As tens of thousands of BTS fans watched their idols perform Sunday night (Aug. 2), one of the boy band’s members — RM — spent the show looking out into a crowd that included his own personal hero.
In a video captured by ARMY at the Bangtan Boys’ show in East Rutherford, N.J., the band leader took a moment during the group’s set to highlight that a very special guest was in the house that night at Metlife Stadium. “I want to shout out to the artist who dominated my whole teenage [years],” RM said on stage. “King of New York, big Nas is here tonight!”
“Thanks for coming,” the K-pop star continued as the crowd cheered. “It’s a really strange and wonderful feeling to be able to perform in front of your teenage idol.”
He also shared a photo of himself and bandmate Suga with Nas backstage on Instagram Stories. The “Street Dreams” rapper reposted the snap and wrote, “AMAZING SHOW.”
RM — whose stage name stands for “Rap Monster” — has been vocal about his love for the Queens hip-hop titan. In a 2021 video for Vanity Fair, his groupmates correctly guessed that Nas was RM’s biggest “artistic influence,” with the South Korean performer saying at the time, “He’s been my idol for a decade.”
“He has the best lyrics, the best voice,” RM continued at the time before spontaneously rapping part of Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind.”
Sunday’s show marked BTS’ second of two MetLife shows on its ARIRANG World Tour, not counting the band’s World Cup Final halftime performance at the stadium in July. The septet will continue performing across the United States and Canada through the beginning of September, after which RM and bandmates j-hope, Jin, Jung Kook, Jimin, V and Suga will embark on a leg of Latin American dates.
The nearly yearlong tour comes in support of ARIRANG, the group’s 2026 album that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Despite being one of the year’s biggest releases, spawning Billboard Hot 100-topper “SWIM,” the LP will not receive Grammy consideration following BTS’ announcement in late July that it would be abstaining from submitting the album in the hopes “that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.”
The band’s decision comes after the Recording Academy announced the new best Asian pop music category in June.
