On June 10 the BTS and BigHit Festa anniversary celebration released its latest sonic goodie as the rap sub-group of J-Hope, RM and Suga deliver "DD Ceremony" and its distinctive "Ddaeng" (sounds like "Dang!") for their fans and for their haters, emphasizing how the naysayers are all wrong.
<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/456400104&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe>
Last week ended with the Festa release of Jin covering a Yoon Do-hyun K-rock classic, and now the weekend's rap release shows off BTS' rapper sub-group. We've seen solos from RM on his cover of Fall Out Boy's "Champion" and from J-Hope on his hit "Airplane." This newest track gives us a closer look at what Suga comes up with in his "Genius Lab" as co-producer with J. Pearl. Suga started his career devoted to rap production before becoming a huge success with BTS, but will likely never forget those hungry early years.
<iframe width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AoUbRZsnSik" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
On the lyrical front, Billboard has already noted how fans are parsing the rap-lines' complexities in Korean. In other words, this seems like a job for BTS' helpful fan army. One effort at a fuller translation parses six different meanings for "Ddaeng" comparing one of these to "K" when it's used instead of "OK," for instance. One commentator lamented, "sometimes, I wish all armys over the world could understand Korean," because the word play and flow are so intense.
The song's simple and fun musical background keeps the raps sparkling over it as the punchier phrases such as "You wrong, me right, dang!" provide a foundation supporting the more difficult to understand wordplay. These Festa releases are made to be revealing and shed brighter light on BTS' personalities as individuals. Suga's rep is that the hungry years gave him a rugged demeanor, hard on the outside but emotional and caring deep inside. This track is great fun, unless you are one of the haters the song is dissing back at.
