Did you know that BTS were on the news two years before their debut?
Back then the group had been given the name BTS but it only had three members: RM, Suga and J-Hope.
The vocal line hadn’t even signed with BigHit yet. But BTS already had a song out that impressed, and that song was 팔도강산 (PalDoGangSan) often referred to as Satoori Rap.
The song was later re-recorded and included on their O!RUL8,2? album, but it was created back in the day, and was one of the first songs to bear the stamp “BTS”.
It was first released on the 17th of August 2011 - two years before BTS’s debut - as an announcement for BigHit’s 2011 Hit It Audition.
The first real BTS song
Although Satoori Rap was released in 2011, before a lot of the members even joined BigHit, it is NOT the first song released under the name BTS or Bangtan.
The first song released under the name BTS came out in 2010, back when only Rap Monster had signed with BigHit, and the others, even Suga and J-Hope, had yet to audition.
Back then, other trainees were lined up to be part of Bangtan, and the name BTS mainly referred to rappers Iron and Rap Monster, who were secure members at the time. Iron later left BigHit and continued making music as an underground rapper.
Satoori Rap is not the first BTS song, but it is the first BTS song that ONLY includes members who would later come to debut under the name Bangtan.
The song was later re-recorded and relased on a BTS album. The difference between the old and newer version is minimal. The lyrics and flow stayed the same. Some more voices were added to it and the beats got a bit of a revival, but it is still clearly the same beat and song.
Initially, pre BTS debut, it was released as part of the whole Audition hype for Big Hit’s second audition, along with a video of J-Hope rapping and dancing.
And the famous video of Bang PD rapping to introduce the Audition:
“A-Yo Hitman Bang introducing Hit It the Second Audition!”
Suga had joined the company through the first Hit It Audition, in 2010, and J-Hope joined around the same time, whereas Rap Monster had signed with BigHit before auditions even began. According to Bang PD the auditions actually began with the purpose of finding a team for Rap Monster.
The vocal line, however, mostly came in through that Second Hit It Audition in 2011.
The vocal line therefore heard 팔도강산 (Satoori Rap) before signing with the company, and a few years later, they would perform that very song together on stage in front of a larger audience.
On The News
A few weeks after the song was released, BTS, meaning Rap Monster, Suga and J-Hope at this point, were on the evening news, talking about the song and their debut, which at the time was expected to be the following year, in 2012.
The reporter explained that their song was a rap song written in dialect and that it rose to #3 on portal sites straight away after being released. The song received a lot of love.
Their appearance on the news was the first true BTS exposure in media.
Pre debut BTS being on the news is just the first little gem concerning Satoori Rap, and there is a lot for us to talk about regarding this song, so let’s keep digging.
Predicting the Future
The performance of the song is great fun and I readily admit that I adore watching the dance practice too.
The choreography is clever because they divide themselves up between the members who come from the East (Gyeongsan) of the country and those from the West (Jeolla and Seoul), and have a rap battle between the East and the West.
What you may notice from the performance also is that after the song was re-recorded to be included on their album OORUL82? and they began to perform it, Suga gave some of his own rap lines to the other members from the Gyeonsang Province: Jungkook, Jimin and V.
What always has me laughing when I watch their performance of the song is that the lines that Suga gave to V were the following:
”마 갱상도카모 신라의 화랑 후예들이 계속해서 자라나고”
”Hey, about Gyeonsang Province,
the descendants of Silla Hwarang grow.”
Out of all the lines of the song, I find it so ironic that V was given the ones about Hwarang, considering that three years later he would end up acting as a Hwarang in a Korean drama.
Be it Hwarang, Daesang, or Billboard, it seems that Suga really has a talent for predicting the future through the lyrics he writes.
Now onto the serious stuff and the many reasons why I hold this song dear.
What is Satoori Rap?
I suspect that a few of you may be wondering what Satoori even is, and wondering why the song has so many titles (we will get to that) and what makes it so special, other than the fact that it got BTS on the 8 O’clock news before their debut.
Satoori is the korean word for Dialect. The song makes use of different Korean dialects.
This is why some fans prefer to call it Satoori Rap, which seems easier to remember than the actual title 팔도강산 (PalDoGangSan), although it is a great title, which we will discuss in a bit.
In Satoori Rap, BTS use three dialects that reflect where the members originally come from:
Suga’s verse is in the Gyeongsang Dialect
J-Hope writes his in Jeolla Dialect
And Rap Monster in the Standard Seoul Dialect
The song is set up like a diss rap battle between Suga and J-Hope, or more accurately, a rap battle between the two dialects that they speak.
People from Gyeongsang and Jeolla are known for fighting, as I’ve also explained in my blog about Sope and the Hwagae Market.
The song has them rapping in their original dialects and claim to be the best. Then Rap Monster comes in with his Standardised Seoul Dialect and wraps things up by telling them to stop fighting over petty differences.
The Title
Although most international fans call it Satoori Rap, the Korean title for this song is:
팔도강산 (PalDoGangSan).
Such a long title, isn’t it? There are many more straight forward titles that they could have chosen for this song like 사투리랩 (Satoori Rap), as many people already call it, or 머라카노 (what did he say?) which is a line of dialect from the chorus which highlights the different provinces’ lack of willingness to communicate.
The real korean title, 팔도강산, is pretty cool though.
Allow me to break it down:
팔도강산
팔: Eight
도: Province
강: River