J-Hope

As a longstanding member of BTS, j-hope is a name synonymous with world-dominating K-pop superstardom, having joined the group in 2013 and regularly achieving milestones; in 2021 they were crowned the world’s top-selling act. Born Jung Ho-seok (Korean: 정호석) on 18 February 1994 in Buk District, Gwangju, the South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and record producer known professionally as j-hope released his first solo mixtape, Hope World, in 2018 through the label Big Hit Entertainment, with the album rising to number 38 on the Billboard 200 chart; j-hope became the highest-charting Korean solo artist at the time of the release. The following year, he served up a smoking hot trilingual collaboration with US singer Becky G, "Chicken Noodle Soup," which samples DJ Webstar and rapper Young B's song of the same name and was accompanied by a popular Internet dance challenge on TikTok. He dropped his debut studio album, Jack in the Box, in 2022, which looked to universal themes like humanity and success and took its sonic cues from 1990s hip-hop while also folding in elements of grunge, R&B, and other styles. The album shot to number two on Japan's Oricon Digital Albums Chart and went to number 17 on the US Billboard 200. His sophomore effort followed in 2024, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, which went to number two in South Korea and charted in several other countries including Australia, Finland, and Germany.