BACKGROUND
BIRTH NAME
Kim Nam-joon
HANGUL
김남준
HANJA
金南俊
STAGE NAME(S)
RM
Rap Monster (랩몬스터) (formerly)
Runch Randa (런치란다)(formerly)[1]
NICKNAME(S)
BIRTH DATE
September 12, 1994 (age 29)
BIRTH PLACE
Ilsan-gu, Goyang, South Korea
HEIGHT
181 cm (5 ft 11 in)[3]
WEIGHT
73.6 kg[4]
SIGN
♍︎ Virgo
MBTI
ENFP-T[6][7]
CAREER
OCCUPATION
Rapper-songwriter, record producer
GENRES
Hip hop, R&B
GROUP DEBUT
June 13, 2013 (BTS)
SOLO DEBUT
December 2, 2022
YEARS ACTIVE
2010–present
AWARDS
ROK Order of Cultural Merit Hwa-gwan (5th Class) ribbon Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit (2018)
AGENCY
Big Hit Music
ASSOCIATIONS
BTS
Dae Nam Hyup (former)
PERSONAL LIFE
RELATIVES
Seo Ji Yeon (cousin)
Tell me your story. I want to hear your voice, and I want to hear your conviction. No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin colour, gender identity: speak yourself.
RM, 2018.09.24, UNITED NATIONS SPEECH.
Kim Nam-joon (김남준), better known by his stage name RM (short for Real Me[8], formerly known as Rap Monster (랩몬스터) and Runch Randa (런치란다)), is a South Korean rapper-songwriter and record producer under Big Hit Music. He is a member of the boy group BTS, and has the positions of leader and rapper.
As a solo artist, he has released his first mixtape RM, on March 20, 2015 and his second mixtape Mono, on October 23, 2018. He then made his official solo debut with his first studio album Indigo on December 2, 2022.
In 2020, RM was promoted to full member of the Korea Music Copyright Association.[9]
Early life
Kim Nam-joon was born on September 12, 1994, in Dongjak-gu, South Korea, and grew up in Ilsan-gu, where his family moved when he was four or five. He is the elder of two siblings and has a younger sister.
As a child, RM largely learned English by watching Friends with his mother.[10] As a student, he actively wrote poetry and often received awards for his writings. He posted his work to an online poetry website for roughly one year, where he received moderate attention. Through this, RM grew interested in pursuing a literary career but decided against it. At the age of 11, RM became interested in hip-hop music after hearing Epik High's "Fly" in fifth grade. He found that the song had provided him comfort, and, due to this, decided to look further into the genre. Following an introduction to American rapper Eminem by his schoolteacher, RM grew interested in lyricism, printing lyrics he felt were "cool" and sharing them with his friends. RM transitioned to writing lyrics then, stating that his poetry became lyrics when it combined with music. In 2007, as a first-year middle school student, RM began rapping in local amateur hip-hop circles, creating his first self-composed recording for the first time using the program Adobe Audition (then called Cool Edit). He later participated in his first concert in 2008. RM eventually became more active in the underground Korean hip-hop scene under the moniker "Runch Randa", releasing a number of tracks and collaborations with other underground rappers, such as Zico.
In school, RM scored in the top 1% of the nation in the university entrance examinations for language, math, foreign language and social studies and had an IQ of 148.[11] RM's parents were strongly opposed to his interest in a musical career due to his academic achievements, and initially, RM decided to set music aside to focus on his studies. In order to convince his mother to allow him to be a rapper, he asked her if "she wanted to have a son who was a first-place rapper, or a 5,000th-place student".
Name
RM selected the name "Rap Monster" during his time as an idol trainee. Though commonly misunderstood that the name means that he "raps like a monster", it actually derives from the lyrics of a song he wrote, inspired by San E's "Rap Genius". The lyrics contained a segment where San E declares he should be called a "rap monster" as he "raps non-stop". He adopted the stage name because he felt it was "cool".[12] RM has described himself as having a love-hate relationship with the name, feeling that it was not selected for being of "incredible value" to him.
He formally changed his stage name to "RM" in November 2017, as he determined that "Rap Monster" was no longer representative of who he was or the music that he creates. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight RM stated that "[the name] could symbolize many things. It could have more spectrums to it. "Real Me" was provided as a possible current meaning.
Career
2010-2013: Big Hit Entertainment and debut with BTS
In 2009, RM auditioned for Big Deal Records, passing the first round along with Samuel Seo but failing the second round as he forgot all his lyrics. However, following the audition, rapper Sleepy exchanged contact information with RM, who he later mentioned to Big Hit Entertainment producer Pdogg. In 2010, Sleepy contacted RM, encouraging him to audition for Big Hit CEO Bang Si-hyuk. Bang offered RM a spot at the record label, and, without his parent's knowledge, RM accepted the offer immediately. The interaction caused Bang and Pdogg to start production of a hip hop group, which eventually became idol group BTS. RM joined Big Hit Entertainment shortly after at age 16.[13] During his career as an idol, he enrolled at Global Cyber University.
RM trained for three years with fellow rapper Min Yoon-gi and dancer Jung Ho-Seok, who later became known as SUGA and j-hope respectively.[14][15] During his three year trainee period, RM performed on five pre-debut tracks credited to BTS in 2010 and 2011. He also worked as a songwriter for girl group Glam and helped pen their debut single, "Party (XXO)", an explicitly pro-LGBTQ song which was praised by Billboard as "one of the most forward-thinking songs out of a K-pop girl group in the past decade."[16] On June 13, 2013, RM made his debut with BTS, and has since produced and written lyrics for a variety of tracks on all of BTS' albums. On August 29, 2013, RM performed the intro track to BTS' first extended play O!RUL8,2?, which was released as a trailer ahead of the EP's September 11 release and marked his first solo released collectively as "BTS".[17]
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