During the opening night of the North American leg of “Hope on the Stage,” the first solo tour from j-hope of BTS, there was only one moment in the show that felt even slightly less than euphoric. Greeting the sold-out crowd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the rapper and dancer noted that this tour was his return to the stage after his time in the military, which led to a brief murmur rolling through the audience of 19,000 people like a wave. After over a decade of training, high-profile performances, and honing his craft, the person onstage at Barclays Center cast a striking shadow; it’s impossible to imagine j-hope anywhere but the stage.

Back up to over a decade ago—before military enlistment, before “Dynamite,” before BTS appeared on SNL or cracked the Billboard Hot 100 or did any of the record-shattering they’ve done as a team—and the members of the septet weren’t just fighting for a place on the global stage; they were fighting for a place in the Korean landscape, too. Together, RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook forged a path entirely unique to a group out of South Korea, and as the members have navigated overlapping solo chapters in recent years, j-hope has proven himself to be especially fearless. He charted a new course and proudly represented BTS when he became the first K-pop artist to headline Lollapalooza in 2022.