“What If…” begins contemplative before becoming self-accusatory. So we begin the second half wondering whether hope can still reign supreme outside the box, or will be found out to be nothing but a naive, reductionistic fool. Pierrot is a specific clown, one traditionally characterized by its naivete.Īs J-Hope leaves his box, hope’s joyful confidence has become muted - even disfigured, as we see in the upcoming track. It’s therefore fitting that for the merch of this album, J-Hope requested for the jack-in-the-box to be styled as closely as possible to Pierrot. ![]() At the press conference, he described this track as one that explains the shadows found in himself once he experiences life outside his box. In “Music Box: Reflection,” an organ is cranked up before it plays an eerie tune overlaid by J-Hope’s breathing. “= (Equal Sign)” invites us to “ roll / with love / with trust / with respect.” As an example of what J-Hope would like to do out of the box, he pleads for us to recognize differences in age, sex, and nationality should not be grounds for discrimination. But he urges himself to consider individuals’ contexts and trust in humanity’s innate goodness, before concluding that the world will surely change. After all, the evils of this world are ever-present, just a click away on our TVs or in an argument with a friend. It’s admittedly a stance he needs to remind himself of every time he gets fired up. “STOP (세상에 나쁜 사람은 없다)” is his view on human nature, with the Korean title “There are no bad people in this world” making his stance clear. The purity of hope rears its head again for tracks four and five, infusing J-Hope with its glowing warmth. ![]() And what is a business card if not a declaration of a person’s identity and invitation to work together in the future? There’s still more to come. He’s described both projects as a type of 명함 (myeong-ham) or business card, upping the stakes this time by hosting a listening party with highly-regarded local hip-hop and R&B artists and dancers. ![]() Having felt the euphoric satisfaction of completing a mixtape and receiving positive feedback, he wanted more. ![]() In the chorus, J-Hope shouts that he “ wants some more.” In an April 2018 log, he’d confessed that he realized a person’s greed has no limit. For this reason, it’s poetic that “MORE” was released exactly seven years after he’d tweeted, “I’ll study hard in order to share good music with you!!!!!!!!” “11th year of self-study / The underlines by my highlighter are merely the aesthetic veneer of my studies / Endless learning / My art results from crashing and falling.” In a log recorded in October 2014 while preparing his mixtape, he’d shared that the only answer for success is to work hard. The second verse uses art to convey the long history of his ambition. The first verse takes water imagery from Hope World, but in comparison to “Daydream” where he stated that “everyone’s experienced being caught like a fish / in a net called desire resulting from life’s thirsts” and accepted the fleeting nature of such dreams, there’s a freedom and forward movement to the same passion here: “ Yeah I’m thirsty / I need it, to go surfin’ on the beat / I’m a fish that’s met water / Soak up the music … Keep my passion, I gotta go.”
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