Stage Name: J-hope

Full Name: Jung Hoseok

Position: Lead Rapper, Main Dancer

Birthday: February 18, 1994

Age: 27

Height: 177 cm (5'9.7")

Personality Type: ESFJ

Jung Ho-seok was born on February 18, 1994, in Gwangju, South Korea, where he lived with his parents and older sister. Before debuting with BTS, he was part of the underground dance team Neuron. J-hope had been relatively well-known for his skills in dance prior to his debut; he won various local prizes for dance, including placing first in a national dance competition in 2008. His skills in dance eventually led him to gain interest in singing and rapping, helping motivate him to audition as an idol trainee. As a trainee, J-hope was featured as a rapper in Jo Kwon's song "Animal", which was released in 2012.

J-hope is one of the best dancers in the group, and also also a literal sunshine angel! If you watch him in interviews, he will most definitely introduce himself as "I'm your hope, you're my hope, I'm J-hope." If you're ever in a bad mood, all you need to do is watch some J-hope videos and your day will get 100% better.

Although, he often takes charge when it comes to dancing practices and is very serious about perfecting their performances. For those that look up to his dance skills, he can actually be a little intimidating when he's in dance teacher mode.

Other than dancing, J-hope is known to love fashion and loves to go shopping. He's not afraid to try different styles and loves having bags as accessories. J-hope is also very caring of his friends and family, and even wrote a whole song dedicated to his mother titled "MAMA."

Though he didn't know how to rap when he joined Big Hit, the other BTS members helped to train him. During their early days, J-hope struggled a lot with being away from his family and almost quit BTS before the others talked him out of it.

On June 13, 2013, J-hope made his debut as a member of BTS on Mnet's M! Countdown with the track "No More Dream" from their debut single album 2 Cool 4 Skool. He was the third member to join the group as a trainee after RM and SUGA. J-hope has since been involved in the creation process of every album in BTS' discography.

His stage name, "J-hope", comes from his desire to represent hope for fans, as well as to be "the hope of BTS." It is also a reference to the myth of Pandora's box, as after the box was opened and all the evils inside were released to the world, the only thing left was hope.

On March 1, 2018, J-hope released his first solo mixtape, Hope World, worldwide, along with a music video for the title track "Daydream". A music video for the B-side "Airplane" was later released on March 6.

The success of his solo debut led him to rank third on the Emerging Artists Chart, and 97th on the Artist 100 Chart for the week of March 10 and 91st for the week of March 17. He is the fifth Korean artist, and the second Korean soloist after Psy, to place on the Artist 100. The mixtape charted in ten countries worldwide, with "Daydream" charting in three, and eventually placed at number five for Billboard magazine's year-end world albums chart.

In 2019, J-hope released a free collaboration single, "Chicken Noodle Soup", on September 27, featuring American singer, Becky G. The track debuted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100, with 9.7 million streams and 11,000 downloads for the week ending October 4, making J-hope the first member of BTS to chart on the Hot 100 as a solo artist outside of the group, the third Korean solo artist to rank on the chart (after Psy and CL), and the sixth Korean artist overall to do so. "Chicken Noodle Soup" also debuted at number 1 on the World Digital Songs chart and is J-hope's second song to achieve this after 2018's "Daydream".

For the three-year anniversary of his mixtape, J-hope released a full, three-minute long version of its closing track "Blue Side (Outro)" on March 1, 2021—it was uploaded to the BTS Soundcloud page for free.

Fun Facts:

J-Hope is another one of the few members who has his license and can drive.

J-Hope auditioned for JYP before Big Hit, but he didn't make the cut.

Jimin and J-Hope are the only members of BTS who still share a room in their current dorm, they said they wanted the big closet that came with the master!

Although he mainly raps, J-Hope is also an exceptional singer and will sometimes show off his skills in BTS songs.

His family has a pet Shih Tzu named Mickey who he'll often take pictures with when he's home.

With his energetic personality, J-Hope often helps set the mood for the others when they're feeling down.

J-Hope often leads the group in dance practices which is where his more serious side will come out.

For his most recent birthday in 2019, J-Hope made a donation for low-income students at his former school in Gwangju through ChildFund Korea.