After announcing their hiatus to regroup, we now have our first BTS member releasing a solo album. J-Hope announced on Saturday morning on Weverse that his first solo album, Jack in the Box, will be out on Friday, July 15. The album, set to be released just two weeks before his headlining Lollapalooza set, would be the first full-length album released by a solo member of BTS. His first single is out next Friday, July 1. In a statement on BTS’s Weverse site, their label Big Hit Music stated: “BTS has started a new chapter that harmoniously combines team and individual activities, and j-hope’s solo album is released as the first runner. As implied in the album name, j-hope’s solo album ‘Jack In The Box’ contains j-hope’s aspiration to break the existing frame and show a more mature image. We ask for your interest in ‘Jack In The Box’, and we ask for your support for j-hope’s first step as a solo artist.â€
J-Hope is the first member of BTS to release their solo project post-hiatus announcement. Other members have released mixtapes while the group was actively working on BTS projects; Suga released the Agust D (2016) and D-2 (2020) mixtapes and RM released RM (2015) and Mono (2018). Jung Kook was recently featured on “Left and Right†with Tik Tok’s Charlie Puth, showing that while BTS is still taking a break, the boys are still loving music.