Agust D: His Idol Journey

I'm not here to write gushy stuff about Suga, or drool over his looks—I am here to speak about Suga's mixtape: Agust D. Nor am I here to simply praise or mock-up some repetitive appreciation of his mixtape, but to rather analyze and to find out what his mixtape really means.

In Agust D, Suga released a range of songs—clever diss tracks to esoteric, intimate songs, Agust D has really surprised us with his innovation and lyrical comprehension.

Suga is able to evoke his emotions in the tracks "Give It to Me" and "Agust D"—his boldness and conviction and quick-witted wordplay seems to characterize the idea of diss tracks and actual art.

He seems to revolve his diss tracks around calling out haters, bragging about BTS' success, and claiming that the industry is too feeble for his skill. Profoundly, many idols don't release diss tracks like these, even though most of the famous stars get so much hate and loathe...

However, BTS seems to be the outlier in the industry with the release of Cypher Pt. 3: Killer—rather than ignoring the hate, it seems like they decide to fight back.

Their creativity and divergent meanings behind songs also seem to be a big factor within Suga's mixtape... His lyrics consist of such a corrosive choice of words which seems to really depict his song, Agust D. As I said before, in his diss tracks, he tends to use such an emotion sense of desperation and actual confidence: it's not just words being said rapidly, but actual emotion evoked, and rhythmic pattern.

"A to the G to the U to STD

I’m D boy because I’m from D

I’m the crazy guy, the lunatic on beat

Sending listeners to Hong Kong with my rap

my tongue technology"

—cr trans; ilyricsbuzz

In Cypher Part 3: Killer, Suga also raps about Agust D. The track, Agust D, seems to be another section to the dissing of his haters, success, etc...

"SUGA a.k.a Agust D is my second name

When I’m walking on the street, people whisper my name

My beat spreads from Daegu to Apgujung

The life of my music lives and breathes

all over the world"

—cr trans; ilyricsbuzz

This is a small excerpt from one of his tracks, Agust D. By reading the stanza I provided, I feel like you can easily tell this is a diss track—he seems to rap about his superior tongue, rapping ability, and actually seems to add a rhythmic essence to his rap in such a catchy way.

I'm certain, after hearing this song, you will be rapping "A to the G to The U to the STD" everywhere—at least, I did, of course. Essentially, Suga depicts himself as an ultimate being. Through self praise, he seems to have a demeanor of legitimate dominance and actual authority.

He is probably saying he is someone to be looked up to and respected—a person of power. In a sense, it reflects his denial on reality, but later on in the song he's characterizing his life being busy and people "kissing his ass". This may show that he can't see what going on around him because he is so busy thus he thinks the world is revolving around him...

Give It to Me seems to talk about Suga's success as an artist—he says that even his parents didn't think he would be successful and how he seems to test the listener.

Suga also takes a different side to his rise to fame.

Agust D and Give It to Me carry a heavy and fast tempo, reflective of his fast rise to fame, but pacifically, in Give It to Me, he talks about how dreadfully he wanted to produce music—he was extremely passionate about it. It wasn't for the money, or to become a fake—a manufactured and completely immaculate idol that was trained for years.

He didn't like to fit into the K-pop genre as we've seen from Agust D because the industry seems to be so corrupted: he wanted to be his own person. He wanted to be himself. 

He didn't ask for money and fame; but rather to bring music into the world—to spread talent and simply true music that everybody can enjoy.

No, he did not expect to be famous, and this song promotes that.

"Even my family couldn’t foresee my success

What’s the point of talking about it when I wasn’t sure myself

Even my family approved me as a tough cookie"

—cr trans; kpopviral

He raps about how he can’t explain how he became so successful, following the idea of spreading his music—he leaves us with a line that gives us a small idea of his trainee life:

"If you ask me how I’ve succeeded, I don’t really have an answer

But at least, I slept less and stayed active compared to you all to grow up"

—cr trans; kpopviral

It's critical to see that even when he didn't intend to become a star, he did indeed work hard—whether his hard work is expressed through his loss of sleep, or through the despair of multitudinous hours of practice spent towards his long held debut, he did work hard, but it doesn't seem like fame was his true intention.

Instead, he truly wanted to spread his music everywhere. Diving into more personal tracks, 724148 seems to be about his trainee and life before being a trainee: he speaks of his struggles, what he had to do to follow his dreams, and how he suffered from things like depression and anxiety.

Suga talks about his parents disappointment towards music—how his parents didn't seem to believe he could actually pursue his dream. He also talks about leaving his hometown, Daegu, to move to Seoul. He used his own money through allowance and part time jobs...

Suga also talks about the struggles of money and how big it was to him—money was something that wasn't easy to retrieve, mainly because his family wasn't wealthy, so he continued to work hard to get to Seoul, to compete in a rapping contest.

"Anyway I thought I should leave Daegu if I were to do music with more style uh

Shaved head high schooler stands in front of the audition posters with brave footsteps"

"I entered Seoul on 2010 November 7th

There’s nothing much about Gangnam, the confidence of Daegu hillbilly

Coolly, I ate my dinner out

what the fuck my eyes spun when I saw the bill"

"My one month allowance was merely 30 (300,000 won) shit

I knew this wasn’t anything close to enough

So I started working early morning part time jobs uh

This always affected my school arriving time uh"

—trans cr; kpopviral

Following the point of this post, this seems to be an episode of his personal life: he shows an episode of hardships through true bluntness and utter rhythm establishment—his wordplay is clever, but also extremely upfront and shockingly honest...

Through the track The Last, Suga seems to open himself much more. In such a way to express his true experiences and feelings of loneliness, depression, and socio-phobia. Nowhere does he ask for self pity or sympathy... instead, he asks us to listen, and simply wants us to do our part: spread his music.

The usage of candid lyrics seem to be expressed through his rapping, as well. He evokes such emotion sense—the track itself holds subtle breaths of Suga that seems to depict such a deeper meaning that can be interpreted as deep emotion and the utter truth.

Not only that, but his lyrics are actual perfection:

"At times I’m scared of myself too,

Self hated and thanks to the depression that takes over me

Min Yoongi is dead already (I’m dead)

Comparing my dead passion with others, it’s now a part of my daily life"

—trans cr; kpopviral

Suga often talks about his fear that he is being too greedy with the fame.

He seems to feel like he has changed in such a way that can be ambigious—to him, he believes that he is being changed for the worse. He feels like he is turning into a monster; he feels like he is turning into somebody else he purely isn't.

The Last and Tony Montana seem to emphasize around those kind of topics.

The Last has Suga speaking about his success and even makes a reference to suicide, whereas Tony Montana uses the main character of Scarface to show some sort of resemblance and relation between Suga and that character.

"I know, feel like ㅎ tony montana

Success and happiness look alike but they’re different

But I want a bigger success

More wealth and bigger honor

I want the money to chase me but I hope I don’t become the monster chasing only money"

—trans cr; kpopviral

Suga revolves more on how Tony Montana had to work and was underrated by most of the people he was working for.

Certainly, Suga has success and money, but it’s not happiness... from the stanza above, he patently states that he doesn't believe success, fame, and money is true happiness. Suga speaks of that topic again—the fear of success, what it has done to him, and his self-esteem seem to all circulate around this track...

I bet, he is extremely proud of his accomplishments which were established due to his hardwork and perseverance, but Suga seems to characterize his thoughts about whether he is following the right path or not.

I feel like he is just caught up in some surreal period of life where he believes that he isn't doing the right thing; that he isn't keeping his values—he doesn't feel like he is doing the right thing, hence his questioning through these songs.

However, the point is, Suga is letting us into his personal life, and who he really is.

Not as some random Korean idol, or the rapper of BTS, but as an actual person—somebody who also experiences issues like many others do. Suga is a genius and should be praised for his work; particularly through this mixtape.

The members always claim he is so hardworking and seems to be a perfectionist.

He always denies that fact, but this mixtape is really just pure evidence of his hardwork and musicianship—it is extremely well thought out and simply a work of art. Funny it's a mixtape, because it doesn't seem like something that should be given for free.

If it was released as an album, I believe that there wouldn't be any less appreciation for this well-crafted mixtape. Suga’s first mixtape Agust D is simply amazing. ARMYs already knew of his talents, but this is a true bonus because we get to hear more personal and upfront lyrics that certainly have touched many fans, like myself. 

I'm still in awe everyday by his ability to be so honest and blunt with his wordplay and music production—he certainly has a place in K-pop, but I'm not so sure... it may be a bit too feeble for him, you see?

First Written: 2/5/2017

Originally Posted Here