BTS Releases Second Comeback Trailer “Outro: Ego”
After much anticipation, BTS has finally released the second comeback trailer for Map of the Soul: 7 in the form of “Outro: Ego” and it’s a bop. As soon as the clocks struck 12AM in Korea on February 3, the colorful song and video, featuring rapper and dance leader J-Hope, dropped on Big Hit’s YouTube channel.
With an upbeat cadence and tongue-in-cheek visuals, “Outro: Ego” may be vastly different from "Interlude: Shadow" in form but it continues the personal, self-referential, and retrospective narrative the group has been presenting so far in this comeback. This is made evident from the very first second of the video, which kicks off with visuals taken straight from BTS’s very own debut trailer from 2013 and continues going over snippets from BTS’s past videos until J-Hope’s silhouette takes center stage.
“I go back every day / To me of yesterday / To the life of giving up / I let myself go away / But in this world, you know / There are truths unchanged / Time rushes ever forward / There’s no ifs, buts, or maybes,” he unapologetically raps, referencing his own journey with BTS.
While singing about his trajectory in Bangtan, J-Hope, whose real name is Jung Hoseok, embarks on a literal journey down memory lane aboard a red car. The car’s license plate, “BTS 13613,” a nod to BTS’s debut date, won’t go unnoticed to any ARMY.
In the song, the rapper also grapples with his personas — looking at life as Jung Hoseok and J-Hope. Featuring pictures from his childhood, we see him ponder about his beginnings in dance and examining his decision to follow his dream. “Life not of J-Hope but Jeong Ho-Seok flashes by / It must have been full of regret with no hope till I die / My dancing was chasing ghosts / Blaming my dream, asking why I live and breathe,” the translation of the official lyrics reads.
J-Hope acknowledges the ups and downs in the road, ultimately accepting his “fate” as a symbol of hope. “Seven years of anguish come out finally / Oppressions all resolved / Into my heart come answers from my most trusted / Only one hope, only one soul,” he sings.
Prior to the song’s release, ARMYs started trending hashtags such as #EgoIsComing, #EgoIsHere, #CheckYourEgo, #EgoComebackTrailer, and #EgoByJhope, to celebrate the drop. J-Hope’s “Outro: Ego” joins RM’s “Intro: Persona” and Suga’s "Interlude: Shadow" — each rapper’s story seemingly correlating to a Jungian archetype — as the three comeback trailers for the MOTS era. As ARMYs had predicted, BTS again samples its own discography in the song. “Intro: Persona” sampled "Intro: Skool Luv Affair." “Interlude: Shadow” did the same with “INTRO: O!RUL8,2?” and, continuing the pattern, “Outro: Ego” includes samples from “2 Cool 4 Skool.”
Following "Interlude: Shadow" and "Black Swan," “Ego” constitutes the third release off BTS’s upcoming studio album, Map of the Soul: 7, which will be out on February 21.
Before then though, the septet will release the still-unnamed lead single for the album. “It’s been seven years since our debut and we have seven members here,” RM told James Corden earlier this week about the album. “Seven is a really special number for us and we’ve practiced so hard for these tracks and the dance routines. So please stay tuned for the album.”
In case you haven’t already, you can watch “Outro: Ego” below:
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
