KUALA LUMPUR: RM of K-Pop juggernaut BTS is no stranger to receiving accolades from fans around the world for his tireless work with the uber popular South Korean music outfit.
But the artiste who also puts out his own solo material is one talented rapper and that aspect of him has not gone unnoticed as his latest collaboration with Drunken Tiger would attest to.
The award-winning hip hop group is known as the pioneer of Korean hip hop that helped bring the genre into the mainstream arena.
Making its debut in 1999, Drunken Tiger recently released its latest and final album, Drunken Tiger X: Rebirth Of Tiger JK.
According to Koreaboo, the frontman of Drunken Tiger and godfather of Korean hip hop, Tiger JK, had contacted RM to be featured on the track Timeless.
RM had worked with Tiger JK before on the track Bucku Bucku by MFBTY (a hip hop group with Tiger JK, Bizzy and Yoon Mirae).
Although RM was undoubtedly busy due to BTS’ hectic world tour schedule across North America and Europe, the BTS frontman made time to collaborate on the track with Tiger JK via e-mail and telephone.
It was reported that the two were both dedicated to creating something for themselves and not something for the sake of popularity.
But things didn’t start off well in the beginning as Tiger JK confessed that he used to be prejudiced against idol rappers, and even against RM himself when he first heard of him from Bang PD.
It was only after he had met with RM and began talking about music that he realised the artiste was not just an “idol rapper”.
“RM’s attitude towards music, the way he writes lyrics and understands the song also reminded me of our old days as underground rappers. He is sincere, passionate and most of all, talented,” said Tiger JK.
He also added that RM was the first artiste he had reached out to for this collaboration. The other talents featured on the final album include Junoflo, Superbee, Kim Jong Kook and Haha.
“Together, we saw eye-to-eye that we should make a song that doesn’t get bounded by chart rankings. We just did what we both wanted,” he said.
This resulted in Timeless, what Tiger JK considers “one of the most original and unique numbers from his 30-track double album.”