[ANALYSIS] BTS’ SUGA Interlude: Shadow | Map Of The Soul: 7

This is an analysis of the Music Video and the lyrics to help you understand the song better.

The song starts by Yoongi standing in a hallway. This hallway can symbolize his debut and the start of his career. No one is looking at him or cares about him. He is a nobody. Yoongi raps how he wants to achieve all these big things “ I wanna be a rap star. I wanna be the top. I wanna be a rockstar. I want it all mine. I wanna be rich. I wanna be the king. I wanna go win. I wanna be … ”. AT this moment of the video in the video, we have a young person who didn’t know stardom yet. He had nothing but big dreams.

If you look closely there is the word ‘EXIT’ next to the door behind Yoongi. At that moment he could have left the entertainment world and no one would have noticed. But what did Yoongi do?

Yoongi took the decision to go on this path even if no one cared and RUN in full speed. He repeated encouraging words to himself “” I wanna be a rap star. I wanna be the top. I wanna be a rockstar. I want it all mine. I wanna be rich. I wanna be the king. I wanna be me. I want a big thing”. He didn’t look left or right. He was determined to keep pushing through.

The red things around the doors and the walls can remind us of  Anish Kapoor a British Indian Artist’s work.   The art name is ‘Svayambh’ which is in sanskrit. When the body crossed the spaces the wax layer is moulded and shaped by the archways as to give the impression that the form was extruded through the gallery. 'Svayambh’ is a Sanskrit word, meaning something that is “created out of itself”. And just like we all know, Yoongi is self made. (Cr to  BangtanINDIA on twitter for pointing that out)

“At 3m tall and 2.5m wide, the block is too big to fit through the doors, so it will deposit wax on the frames as it squeezes through. "It’s as if it’s skinning itself as it goes through the doors,” Kapoor said. The title is a Sanskrit word which translates roughly as “self-generated” and, rather than attempt to manoeuvre a vast block into the gallery, it will be assembled in situ from smaller lumps of wax.“ This means that every door they open, every goal they reach, they’re losing a piece of themselves in the process. (Cr to kkookiekoo on Twitter for pointing this out)

When he stopped running. He found himself on a higher level than the people who once ignored him. These same people are holding up phones and recording his every move.

He had always the same dreams and each day kept himself thinking of how far he could go. One time he realized he was in a place that only a few reaches“ I wondered every day how far I’d go. I came to my senses and I find myself here Yeah,”. So how does it look at the top? Is it as beautiful as the world makes it seem?

You know when the light is brighter the shadow becomes darker. At the top, Yoongi found that issues that he never experienced started appearing. In the photo below we see Yoongi alone in the middle in a very enlighted place. However, underneath him are shadows that can represent monsters or the prejudice and talks the world projects in him. They can’t touch him but if he just looked around for a second he can see them, and that alone is pretty traumatizing. Look at it like the criticism and hatred he receives just because he is famous. People say words do not affect celebrities but they do and the times proved that to be sharper than a knife. Suga raps “ shadow at my feet Look down, it’s gotten even bigger. I run but the shadow follows. As dark as the light’s intense. I’m afraid, flying high is terrifying ” Yoongi is scared of his shadow and the dark side of stardom. 

Suga ow is very popular. But he is suffering the downhills of stardom. Like in the photo below people are on his door trying to get in brutally. He has NO privacy.If you follow BTS a little bit you would have heard of “stalker fans”, They buy information about them like their flights, whereabouts and so on and stalk them everywhere and anywhere. This could also be the media that always tries to find a scandal about the BTS members. Now he breathes and the world need to know he did. 

The doors that led to him at the start that were well closed are now wide open. There is nowhere to hide. Only one door is left closed and it’s the door that only Yoongi can open. The door to quit being an artist and leave this career. 

“I run but the shadow follows. As dark as the light’s intense”. We have now a sad and depressed Yoongi that has reached the top and for the first time he stopped wishing all the things he wanted before and considered the option of leaving it all. He might have his members but he is still lonely. Because aside from them he has so little real friends. People see him as ‘Suga the worldwide star’ not ‘Yoongi the human’ “ I’m afraid, flying high is terrifying. No one told me. How lonely it is up here. I can leap in the air but also plunge. Now I know running away could be an option too, pause “. Also in this scene, the people in black are running around trying to find him and reach him. They are not giving him space or the choice to choose who he can deal with. They are all throwing their thoughts, belives and bodies on him. 

Yoongi who once wanted to reach the top. Screams now into a mic in front of a sea of people that only looks at him wishing to no more shine or fly. Imagine having these beautiful dreams for years but people make them turn into nightmares. So you just wish to wake up but the dream is now a reality, so what to do? Where to run? How to go back in time and erase it all?

In the next scene, if you look closely, time goes backward and so are his thoughts. The guy who once only pushed forward is going backward and the doors that opened wide are now closing one by one. The words “I wanna be a star. I wanna be the top…” He is rapping them now in a lower less confident tone. He questions himself and his path.

As he raps the same words he started with. He for the first time leaves the him on the stage and another yoongi who is part of the crowd (normal people) but facing the stardom with his back appears. What does he want? He just wants in the middle of all this drama to be himself. 

And this yoongi who is part of the crowd is no other than his shadow (Cr to  hanavmin on Twitter for pointing this part out)

They say that people come at peace with their good side when they acknowledge their dark side. Suga says to his shadow “I am you, you are me”. We see now a Suga that came down of the stage to his most frightening place: The middle of the attention and crowd, yet he raps confidently. One thing to take more into account is that the camera shows not just ONE Suga but many personas.

Even if there is a sad part of it. How Yoongi walks in the middle of the crowd and no one cares about him and they all look up to Suga. Yoongi will still try to tell us all that even if can’t all relate to his situation of being a megastar known by many and who has suffered from stardom. We can all relate to the fact of having a dark side. Of being scared of what people think and will say. Of being afraid of what path we choose. Of being frightened by something called judgment. Yoongi tells us all that once we accept our shadow and know that it’s there, it will be easier to cope with it and we will feel more at ease. 

Now that Yoongi acknowledges all of this. He is is more at ease with who he is and becomes. he doesn’t even care about the phones/cameras/attention around him.

The last scene is very baffling. You know how many said that “Stardom is a bubble that eventually pops”. Yoongi knows that there will come a day he will no more be as popular and the public will move on. So he just disappears in the last clip and the phones turn into the front to shoot someone else, someone new, someone who is not him. This last scene can also mean that this same attention that he suffers from, you might be suffering from it. You might not be a celebrity but with the growth of social media and such, no one is safe. 

Many artists and rappers especially rap about their fame and wealth, but it’s rare for someone to talk about the dark side of it and the insecurities it brings. BTS always meant to bring a change and bring light on topics many ignore. I hope this analysis made you love this song more.

One more thing I would like to add is that  O!RUL82? was seen many times on the video.  O!RUL82? was an era where BTs wished to be famous. But they now tasted the fame and it’s not as sweet as they thought.

Credit to @mimibtsghost

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