Did you know BTS’ RM was once ‘Runch Randa’, an underground rapper?

RM aka Kim Namjoon once revealed that before he joined BTS, his artist name was ‘Raunch Randa’, which he later changed to ‘RM’. On his birthday, here is an interesting story of RM’s life from the days when he was an underground rapper.

Image: RM/Instagram

Korean pop sensation band ‘BTS’ needs no introduction. The band and all of its seven members are popular across the world. Kim Namjoon, one of the seven members of BTS who goes by his stage name ‘RM’, is celebrating his 28th birthday today, on Monday, September 12. The K-pop star interestingly had turned 29, as per the Korean culture. On his birthday, here is an interesting story of a time when Kim revealed that before ‘RM’ his stage name used to be ‘Raunch Randa’.

It was in the year 2010 when Kim Namjoon joined the BTS and got his stage name ‘RM’. He debuted with group members V, Jin, Jimin, Suga, J-Hope, and Jungkook in 2013. But before BTS happened to him, RM was an underground rapper who was known by his stage name ‘Runch Randa’.

The interesting story of ‘Raunch Randa’ was revealed by RM himself in the year 2020. In fact, he also said that before RM, his artist name was ‘Rap Monster’. Speaking of his previous stage names, RM had once reportedly said, “MapleStory was a game that influenced me the most. Many of you don’t know this but I changed my name to RM. I’m not Rap Monster anymore, I’m RM. Anyways, my name was Runch Randa before. Now, where did I get the name Runch Randa from?”

Revealing the story behind how he got his name ‘Runch Randa’, RM said that he was looking for a rapper name for himself in the year 2007. “I had a friend back then who taught me about rap, about Garion, Eminem, and Outsider. I shared a MapleStory account with that friend and the character’s name was Runch Randa. I was thinking of a name and just went with that.”

RM released several tracks with underground rappers, under his name ‘Runch Randa’. He later went to audition for BigHit Entertainment (now known as BigHit Music) and cracked it. He was the first member of the BTS who was recruited by the company.