Agust D is back after three years and he is not playing around. The new single and music video from BTS’ SUGA‘s third solo album, “Haegeum,” builds on the universe first introduced in his 2020 single “Daechwita.” The two songs have a lot in common, from their title to their lyrics, and visuals. To understand one, you must know about the other.
In the “Daechwita” music video we are introduced to two characters in what looks like Joseon Dynasty Korea, a tyrant king and the commoner who tries to overthrow him, eventually succeeding. Fast-forward to modern days in “Haegeum,” and the same struggle for power is going down between an underground criminal and a police officer. The police officer has the same facial scar as both characters from “Daechwita,” only much more subtle, while his adversary doesn’t.
SUGA has said the music videos for “Daechwita,” “Haegeum,” and the yet unreleased “Amygdala,” should all be watched in succession. ARMY has started theorizing about the meaning of “Haegeum,” but the full picture won’t be complete until the story continues in “Amygdala.” One possible theory is that the police officer in the former is a representative of the commoner from “Daecwhita,” who seems to have been eventually absorbed by the system he was trying to take down.
There are plenty of parallels between the mad king and the police officer. At one point, they both try to kill their opponent, with the police officer mimicking the mad king’s now iconic cutthroat gesture. Like in “Daechwita,” we are led to believe the police officer will be successful, until the criminal grabs a gun from the bottom of the barrel he’s being drowned in to shoot his nemesis.
An attentive fan spotted the subtle double-crossing by one of the men who the criminal is supposedly stealing from, and who we see calling the police officer to the scene. Just seconds after that phone call, when the criminal is leaving the building, he nods toward this mysterious man instead of killing him or knocking him out like all others present. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but it’s essential to understand why, at the very end, the criminal suddenly has a weapon he can kill the officer with. The man drowning him under the orders of the officer is the same man from the phone call, and, according to this theory, he had been working with the criminal all along, hiding the gun somewhere he could reach it and proceeding with taking down his enemy.
When it comes to the lyrics and the title of “Haegeum,” there are also plenty of similarities to the rapper’s previous single. Both tracks are titled after terms related to traditional Korean music. “Daechwita” is the name of a specific traditional Korean military genre of music, played by wind and percussion instruments, which plays right at the start of the 2020 track. Likewise, we also hear a haegeum play in the first seconds of “Haegeum” – this is a popular traditional Korean string instrument, similar to a fiddle.
The verses of both “Haegeum” and “Daechwita” refer to SUGA’s career. They’re both aggressively confident songs, meant to highlight the rapper’s achievements. While “Daecwhita” focus on the people who dismiss, hate on, and try to belittle the artist, “Haegeum” shifts the attention towards a greater system, instead of individuals. Its lyrics comment on the age of misinformation, selfishness, and greed we currently live in, with some very poignant statements about current times such as “Interpretation is free for all. Freedom of expression could be the reason for somebody’s death. Could you still consider that freedom?,” and “Slaves to capitalism, slaves to money, slaves to hatred and prejudice, slaves to YouTube, slaves to flexing. Selfishness and greed have gone off the rails…”.
The content of each song’s lyrics informs both music videos, as a less privileged person struggles to end the reign of unchecked power brought on by the figures of the mad king and the corrupt police officer.
