Bts Mic Drop
The song incorporates a dark percussion line and Lil Wayne-esque cadences in its composition.[27][28] As opposed to Aoki's signature build-and-drop house music style, it makes use of an uptempo "cluttered" production, which loops its starting rhythm with trap and a pulsating synth-line.[22][28] Instrumentation is provided by keyboards, synthesizer, and guitar.[26][29] The song is further driven by drumbeats and features repetitive chanting from the band.[30] The opening verse features Desiigner's "fast-talking" followed by heavy Auto-Tuned vocals and "super-aggressive" English verses from the band.[19][28][31]
Bts Mic Drop
Upon release, "Mic Drop" was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. Writing for The Malaysia Star, Chester Chin praised the song as "a brilliant display of artistry," calling it "an explosive and menacing track with some dirty bass to boot."[36] Jeff Benjamin from Fuse lauded the cohesiveness of the song's diverse musical styles, writing that the Steve Aoki remix "wasn't just brilliant for its blending of different genres and styles, but how all those elements enhance one another." He further stated, "Desiigner's ridiculously awesome flow fits perfectly alongside BTS' braggadocio, with it all backed by a mainstream-accessible Aoki beat."[37] Reviewing for Clash, Taylor Glasby viewed the track as a "scorching, hater-baiting" song and deemed it as the "sonic outlier" of Love Yourself: Her.[9] Rhian Daly of NME regarded the song as "a swag-filled rap-led track full of their very own mic drop moments."[38] In his review for The Korea Herald, Dam-young Hong cited the track as "an artwork, offering listeners a flash of footprints BTS have left in the K-pop scene over the past few months."[20] Music critic Sunmi Ahn also wrote an article for the same publication where she praised the song's production and lyrical content writing, "With a killer beat and smart yet frank lyrics, it's a song that describes how BTS got to the top."[32] IZM's Do-heon Kim favoured the aggressive guitar riff in the production, likening it to that of '90s South Korean music group Seo Taiji and Boys.[29] Mike Nied of Idolator deemed the song "one of the hardest hitting on an album of iridescent pop hits."[39]
A music video for "Mic Drop" directed by Woogie Kim of GDW, premiered on Big Hit's official YouTube channel at 18:00 KST (01:00 PST) on November 24, 2017; it was preceded by a 59-second teaser released on the same platform on November 16.[74][75] Hyunwoo Nam was credited as the director of photography and Cathy Kim as the producer.[74] The visual is almost four-minutes long and features several VFX shots.[74] The video opens with Aoki walking towards a console, set against a backdrop of neon-lights.[22][74] The clip then cuts to show the band inside an interrogation room with several cameras pointed at them.[19][22] They remain seated before a table which is occupied with microphones.[22] In the following scene, Aoki puts on a pair of headphones and starts DJ-ing.[22][74] J-Hope jumps over the table and lines up with the rest of the band to perform the song's powerful choreography.[22] The clip is interspersed with scenes featuring the band dancing in multiple settings.[19] In some of these scenes, the band dances in a darkened room with Aoki's figure looming over them in the background, while in others they are in a grungy hallway or inside a prison.[22][76] Over the course of the video, several black-hooded figures are seen rioting as the band continue to dance in military-style outfits while surrounded by burning cars.[19][22] The visual ends with the band disappearing from the interrogation room as Suga performs the titular mic drop.[19][22] A closing shot of Aoki removing his headphones is shown before the clip goes black and the song's title is displayed in red against it.[19][74] Commenting on the setting of the music video, the director stated in an interview: "Listening to the song, the first thing that came to my mind was that I wanted to lock BTS in an interrogation room. Then I wanted to show the viewers how they managed to escape and free themselves with music."[77]
Following the release of Love Yourself: Her, BTS appeared on several Korean music programs, including Mnet's M! Countdown, KBS's Music Bank, SBS's Inkigayo and MBC Music's Show Champion to promote the original version of "Mic Drop" and the album.[86][87][88][89] The band performed the song at the SBS Gayo Daejeon music festival on December 25, 2017.[90] They also performed the song on December 31, 2018 at the MBC Gayo Daejejeon,[91] wearing red and black outfits in styles similar to their attire for the music video. Towards the end of the performance, Suga's mic drop move was swapped for a scroll that read "Happy New Year" in Korean when unfurled.[92] On August 11, 2019, the band performed the song during the one-night only Lotte Duty Free Family Concert at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul.[93]
Jimin's lead-up to FACE has been feeding the fans at every turn. After collaborating with one of his idols, Big Bang member Taeyang, on "Vibe" in January, and dropping songs once only available on Soundcloud and Youtube, he officially kicked off the FACE chapter with "Set Me Free pt. 2" a week before the EP's release. With the full project now out, it's clear those songs were only a glimpse of what Jimin is truly capable of as a solo act.
Not only will fans be blessed with an official title track, but Jimin will also drop the pre-release single "Set Me Free Pt.2" on March 17. The "Pt.2" in the title has fans speculating that it will be a continuation of the 2020 track "Set Me Free" by bandmate Suga (released under his Agust D alias). 041b061a72