J-Hope is back with a new single and it's with one of his idols. On Friday, March 3rd, the BTS member teamed up with rapper J. Cole for a new track "On the Street" and an accompanying music video. The exciting collab comes just days after BigHit Music announced that J-Hope would be the second BTS member to begin his mandatory 18-month South Korean military service.
“We would like to inform our fans that j-hope has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement,” the label told the BTS ARMY on Weverse. "We will inform you of further updates in due course. We ask you for your continued love and support for j-hope until he completes his military service and safely returns. Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artist."
According to BigHit, "j-hope wrote the track to share his candid feelings toward his fans. The title ‘on the street’ refers to j-hope’s roots — street dance — from which his dream to become an artist began, and the path the artist and fans will continue to walk together."
During an interview with Variety, J-Hope opened up about getting to work with one of his musical idols. "It goes back to Lollapalooza last summer," the rapper said of how the collab came about. "J. Cole is my idol and we met there. Since then, I couldn’t stop thinking about how great it would be if we could make music together. So I reached out to him. I already had a plan in mind to release music around this time, and I began working on it in early November. As much as it took me a while to finish the song, I cherish it so much and it means a lot to me."