BTS' RM says getting dissed by another rapper and told he sold out to become an idol felt like getting 'slapped in the face out of nowhere'

• BTS leader RM reflected on a diss that he faced early in his idol career.
• In 2013, rapper B-Free said that RM and Suga, a rapper in the group, had sold out to become idols.
• RM said the moment taught him "how to respond" when "you get slapped in the face out of nowhere."

BTS leader and rapper RM reflected on getting dissed by another rapper early in his career, saying that in retrospect, the moment felt like "something everyone has to go through once in their lives."

The members of BTS spoke about their career, from before the group's 2013 debut to now, in the new memoir "Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS," cowritten by journalist Myeongseok Kang. RM, whose given name is Kim Nam-joon, spoke about an incident in which B-Free, a rapper, dissed him and fellow BTS member and rapper Suga for pursuing careers as idols despite starting their careers in the hip-hop scene.

"Taking an insult," RM said, using the English word insult rather than the Korean term per a translator's note, "like that to our faces, and from someone in the same industry... the Korean word 'moyok,' feels too flat, I can't think of a word more suitable than 'insult.' Anyways, that was when I learned 'how to respond when you're walking down the street and you get slapped in the face out of nowhere.'"

The B-Free incident is relatively well-known within the BTS fandom, and occurred early in the group's career shortly after their debut. As the memoir recounts, RM and Suga, whose given name is Min Yoon-gi, appeared on the one-year anniversary episode of the podcast "Kim Bong-hyun's Hip-Hop Invitational" in November 2013. 

During the podcast, which remains preserved in clips from the recording uploaded to YouTube, B-Free, whose given name is Choi Sung-ho, said that he hadn't listened to BTS' music. In the exchange, he mocked their appearance as idols, and said that they "could have continued on the path to become rappers but couldn't resist the temptation of money," per the South China Morning Post. B-Free also lampooned the group for interpolating the Ye track "Black Skinhead," which the group reworked with their own lyrics in the concept trailer for their sophomore EP "O!RUL8,2?"

B-Free later apologized for his "mean comments" towards BTS in a series of tweets in 2016, saying that the backlash to them made him not want to "admit I went overboard." The rapper said that he was "wrong to attack them" and had since realized it was wrong to "hate others for whatever they wanna do." He apologized again in 2019, writing in a tweet that he was "so sorry for all the emotional pain I've caused" to BTS and the group's fans.

Ultimately, RM said in the memoir that he felt like the incident was inevitable. 

"Looking back, it feels like we went through something everyone has to go through once in their lives," he said.