Kuwentong Bangtan: When Kim Namjoon Went Nuts: A Review of Nuts, RPWP 2024

When the MV of Nuts dropped a few weeks ago, I and ARMYs in my circle speculated on this one person who hurt our Joonie. This is an ongoing question since he’s always bared his feelings of deep anger, regret and frustration. By default, I, like many ARMYs, couldn’t wait to pulverize the person in question. Back pedaling to Nuts, however, and watching Joon sing and move-dance about in a studio all by himself made me ask: Is he talking about and with himself?

Nuts is Kim Namjoon’s soliloquy making the song and the MV highly appealing. Soliloquy as narrative device allows the character to connect more emotionally and psychologically to the audience. The self-talk is an exposition of prevailing themes in the story as well as the underlying conflicts and the more obvious problems or issues at hand. The technique is a delicious invitation to the character’s introspection of past actions leading to decisions or possible consequences brought by the thinking process. This metacognitive approach to storytelling engages audiences even more and for fans like me, we become deeply invested in the artists that we stan.

Soliloquies or self-talk in literature are not new. A classic example is Shakespeare’s Hamlet. To see Namjoon’s soliloquy is for me, a novel presentation of his saga and journey as artist and leader of BTS. This is another style of intertextuality — borrowing from the classics and putting a new spin to the technique. Then again, in his own discography there are songs ( Joke, RM 2016; Reflections, Wings 2017; and Persona, MOTS 2019) that  are reflections of his state of mind and internal battles against the backdrop of a capitalist economy imbued with the Korean Han. That fear of losing the Self is an ongoing narrative of Kim Namjoon.

Taking Nuts as a soliloquy and a reference to Hamlet’s, this 2nd track of Right Place Wrong Person, is Kim Namjoon’s madness in full display, once again. The song lyrics references two genders. A She and a He. Using Jung’s Map of the Soul as framework for this discussion, the former is the Anima and the latter is the Kpop Idol Persona

These two stanzas show the conflict that drives Namjoon insane as Anima and Persona clashes.

Verse 1

“She a pro rider… When it comes to love, she could be an all nighter | Best gaslighter, no man could ever fight her.

I go mad, how can we do everything together?”

Verse 2

“He a pro rider… | Must be an A1 guider, always on that fuckin’ Kakao talk | When it comes to money, he could be a damn fighter | Best gaslighter, no woman could stop him.

I go nuts, I feel like a monster.”

The song closes out with two stanzas by the Anima and the Persona.

“Now lay back | You never been so high | Know you ‘fraid of heights | I will close your eyes”

“Now lay back | You never been so high | Know you ‘fraid of heights | Don’t say a goodbye”

Words of caution. A caveat. A desire to rest and to take a pause but it is not a goodbye. It is not the end because, later on, Namjoon sings Come Back to Me to reassure himself and ARMY that he has integrated with the Anima. The male Ego leaves the set of mazes intact and can confidently walk along side its feminine power.

1/7 of our Global Music Princes have overcome the madness that comes with fame, ambition, immense success and the power of influence. Namjoon has taken ARMY and the bigger audience into an adventure of the human mind and its capacity to be broken and to be healed! I am not surprised since he once said in one of his lives during the pandemic, “let’s be insane to be sane.”

And there lies the courage and the intelligence of Kim Namjoon. Blessed with a 148 IQ, his heightened awareness of his Self and the world around him drives him “nuts”. Choosing music to channel and balance the crazies that torment him all day and all night, he is able to create art that is both luminous and illuminating.

I am really glad he picked up learning the saxophone while on military service. Serenading Jin and playing the chorus of Dynamite are manifestations of grace. Our Joonie is going to be fine.