J-hope’s stage is breathing.

An undulating sea of red fabric pulsing with light, growing ever upwards toward the roof of Allstate Arena outside Chicago until at the center, a figure emerges: the BTS rapper, clad in red leather and rhinestones, alone in front of a matching mic stand.

The K-pop superstar, 31, is in the middle of a sold-out arena tour in the U.S., the second member of the groundbreaking group to do so after his bandmate Suga in 2023.

While showing out at this scale on his own is a massive step for j-hope the soloist, as he stands alone in the middle of the stage, he still introduces himself as “j-hope of BTS” and addresses the approximately 18,000 fans in attendance each night as “Army,” the group’s fandom name.

From start to finish, j-hope’s set is about paying tribute to his roots — both with BTS and before, when he was picking up accolades as a street dancing teen — while looking forward to what promises to be an expansive future, including when the group reunites, having completed South Korea’s mandatory military service, in June.

He kicks off with tracks from his first official solo album, Jack in the Box (2022), as well as his 2018 mixtape Hope World, and Hope on the Street Vol. 1, which was released while he was enlisted in 2024.