On July 15 and July 29 of the previous year, BTS fans everywhere were blessed with yet another debut studio solo album, featuring BTS rapper J-Hope. Titled Jack in the Box, this showed a different side of J-Hope he hadn’t previously showcased. 

J-Hope is portrayed as the sunshine of the group in BTS, and maintained this character throughout his mixtape Hope World, which was released on March 2, 2018. In Jack in the Box though, J-Hope showed a darker side with tracks such as Arson and More. A recent documentary called J-Hope in the Box was released this year on February 17 on Disney + to show special behind the scenes footage of J-Hope and his successes.

This documentary also puts a large focus on the overwhelming pride and pressure he felt performing as the first South Korean headliner of Lollapalooza though. J-Hope spent countless hours rehearsing choreography that was new, as well as choreo that needed fine tuning like Dynamite, as unfortunately, no BTS members joined in the performance. 

We saw the stress, the toll, and the countless hours of pure focus in the development of the album, and then the other added opportunity to show off, in front of millions of people for the first time, live performances of this new music. This album earned him a spot on the Top 10 Albums of 2022 list by The Rolling Stone and a whopping 100,000 people in the crowd in the Chicago heat at Lollapalooza, super hyped for J-Hope.

J-Hope also touches on his closeness with the BTS members. It really warms many fans’ hearts to see firsthand how every member has pursued solo projects but always come back to each other and love where they came from with each other. Every single member has been blessed with extreme success in everything they’ve pursued together and separate, with every member now having a solo hit be number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

How they got to where they are now is especially important. J-Hope visits his hometown and his parents, as well as his old school in the documentary. He has a song called Mama in which he talks about how his mom supported him in his dream of being an idol in the k-pop industry. This shows a more personal look into J-Hope’s personality and touched viewers’ hearts everywhere.

J-Hope notes in this documentary that he came up with the idea for Jack in the Box a mere six months after he released Hope World, a reflection of his creativity and untouchable passion as an artist.

The inspiration behind the name being that he felt trapped in this box of his image within BTS and wanted to break free of that with this album perfectly encapsulates J-Hope and his goals. A beautifully driven, smart, inspirational person like J-Hope getting this opportunity to connect deeper with his fans through this documentary and further evaluate his artistic genius and addictive personality is truly a virtue.