Coming Full Circle - The Western Artist BTS's J-Hope Wants To Collab With

In a recent “self” interview for Disney+, BTS‘s J-Hope interviewed himself as Jung Hoseok to reveal his dreams, inner thoughts, future plans, and more.

J-Hope started by discussing his roots as an artist and revealed that the artist that made him dream of becoming a singer is J. Cole.

He joked that their names are quite similar, but its no coincidence — J. Cole’s influence has been in J-Hope’s music career since the beginning.

BTS’s iconic and sentimental song “Born Singer,” recently re-released on anthology album Proof, is an adapted version of J Cole’s “Born Sinner.” Additionally, J-Hope made further references to J. Cole in songs like “Hip Hop Phile,” released on Dark & Wild in 2014.

Hope hope world, before I built my own world, there was Cole world.

— J-Hope/Hip Hop Phile

Later, his first mixtape Hope World (2018) was inspired by the 2011 album released by J. Cole, Cole World: The Sideline Story. Since the beginning, J. Cole’s influence helped pave a path for J-Hope who was new to music at the time.

In a way that after I started to make music, I guess his music motivated me like, ‘I should make my music in a certain way.’

— J-Hope

J. Cole inspired him not only in the beginning of his career, but also to this day.

As I started making my music, he was my muse, and I still do respect him.

— J-Hope

Of course, J. Cole is one of the artists he hopes to work with one day!

Recently, at 2022 Lollapalooza, J-Hope had the exciting opportunity to meet his idol in person. He shared photos from their encounter, captioning the photos “Hope world meets Cole world.”