RM

The story of BTS's solo work begins with the leader. In March 2015, while the group was still far from global fame, RM released his self titled mixtape and became the first member to step out on his own. It was a brave move, almost intimate, because across eleven tracks, without any embellishment, he showed who he was once he set aside the group's uniform.

What makes this release special is the honesty with which RM portrays his own duality. He himself explained that the cover, on which his face is split into a black half and a white half, was no accident, since he wanted to show that he carries two sides within himself. Sometimes full of hope, sometimes full of doubt, one moment speaking of dreams, the next forgetting them. He described the mixtape as though he had opened up various rooms within himself and let us peek inside, with a message that boils down to a simple thought, that there are many faces within him, but that in the end all of it is still him, just as the person listening is simply themselves. He captured that same thought in the mixtape's motto too, in which he urges everyone to be themselves.

Sonically it's raw, self assured hip hop, in which RM shows off his rapper roots and skill. Running through songs like Do You, Awakening and Joke is that tension between doubt and self belief, between a young man questioning his place and a rapper who knows what he's capable of. It wasn't polished pop, but an honest, somewhat defiant record of someone searching for his own voice outside the group.

Watch: Rap Monster '농담 (Joke)' MV

It was also a personal and courageous move, especially since, like the later releases from BTS's rappers, he put it out for free, with no calculation behind it, simply because he felt the need to say it. The industry took notice too, and a respected music magazine included the mixtape among the fifty best hip hop albums of that year, an exceptional honor for an idol at that stage of his career.

Looking back, that first mixtape sounds like the seed of everything RM would later become. The theme of duality, of searching for oneself and making peace with one's own contradictions, would run through his entire body of work, all the way to his mature later albums. Even here, right at the start, he showed what still sets him apart today, a willingness to be honest about just how complicated he really is, and the generosity to invite us to recognize ourselves in it too.