, RM decided to set music aside to focus on his studies. In order to convince his mother to allow him to be a rapper, he asked her if "she wanted to have a son who was a first-place rapper, or a 5,000th-place student".

## Name

RM selected the name "Rap Monster" during his time as an idol trainee. Though commonly misunderstood that the name means that he "raps like a monster", it actually derives from the lyrics of a song he wrote, inspired by San E's "Rap Genius". The lyrics contained a segment where San E declares he should be called a "rap monster" as he "raps non-stop". He adopted the stage name because he felt it was "cool". RM has described himself as having a love-hate relationship with the name, feeling that it was not selected for being of "incredible value" to him.

He formally changed his stage name to "RM" in November 2017, as he determined that "Rap Monster" was no longer representative of who he was or the music that he creates. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight RM stated that "[the name] could symbolize many things. It could have more spectrums to it. "Real Me" was provided as a possible current meaning.

### **2017-present: Second mixtape Mono and further collaborations**

In March 2017, RM collaborated with American rapper Wale on a special socially-charged track called "Change", released as a free digital download along with an accompanying music video filmed about two weeks prior to the track's release. The pair first formed a relationship over Twitter with Wale reaching out to RM in 2016, having seen RM's cover of his track "Illest Bitch". RM decided on the topic of "Change", saying that though the two rappers were extremely different, their commonality lay in the fact that both America and Korea had their political and social situations and both of them wanted the world to change for the better. That December, RM featured on a remix of Fall Out Boy's song "Champion". The track reached number 18 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and helped RM reach number 46 on the Emerging Artists Chart for the week of January 8, 2018. On December 27, RM made history as the first K-pop artist to chart on the Rock Digital Songs chart, coming in at number two on the list.

On March 25th, 2019, Honne announced that RM had provided a feature on their remake of "Crying Over You ◐" alongside singer BEKA, which released on March 27th. Honne had originally released "Crying Over You ◐" in 2018, with just BEKA providing a feature. The song was originally slated for a January 2019 release but was postponed due to "unforeseen circumstances". Chinese singer Bibi Zhou was added to the Chinese release, appearing with RM and replacing BEKA. The same day as release, Big Hit Entertainment released the song "Persona" as a trailer for BTS' upcoming studio album Map of the Soul: Persona, performed as a solo by RM. Persona debuted at 17 on Billboard's YouTube Song Chart. Three months later, on July 24, 2019, RM featured on the fourth official remix of Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," entitled "Seoul Town Road", "infuse[ing]...his English-language verse with a surprisingly good Southern twang". On December 29, it was announced that RM would be featuring on Younha's forthcoming track, "Winter Flower", to be released on January 6.

## Artistry

In 2017, American hip-hop magazine XXL released a list entitled "10 Korean Rappers You Should Know", which included RM. Writer Peter A. Berry promises that "Rap Monster rarely fails to live up to his name." He describes the young star as "one of the region’s most dexterous rappers, capable of switching flows effortlessly as he glides across an array of diverse instrumentals."

Critics stated his first mixtape "takes listeners on a roller-coaster narrative of confidence and uncertainty that comes with self-discovery." Crystal Tai from South China Morning Post stated RM received a lot of praise for his natural flow and lyrics and that he's got some "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy mixed with Earl Sweatshirt and Chance the Rapper" in him.

### **Impact**

In a survey conducted by Gallup Korea RM ranked at the 12th most preferred idol of the year for 2018. In 2018, he was awarded the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit by the President of South Korea along with the other members, for his contributions to Korean culture.

On September 24th, 2018, RM delivered a speech with the rest of BTS to the United Nations General Assembly on their invitation, after their partnership with UNICEF's Generation Unlimited program, called Love Myself, accumulated more than 1.4 million USD in donations. The Love Myself campaign partnered with UNICEF to donate a portion of album and merchandise sales to help youth access quality education and training, as well as to help youth in need across the globe. The campaign aimed to highlight self-love, acceptance and speaking out against societal pressures, prejudice, and violence.

### Mixtapes

* RM (2015)
* Mono (2018)

### Digital singles

* "Perfect Christmas" (with Jo Kwon, Lim Jeong-hee, Joohee and Jungkook) (2013)
* "P.D.D" (with Warren G) (2015)
* "Change" (with Wale) (2017)
* "Gajah" (코끼리) (with Gaeko) (2017)
* "Champion (Remix)" (with Fall Out Boy) (2017)
* "Crying Over You ◐" (with Honne and Beka) (2019)
* "Seoul Town Road (Old Town Road Remix)" (with Lil Nas X) (2019)

### OSTs

* "Fantastic" (feat. Mandy Ventrice) (2015)

### Collaborations

* "Buckubucku" (부끄부끄) from "WondaLand" (MFBTY feat. EE, RM and Dino-J) (2015)
* "ProMeTheUs" (튀겨) from "Andre" (Yankie feat. Dok2, Juvie Train, Double K, RM, Topbob and Don Mills) (2015)
* "U" from "2" (Primary feat. Kwon Jin-ah and RM) (2015)
* "Timeless" from "X : Rebirth Of Tiger JK" (Tiger JK feat. RM) (2018)
* "Winter Flower" (雪中梅) from "Unstable Mindset" (Younha feat. RM) (2020)

### Original songs

* "Monterlude" (2014)
* "Unpack Your Bags" (with DJ Soulscape) (2014)
* "I Know" (아라요) (with Jungkook) (2016)
* "Always" (2017)
* "4 O'CLOCK" (네시) (with V) (2017)
* "DDaeng" (땡) (with Suga and J-Hope) (2018)

### Adapted songs

* "Rap Monster" (2012)
* "School of Tears" (학교의눈물) (with Suga and Jin) (2013)
* "You" (닥투) (2013)
* "Favorite Girl" (2013)
* "Like A Star" (with Jungkook) (2013)
* "Expensive Girl" (비싼여자) (2013)
* "Adult Child" (어른아이) (with Suga and Jin) (2013)
* "Something" (2013)
* "Too Much" (2013)

### Live cover songs

* "Umbrella" (우산) (with Yuiko) (2016)
* "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (with Jimin) (2019)

## Filmography

### Film

 2019
 Bring The Soul: The Movie

## Credits

◯ = *Participates as writing/composer/producer*, ✖ = *Not participated as writing/composer/producer*

## Trivia

* He is the fourth oldest and the fourth youngest in the band. That make him the middle member of the band.
* He is 25 years old in the US age and 27 years old in the Korean age.
* His zodiac sign is Virgo.
* His favorite number is 1.
* His favorite items are clothes, a computer and books.
* Some of his role models include Kanye West and A$AP Rocky.
* He has composing and producing credits for more than 100 songs.
* RM used to be called "Dance Prodigy" to tease him for his lack of dancing skills.
* RM wrote the lyrics of No More Dream because he had no dreams when he was in school.
* The BTS members said if RM wasn't human he'd be: a Tibetan Fox (Jungkook), A Lion that even if you catch it, it breaks everything and escapes again (Jimin), A Monster (Suga), a soccer player (V) and a rock (J-Hope).
* RM has a younger sister.
* RM likes fashion and in the past would tweet "Kim daily" with photos of his outfits.
* His favorite foods are meat (especially Samgyeopsal) and Kalguksu (Korean knife noodles).
* He taught himself how to speak English by watching the American sitcom Friends.
* His favorite colors are black, pink and, purple.
* According to him, Jin and J-Hope are the scaredy-cats of the group.
* Jimin once called him a gorilla because he's always angry.
* He is known to break everything.
* On November 13, 2017, he announced on Fancafe that he had officially changed his stage name to RM.
* His producing studio is called 'RKive' (formerly called Mon Studio).
* He previously decorated his studio in black & white monochrome only. After the name changed, he started incorporating colors.
* His favorite dance move is swinging his arms from side to side(The floss).
* He is a great fan of the computer game ‘MapleStory'.
* He is a great supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.
* RM's BT21 character is a Koala named Koya. Koya is always seen thinking with a sleepy expression. Koya has a purple nose because of the infamous saying V said in a concert, "I purple you”,Which shows their love and support to ARMY.
* His favorite character is Ryan from Kakao Friends/Talk.
* He has lost his passport multiple times.
* BTS was built around RM. He is the first member to have been scouted and the only member to have been with the company since 2010.
* His ideal type is someone who is tall, feminine, smart, and has a nice voice.
* RM had to quit Problematic Men because of how popular they got. However, he made a brief appearance for the 1 year anniversary of the show as the cast called him.
* RM revealed that he spent most of his life as 'RM' and barely got to be Kim Namjoon. He admitted being very occupied and busy with idol life is hard, barely being able to spend time with family, friends, and do activities as a "normal" person would be able to do. He also mentioned that he feels sad and lonely at times and a way to cope with it is to express his thoughts and emotions through music. (Burn The Stage EP. 3 & 6)
* He claims to have never been successfully able to blow a bubble with bubblegum.
* As of 2020, he is the only member who doesn't have a driver's license.
* While his main goal in life is to truly love himself, RM acknowledges that loving yourself is not a final destination, but a state of mind to try to achieve consistently.
* When asked what is his favorite hair color that he's tried before, he said he likes silver the most.
* RM likes to collect figures and toys of different kinds. They can be seen throughout his studio on shelves inside of glass cases or scattered about in his room.
* If he was a girl, he said he would date J-Hope because he is like the mother at the dorm.
* He likes clear weather.
* Namjoon’s father calls him Jooni Mini.
* Namjoon was once a center in a basketball team.
* RM gets panicked when he can’t find his lip balm.
* Namjoon said if he didn’t live in Korea he would want to live in Australia.
* RM's favorite quote is 'Team work makes dream work'.
* Hobbies: Surfing the web, walking in a park, cycling, photography, mountain climbing.
* He did ice skating for about 4 years and is good at it.
* RM’s TOEIC (The Test of English for International Communication) score was 900.
* His image before debut was a neat and quiet student.
* His Spotify playlist is called: RM’s Heavy Rotations
* Has a total of 2 ear piercings. (1 on the right, and 1 on the left)