The beginning of 2013 brought a renewed sense of purpose to 18 year-old Kim Namjoon. He’d been a trainee at Big Hit Entertainment for three years, by that point, and as another new year was getting started, it felt like a make or break moment for him. In a series of VLOGs he filmed that January, he expressed both confidence and confusion… not unusual for someone his age. However, rather than ruminating on typical teenage worries like grades and relationships, he was dealing with warring narratives in his head over his budding music career. In one corner—the underground rap community he’d been part of before becoming a trainee—whispering in his ears that he was losing his edge and on his way to selling out. In the other corner—the higher ups at Big Hit—telling him he needed to forget his former peers and live up to his potential as a rapper. And at the center—a young man who was determined to share his talent with the world.

One of the reasons ARMY is the size that it is today is due to how free and honest the members have been with sharing themselves—sharing their true selves and feelings with their fans since the very beginning. The release of PROOF in June of 2022 was a testament to that. This week, we will take a look at the third and final disc of that album, which included raw and unfiltered demo versions of some of their hits, as well as some previously unreleased tracks. The world of K-Pop is always glossy—carefully crafted images and sounds. A lot of artists only want to present the polished final product to their fans, not the scrapped imperfections they had to get through along the way to making that product. However, from their beginning, BTS has proved themselves to be the opposite. While they’ve always wanted to perform their best for ARMY, they’ve also been extremely transparent on what it takes for them to get to that point. So it’s no surprise that even after achieving massive global fame and success, they were still taking the time to honestly show us how they got there—to show us their proof.

ARMY knows how much literal blood, sweat, and tears the members of BTS have put into their career over the years. How sleep deprived, hungry, and in pain they often were… particularly in the early days. Last week we began our exploration of the PROOF anthology album, and we discussed Disc 1, which was a nod to how far the group as a whole had come (including a retrospective look at their title tracks over the years) as well as a promise of hope for the future. This week, we’re covering Disc 2, which includes another brand-new song that talks about the hard work and dedication they put in to forge their path, as well as fourteen songs from their discography that the members selected themselves. Each member chose two songs, and we will learn why they picked them, and watch as they reflect on how these songs, and the journey they’ve been on in BTS, shaped who they are as individuals.