Hongdae, also known as the Hongik University area, appears in the book as a crucial urban setting in the formation of RM’s musical identity and, indirectly, BTS’s relationship to hip-hop. It is not merely a backdrop for nightlife or youth culture: RM’s hours spent there helped him absorb underground rap, gather artistic influences, and develop the understanding of hip-hop that later shaped the group’s direction.

Setting and Musical Scene

Hongdae is associated with Seoul’s underground hip-hop culture. Before joining Big Hit Entertainment, RM spent long periods in the area listening to groups such as Jiggy Fellaz and rappers including Verbal Jint. These encounters formed part of a broader self-education in a scene that valued lyrical credibility, personal expression, and immersion in music outside the mainstream idol system.

The area therefore represents a cultural environment in which RM’s ambitions could develop before BTS existed as a project. He had begun writing poems about despair and loneliness while still in elementary school and, by the age of thirteen, was making inexperienced rap tracks for publication online. Hongdae gave those early interests a physical setting: a place where he could encounter working artists, study styles, and connect Korean rap to wider traditions.

Connection to RM and BTS

RM’s Hongdae experience became important because Bang Si-hyuk built the early BTS project around him after hearing his work. RM’s influences included Korean artists such as Epik High and Garion and American rappers such as Nas and Eminem. He admired lyrics that felt real and wanted to make music with the same directness. His time in Hongdae helped him understand hip-hop not simply as a visual style but as a culture grounded in voice, experience, and worldview.

That distinction later mattered to BTS’s debut. The group’s first single, "No More Dream," presented BTS as a hip-hop-oriented idol group, while the members’ concept focused on speaking about the ordinary joys and difficulties of youth. Hongdae thus stands behind the group’s effort to connect idol music with lived experience rather than treating hip-hop as a collection of fashionable accessories.

Narrative Significance

The book contrasts this formative scene with the polished and tightly managed structures surrounding K-pop. Western commentary often described idols as manufactured figures supported by large teams of producers, managers, stylists, and executives. Hongdae supplies an alternative image: RM as a young listener and aspiring writer spending hours in a local rap environment, searching for music whose lyrics felt genuine.

This setting also helps explain why BTS’s authenticity was treated as unusual. The group emerged from an industry in which hip-hop could be reduced to surface elements such as weapons, chains, or other visual markers detached from the genre’s cultural history. RM’s education in Hongdae supported a more serious engagement with hip-hop and helped BTS pursue a relationship to the genre based on youth experience, lyrical perspective, and artistic intent.