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RM of BTS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Now that we're back to recording Tiny Desk concerts in the office, home concerts mostly happen under special circumstances: when the artist is overseas, for example, or otherwise unable to get to Washington, D.C., when we're recording. Given that BTS's RM (aka Kim Nam-joon) is based in South Korea, we let it slide — not least because his team put together one of the most impressive Tiny Desk facsimiles we've seen yet. What really sets it apart is the huge array of shelf-bound ephemera, which is bound to have the BTS Army sleuthing in the YouTube comments. What's a random tchotchke and what's an Easter egg? Study the set closely!

RM timed his solo Tiny Desk debut — which follows BTS's home concert from back in 2020 — to coincide with the release of his first official studio album, Indigo. But he kicks off the set with an older track, "seoul," which first appeared on his 2018 mixtape mono. From there, he showcases the first two tracks from Indigo: the rap-driven "Yun" and the funky "Still Life," both of which are inspired by RM's love of and fascination with painting. The studio tracks feature Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak, respectively, both of whom get shoutouts in this set. But here, the focus never drifts away from the star at center stage — no matter how closely you might squint at the stuffed animals, housewares, clocks and toys (not to mention Big Mouth Billy Bass!) behind him.

Now, if we can just get him to visit the real Tiny Desk...

SET LIST

  • "seoul"
  • "Yun"
  • "Still Life"
  • MUSICIANS

  • RM: vocals
  • DOCSKIM: keyboard
  • john eun: guitar
  • Jaeshin Park: bass
  • JK Kim: drums
  • CREDITS

    VIDEO:

  • Director: Oui Kim (OUI)
  • Producer: Yeonjin Kim (OUI)
  • AUDIO:

  • JEONG WOO YEONG
  • Son Yu Jeong
  • CREW:

  • Huiwon Song
  • Sunyoung Kim
  • Hyeri Shin
  • EumKo
  • Youngwoo Lee
  • Eunil Lee
  • Sungju Min
  • Kihun Kim
  • Seungjong Lee
  • Yuntae Ko
  • Kidung Kim
  • Kiyong Eom
  • Donghyun Lee
  • Doosoo Choi
  • Yujin Jung
  • Sangjoon Lee
  • Kieun Lee
  • Kihyun Lee
  • Seonghyeon Heo
  • Insol Yun
  • Hyeongeun Kim
  • Yujin Ko
  • Daeun Han
  • Jae Yoo
  • GANi
  • Leehyun Kim
  • Yeonhwa Cha
  • Daye Shin
  • Daniella Kim
  • Saeyong Oh
  • Lee Jung Min
  • Lee Hyeon Ki
  • Jeong Dae Seong
  • Jinho Jeong
  • Rachel Um
  • Jennie Lee
  • Rosa Kim
  • TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Bob Boilen
  • Video Producer: Kara Frame
  • Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
  • Production Assistant: Jill Britton
  • Tiny Desk Team: Bobby Carter, Suraya Mohamed, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills, Marissa Lorusso, Ashley Pointer, Sofia Seidel
  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
  • Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
  • Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)