Kim Nam-joon (: 김남준) was born on September 12, 1994, in , South Korea, and grew up in , where his family moved when he was four or five. He is the elder of two siblings and has a younger sister. As a child, RM largely learned English through watching with his mother. As a student, he actively wrote poetry and often received awards for his writings. He posted his work to an online poetry website for roughly one year, where he received moderate attention. Through this, RM grew interested in pursuing a literary career but decided against it. When he was twelve he studied in New Zealand for four months.At the age of 11, RM became interested in music after hearing 's "Fly" in fifth grade. He found that the song had provided him comfort, and, due to this, decided to look further into the genre. Following an introduction to American rapper by his school teacher, RM grew interested in lyricism, printing lyrics he felt were "cool" and sharing them with his friends. RM transitioned to writing lyrics then, stating that his poetry became lyrics when it combined with music. In 2007, as a first year middle school student, RM began rapping in local amateur hip-hop circles, creating his first self-composed recording for the first time using the program (then called Cool Edit). He later participated in his first concert in 2008. RM eventually became more active in the underground scene under the moniker "Runch Randa", releasing a number of tracks and collaborations with other underground rappers, such as .In school, RM scored in the top 1% of the nation in the for language, math, foreign language and social studies and had an of 148. RM's parents were strongly opposed to his interest in a musical career due to his academic achievements, and initially RM decided to set music aside to focus on his studies. In order to convince his mother to allow him to be a rapper, he asked her if "she wanted to have a son who was a first-place rapper, or a 5,000th-place student.
RM selected the name "Rap Monster" during his time as an . The name derives from the lyrics of a song he wrote, inspired by 's "Rap Genius". The lyrics contained a segment where San E declares he should be called a "rap monster" as he "raps non-stop". He adopted the stage name because he felt it was "cool". RM has described himself as having a with the name, feeling that it was not selected for being of "incredible value" to him.
He formally changed his stage name to "RM" in November 2017, as he determined that "Rap Monster" was no longer representative of who he was or the music that he creates. In an interview with RM stated that "[the name] could symbolize many things. It could have more spectrums to it." "Real Me" was provided as a possible current meaning.
Career2010–2013: Big Hit Entertainment and debut with BTS
In 2009, RM auditioned for Big Deal Records, passing the first round along with but failing the second round as he forgot all his lyrics. However, following the audition, rapper exchanged contact information with RM, who he later mentioned to Big Hit Entertainment producer . In 2010, Sleepy contacted RM, encouraging him to audition for Big Hit . Bang offered RM a spot at the record label, and, without his parents' knowledge, RM accepted the offer immediately. The interaction caused Bang and Pdogg to start production of a hip hop group, which eventually became idol group . RM joined Big Hit Entertainment shortly after at age 16.
RM trained for three years with fellow rapper Min Yoon-gi and dancer Jung Ho-seok, who later became known as and respectively. During his three-year trainee period, RM performed on five pre-debut tracks credited to BTS in 2010 and 2011.[] He also worked as a songwriter for girl group and helped pen their debut single, "Party (XXO)", an explicitly pro-LGBTQ song which was praised by as "one of the most forward-thinking songs out of a K-pop girl group in the past decade." On June 13, 2013, RM made his debut with BTS, and has since produced and written lyrics for on all of BTS' albums. On August 29, 2013, RM performed the intro track to BTS' first , which was released as a trailer ahead of the EP's September 11 release and marked his first solo released collectively as "BTS".
