j-hope's Jack In The Box: A Call for A New World
Chapter 1 of The BTS Solo Saga, where I dissect and review each of the BTS members' solo albums released since 2022
The album Jack In The Box by BTS member j-hope was the first solo album released after BTS announced a pause on their group activities in June of 2022. Jack In The Box was released on July 15th, 2022 and was performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31st, 2022 where j-hope headlined the festival. The album has received critical acclaim, including landing at number nine on Rolling Stone’s “The 100 Best Albums of 2022” list. J-hope is credited as a writer on every song, excluding one instrumental soundtrack, showing his ability and desire to write his own music.
In the image below, you’ll see the tracklist for the album. I won’t be diving into every song off the album, but nonetheless, I encourage you to listen through it as you read this essay. You can also check out Jack In The Box: Hope Version, which features a few live tracks from j-hope’s Lollapalooza performance. I also want to provide credit to Doolset Lyrics for all the lyric translations and certain lyrical analyses mentioned in this essay.
Jack In The Box, as noted by j-hope himself, takes on “more maturity and authenticity” than his previous works (j-hope Jack In The Box Album Interview). Having analyzed the songs, I believe j-hope is referring to the societal analysis that appears throughout the album. He raps from a place of critique, wondering what his personal next steps should be and why our society functions as it does.
Jack In The Box begins with “Intro,” an English reading of the Greek myth of Pandora’s box, where the woman narrator tells us that,
“hope gave people the will to carry on living amidst the pain and strife.”
It is no secret that this story is meant to be representative of j-hope, who has taken on the title of ‘hope’ throughout his career. However, the most notable part of the intro is the reference to the box and hope escaping the box. Jack In The Box is an album that utilizes imagery of a box to show how j-hope himself has escaped the constraints of society, encouraging listeners to free themselves from social conformity as well.
Jack In The Box is an album that utilizes imagery of a box to show how j-hope himself has escaped the constraints of society, encouraging listeners to free themselves from social conformity as well.
The third song is titled “More, and was released as a single and a music video before the entire album dropped. In this song, j-hope speaks of his passion. (Notably, this has been a subject of BTS’s music before: the song “Black Swan” wonders about how long the performers can continue to pursue music with true passion.) The lyrics in “More” read:
“I want it, stadium with my fans, I still do
I sweep into my bag all the trophies, Grammy’s, too
Fame and money don’t mean everything, I already know it
My work makes me breathe, so I want MORE”
This ‘more’ that j-hope speaks of is not one of greed. What he wants more of is music. He has an unquenchable thirst to create; he’s an artist. What’s so striking about these lyrics is his casual disregard for “fame and money.” BTS as a group struggled severely at the beginning of their career. In a recent interview, youngest member Jungkook mentioned that at the beginning of their trainee days “…we only had one or three cups of ramen a day” (Jungkook Golden Interview). Having overcome so much hardship, j-hope waving off the fruits of his labor is surprising. It’s humble—a recurring theme we’ll see across his lyrics. However, woven in with this humble attitude is his incurable passion: his work makes him breathe. It’s his life force. He even describes sharing his music with fans as
“the reason of my life, and the joy of my life."
If music—this album—is the reason for his life, then it stands to reason that the topics he discusses in his work are a part of this driving force. Which makes the themes of societal critique in the “More” music video even more interesting.
He has an unquenchable thirst to create; he’s an artist.
The “More” music video takes place in an office setting. Strange coming from an artist who has, as far as we know, never had a typical day job. Stranger still is the fact that j-hope walks around the office, causing trouble—a true clown (just as he portrays himself in the promotional images). He is the antithesis to office culture, as can be seen when the video pans to the room next door where j-hope sings with a band. These juxtaposing images—office vs. rock performance—serve to ask the audience about our present society. Are our jobs, as j-hope describes his own passion, the work that “makes us breathe”? What if we want more?
In one shot of the video, j-hope trips an office worker, and the worker’s face is smushed into the printer. Whether this is implying how creatives reject their ambition to mold themselves into office workers or alluding to the crushing weight of corporate structures, one thing is for sure—j-hope is disrupting the social order with his passion. Later, electric shocks are administered to j-hope, with the goal of what I believe is to remove this passion from his system. Instead, even j-hope’s skull and bones sing along to the song, saying,
“My work makes me breathe, so I want MORE.”
The video ends with j-hope closing up a cardboard box with the office setting inside it. Here, we see the first real image of the ‘box’ representing society. J-hope can enter the office and mess around, but his soul, his music, exists beyond the office’s walls. He is a jack in the box, and he has burst out of the box, which allows him to chase his passion freely.
The album continues questioning the nature of his passion, however j-hope uses the next few songs to zoom out and focus on society as a whole. This aptly fits with the idea of the jack in the box. Through the songs presented in the middle of the album, j-hope describes what exists inside the box—life in society and his attempts to break free of common ideologies.
Specifically, j-hope seems concerned with the discussion of nature vs. nurture in these songs; he wants to know what is it that makes a person. Why is he any different from someone else? Is it possible he is not? The three songs that take on this line of questioning are “Stop,” “= (Equal Sign),” and “What If….”
The song “What If…” asks about the j-hope of differing circumstances:
“In reality, you have it all now
Money, fame, wealth, and the following of people who like you
‘Love yourself and have hope’
Even if you had all those things taken from you and found yourself at rock bottom,
would you still be able to say such words? I wish…”
These words could read as a remark about not being able to promote positivity in difficult circumstances. However, in an interview, j-hope says something that further contextualizes this song and the album as deeper social commentary:
“As a regular human being Jung Hoseok [j-hope’s real name], as Jung Hoseok who doesn’t have anything, would I have been still able to tell stories that I can tell as j-hope? Isn’t it extremely arrogant [to think that I would’ve been able to do so even if I had nothing]? I’ve been thinking about this constantly” (Doolset).
Here, we see j-hope interrogating the idea of nurture—no person exists independently of their circumstances. He takes on that humble attitude again, believing it is “arrogant” to think he could have succeeded due to his hard work alone. To me, the ideas in “What If…” seem to show that j-hope not only contemplates the idea of privilege, but is able to recognize it in himself. Again, I find this to be interesting considering BTS were not particularly privileged at the start of their career, but that just make’s j-hope’s insights more commendable. He is able to see through the hardships he experienced to understand that, even despite his struggles, he has been given privileges others have not.
Through the songs presented in the middle of the album, j-hope describes what exists inside the box—life in society and his attempts to break out of the box’s ideologies.
The song “Stop” is perhaps the most explicit in its discussions of prejudice and bias. The song features background sounds of police sirens and cops yelling “get down on the ground!” I don’t think it’s a stretch to consider the background sounds in “Stop” commentary on police brutality and racism, especially with the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement being a mere two years old at the time of the album release. BTS themselves donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter in 2020, so it’s clearly something the group cares about (Variety). In “Stop,” we see j-hope reassessing his ideas of the world and humanity. He raps,
“Yeah, I too watch the news
But what’s that?
Deadly criminal, can a human being act like that?
The acts of humans that even animals wouldn’t do
It seriously disgusted me
To put it harshly, I too wondered how they can even be considered humans
Wait, stop stop stop
Stop stop stop stop
Calm down down down
Down down down down
Yeah, let’s take it back to the origin
and see them again
The environment they’ve lived within, education and system,
what made us different?”
To me, the question “what made us different?” does not read as a condemnation of the “criminal” he describes, but it is an admittance that he too could be just like that. This interpretation becomes more plausible with the context of the song’s title and the ending lyrics. The Korean title of “Stop”—“세상에 나쁜 사람은 없다”—translates to “there are no bad people in the world,” the name of a popular short story by Korean poet Won Jaehoon (Doolset). Additionally, the song ends with the proclamation:
“Because a small start leads to a big step,
the world will change because there are no bad people in the world
That’s right”
“Stop” seems to serve as a thesis and a plea. J-hope asks for each of us to stop and assess our own biases while hoping for a better world. If we can all lead with empathy to understand the concepts of privilege and environmental influences, perhaps we can begin to take that “big step” that he believes will change the world.
J-hope asks for each of us to stop and assess our own biases while hoping for a better world.
“Stop” segues into “= (Equal Sign),” which, you guessed it, sings about equality. These two songs are in conversation with one another. “Stop” showcases j-hope’s thought process in coming to understand that all people are valuable, while “= (Equal Sign)” is a plea for others to consider the world in this way:
“Hate’ll paralyze your mind
Gotta see the other side
It costs ya nothin’ to be kind
Not so different you and I
Lookin’ for love in a different light
Until we find that equal sign”
These lyrics expand upon the conclusions drawn in “Stop,” and seem to be echoing the sentiment that “there are no bad people in the world.” He recognizes the importance of difference, another reference to the idea of breaking out of society’s box. Further, “= (Equal Sign")” actually advocates for specific groups of people, where j-hope at one point sings:
“Beyond age,
beyond gender,
beyond nationality”
He notes specific areas of prejudice and calls for us to reconsider how we judge people in these realms. J-hope rounds out his thoughts on society by calling for a better one—an equal world that recognizes the inherent value of each individual, no matter their demographic.
The song “Music Box: Reflection” sits between “= (Equal Sign)” and “What If…” This song is an instrumental overlaid with the sound of a music box (or a jack in the box) being wound up. This musical interlude is an indication of j-hope’s reflection: he, like a jack in the box, is ready to burst out. If the box represents society, it is no surprise that the conclusions drawn in these middle songs are enough to make j-hope want to break out.
Although none of the three songs that ask the most about society and equality are title tracks, these songs make the album what it is for me. The songs are presented in the middle of the album, serving as Jack In The Box’s core. I believe putting them close together in the middle was done to show that they are the heart of the album. These concepts are close to j-hope’s own heart, and so they serve as the crux of his album.
If the box represents society, it is no surprise that the conclusions drawn in these middle songs are enough to make j-hope want to break out.
The album ends with “Arson,” the other song released as a music video and single. Through this song, the album comes full circle. “Arson” is j-hope giving himself some credit for all his hard work. He’s spent much of the album so far thinking about his passion, wondering about his successes in relation to society, and in “Arson,” we finally see him giving himself his flowers. He raps,
“With my success heating up
and my popularity at its new peak,
increasing in proportion is the number of born haters
The constantly blasting noise coming from them
I love even this
‘Cause with my fans
With my label
With my fellaz
We burn through it all together”
The reference to burning is the main concept of this song. In this case, the fire j-hope refers to is his ambition, his desire to continue succeeding and performing. “Arson” returns to the themes presented in “More.” In a recurring lyric, j-hope wonders:
“Do I put out the fire,
or make it flare up even stronger”
He contemplates if continuing with this level of success is wise, referring to himself as the only one that can put out the flame, “a fireman in chaos.” In the end, j-hope decides he must continue to burn, even if it hurts him, which, through his burn marks in the music video, we see that it does. But this is something he believes is worth suffering for. We see that same line of thought presented in “More” reappear, the idea that his art is what drives him. In “Arson,” he expands on this, telling us that he’s willing to bear all the weight of his success if it means he can continue to create and share his music.
“Arson” is a solid ending to the album. After rapping about his own ambition and the flaws of society, j-hope moves to essentially stand firm in all of his lyrics. “Arson” is j-hope telling us that his music and success may be what destroys him, but he is willing to go down with them. Although the song lyrics ask if he should put out the flame or let it flare up even stronger, the music video ends with j-hope surrounded by a blazing fire, implying that he will choose to let it ravage.
“Arson” is j-hope telling us that his music and success may be what destroys him, but he is willing to go down with them.
By zooming in to the self (“More), out to the world (“What If…,” “Stop,” “= (Equal Sign)”), and back into oneself (“Arson”), Jack In The Box is a whiplash of critical thought. In a way, it mirrors the promotional images, which look at j-hope from odd angles, showing him stuck in the box. If the box is society, then inside this box, he is a fool, a joker. For chasing his creative dreams and calling for equality, he is a clown. We see very clearly that he does not fit in here.
J-hope also notes in an interview that the black and white color scheme was used in almost all of his visual material. In the “More” music video, we see j-hope in all black outfits or an all-white jumpsuit. Additionally, in “Arson,” you’ll find j-hope in his white jumpsuit being burned by the flames. J-hope notes that the color scheme represents a “crossroads of choice,” and I can’t help but think about the adage that something ‘isn’t black and white’ (j-hope 'Jack In The Box' Album Cover Shoot Sketch).
Trapped in a box, dressed in colors that imply simplicity, j-hope takes us on a lyrical journey of personal and societal analysis that shows us just how complicated it all is. When kept inside the box, of course he’s forced to dismiss the grey areas of life; complexity is not encouraged in a conformist society. Understanding complexity means gaining knowledge, and for society to function as conformist, there can be no grey area. This simplicity is what he fights against in his lyrics, and his understanding of complexity pushes him out of the box.
If the box is society, then inside this box, he is a fool, a joker.
Although Jack In The Box tackles many different topics, it’s clear that the core of the album is a cry for equality and empathy. J-hope implores his audience to free themselves from the box, from the conformity, and to question the world around them. He takes us with him on his journey to burst out of the box and even shows us the price he pays for it: he is regarded as a fool and burns himself in his quest for something more.
All this suffering has not made him bitter, but instead he is kinder and more empathetic because of it. J-hope leaves us with a choice: will we stay inside the box or join him to not only leave the box, but to reconstruct a newer and better world?
I’ve listened to this album many times and yet never really understood it until now. I found your focus on the middle songs on the album to be pertinent, drawing the conclusion of it being the “heart of the album.” J-Hope is clearly puts a lot of heart and thought into his work!