Review

Song Review: BTS – 2.0

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As expected, BTS have begun to release follow-up videos from their highly-anticipated ARIRANG album. Many listeners found lead single Swim an oddly muted choice for promotion, and I agree that there are songs on ARIRANG with more commercial appeal. However, for their first follow-up video they’ve chosen one of my least favorite tracks from the album.

Music video aside (I don’t usually factor those into my reviews), I need someone to seriously explain the appeal of this song. I really want to know what people like about it, because to my ears 2.0 is one long monotonous drone of repetitive phrasing over a dull, drowsy beat. Co-produced by Mike WiLL Made-It, the track is essentially one or two rhythmic ideas with slight changes across three (unending) minutes. I struggle to find the appeal of mindless hooks like “You know how I do do do do do” and “Pop pop pop pop pop” and “Ya ya ya ya.” Given the amount of time BTS spent on this comeback album, I’m shocked that a song like 2.0 couldn’t muster anything more interesting. And given their early influence from the golden age of hip-hop (when lyricism was king) this feels like a major downgrade.

Perhaps a jolt in energy might have salvaged 2.0‘s repetition, or at the very least made the song come across as somewhat fun. Instead, we have a self-serious screed over a cavernous instrumental that builds to nothing. Take this verse, for example:

“Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, uh
Baby gettin’ too lit
Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah (Yeah)
Hit ’em up like pop (Ha)
Hit ’em with the truth like rah, uh
Time to pay your debt, uh, fear me or fear me not
Let it be, let it bleed, uh, hit a lick, uh, in a split (Stop, ride)”

I mean… okay? So, the lyricism is awful, the sound is monotonous and the song goes nowhere. What exactly am I supposed to be enjoying here? I’m genuinely curious.

Hooks 6
 Production 6
 Longevity 6
 Bias 5
 RATING 5.75

Grade: F

67 thoughts on “Song Review: BTS – 2.0”

  1. Picking at my pimples was more interesting than this song and I literally closed the video at the 2 minute mark.

    6 (6, 6, 6, 6) for me, and I swear to fucking god, if I see ANOTHER song get rated in 6s or below, I will genuinely crash out.

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  3. Wow, this is awful. I didn’t make it all the way through. Shit lyrics, boring production and really grating effects in the vocals for some reason

    I’ve not listened to the album – surely there’s better choices on there to release as a single..

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  4. Interesting review! This is the first time I’ve genuinely had nothing in common with a Bias List review 😕

    The track keeps me engaged the entire time through changes of flow in the raps and perccussion (j-hope especially blew me away), the various mixes of vocals in the chorus, and the touches of twangy synth. Before I saw the music video, it was probably an 8.25, but the mv was so fantastic that it probably bumped the song up to and 8.5. Super excited for the rest of the Arirang promotions!

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  5. This was maybe my least favorite on the album as well. It’s just not good. I’ve only listened to the album fully through twice, but this one stuck out as one to make sure to skip on only my second playthrough…

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  6. I never thought BigHit would drop a disappointment bigger than that of Cortis’ debut. This is quite possibly their worst comeback yet.

    Flat 5 for me

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  8. The promotional rollout here has been puzzling to say the least. This is like, maybe the only song from the album that I haven’t seen any fans name as a favorite.

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  10. Hmm. Well at least they gave their fans a decent music video with choreography scenes (as opposed to Swim.) Their stage presence as a group is still pretty much unmatched in the industry imo, so I’m glad they were able to show that off more here. As for the song itself… 😬 there’s nothing I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. I feel like I wasn’t even able to give it a fair chance, because I can’t see the title “2.0” without the Close Your Eyes b-side of the same title instantly playing in my head, and that’s not really a fair comparison. 😂 So now I’m gonna use this as an opportunity to shamelessly promote my favs and say if y’all haven’t seen the 2.0 stage CYE just did on Show Champion, you should watch it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7RN9jI1Az30&pp=ygUVQ3llIDIuMCBzaG93IGNoYW1waW9u

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  12. well, i can’t say this is my favorite song on the album, but it certainly isnt 5.75 bad

    then again, bts are my ults so im guaranteed to have a huge bias for anything they put out, even if its a sound im not that much of a fan of

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  13. They picked the worst song on the album for the 2nd MV 😭 I thought they’d do “One More Night”, or at least “Animals” or “Body to Body”, but they’ll probably go with “Into the Sun” next!

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  15. I honestly thought the song was solid I’m just not a fan of the lyrics and some of Jin and Jimin’s vocals. The music video and choreography are excellent but the longevity might not be great because of the lyrics

    I’d give it a 7.75 or 8

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  16. your ratings are always really high lol. it seems like you’re rating between 5 and 10, where 5 is bad and 10 is perfect and 7.5 is mid, with each 0.25 being significant?

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  17. I’m less mad at this than I am at Swim and I think the difference is:

    This is a bad BTS song.

    Swim is just a nothing song.

    At least there’s something of the BTS flavor here.

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  19. Me, I am the one who is getting the appeal of “do,do,do,do,do”,😂😂😂.

    I understand the song is definitely not the best but I don’t think it is as bad to get such a review.

    I liked the song very much mainly because of the flow that the rapline brings and the sheer swag with which they carry the song. I agree it could have used a “jolt in energy” somewhere as you mentioned but I’ll take it any day over Swim, it at least has a personality of it’s own.

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  21. Well the target audience is clearly US based hip hop, not a generic k-pop audience. Considering how bare and monotonous the beat is, they did quite a good job with the song, but not trying to save it. This understated genre isn’t for me, if you wanna do NCT 2.0 at least I want the energy of “Kick it”.

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    • I am very interested in knowing which US hip hop fan listens to a song like this because I am more invested in alternative and hip hop music spheres and this album has been panned hard by the fans of those genres.

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  25. I like it loads more than Swim (the remixes are fun, though, particularly Suga’s techno version). I like the hip-hop beat and I’m not opposed to repetition. Love J-hope, Suga, and RM. J-hope really shines. Also, the mv had a sense of humor that I appreciate. In any case, I like the rest of the album a lot more than its title song.

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  26. It’s not my favorite from the album but personally I like the song enough to never skip it because well, it’s BTS and it’s hip hop, of course I like it. They just pull it off. I also absolutely love the performance. I get that this is not at.all. your style of music Nick but the matter of fact is, you wouldn’t have given this a 5.75 if it wasn’t BTS and if you weren’t particularly perplexed by how successful this comeback was.

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    • It is not perplexing why the comeback is ‘successful’. It is BTS, and ARMY will stream anything, you just said it yourself: ‘it’s BTS and it’s hip hop, of course I like it.’

      And I am ARMY, too. And Nick was being generous with 2.0. And Dark & Wild is my favorite BTS album, so, no, I don’t have a problem with hip hop or BTS’s past takes on hip hop.

      I have a problem with really bad music.

      Hybe did the Tannies dirty with Arirang and releasing two of the weaker songs as singles from an album already very mid.

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      • About the “perplexed” part: I was referring to Nick specifically and particularly his numerous tweets about this comeback including one where he says he’s “going crazy” over some extremely positive reviews. That shows someone who is, precisely, perplexed with this comeback’s critical success, to put it mildly. I could have said “annoyed” but I didn’t.

        I didn’t intend my comment to be shady or anything, Nick is the only kpop blog I follow, even if I don’t comment often. I do believe he has a negative bias against BTS, for many reasons, some of them valid. This explains the 5.75. That’s all I said in my comment, and I stand by it. But despite that and even if he gives a BTS song a 3, I would still follow this blog.

        If you don’t like the song and you think it deserves a lower grade, that’s fair, to each their own! On a side note, the “I’m army too, but” disclaimer is getting a bit tiring because I see it everywhere. I promise I don’t care whether you’re army or not and it doesn’t make your opinion more or less valid.

        I agree that swim and 2.0 were a very odd choice for title tracks since the album has better songs.

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        • I am new here in this blog, so I am going to include a disclaimer about my own bias in one of my first comments, because even in my own BTS FB group I have been admin for for almost 7 years, I get: ‘Well, you must be new’ or ‘they were always a hip hop group’ or some similar non-response when I express a non-glowing opinion.

          You said in your initial comment he was ‘perplexed’ over the ‘successful’ comeback in general, not over positive reviews specifically. So, I also stand by what I said – nobody is perplexed at a successful comeback by BTS. ARMY is legion, and they will stream music they don’t even like, because that is what ARMY does. Most treat it like a merch drop: you consume it, period. What it actually is is secondary.

          (I am also going to have to take you at your word about whatever he posts on X, because I avoid that platform.)

          And I don’t hear ‘perplexed’ when someone says they’re ‘going crazy’ over extremely positive reviews of Arirang. I think it means they disagree. There’s no confusion there. He didn’t say he’s ‘scratching his head.’

          And I can see why he goes ‘crazy’.

          Take this review from ‘View of the Arts’: https://viewofthearts.com/2026/03/20/homecoming-and-healing-arirang-album-review/

          This writer clearly did a lot of research and put a lot of thought into this review. More research, and more thought, I would argue, than Hybe or BTS put into the album itself. The review focuses on the lyrics, and that’s where this review falls apart. They’re discussing big, academic themes, and then points to BTS’s lyrics as examples to prove their point.

          “Kerosene, dopamine, chemical-induced / Fantasy and fame, yeah, the things we choose / Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof / Yeah, we call this shit normal (Woo-woo)”

          This is directly after they reference Goffman! I implore anybody reading this: Just read Goffman. These lyrics maybe HINT at Goffman. MAYBE there are some intriguing ideas there, but the execution of those ideas, are SO not entertaining, clever, or interesting- and that pertains to most, if not all, of the Arirang tracks. This whole review is a massive reach. It would make anyone a little ‘crazy.’

          I even saw a good review – sorry I can’t remember which one, now – that said something like, ‘well this album is unfocused, but maybe that was the point!’ I believe that is called ‘damning with faint praise.’

          I feel like a lot of these ‘extremely positive’ reviews are like that. Really twisting themselves up in trying to convince you (or themselves) that this album is better than OK at best.

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    • I agree that the performance is excellent! I’m not an Army, but I believe they’re the best performers in the industry and they’ve definitely achieved this level of fame and success for a reason. Even if I don’t like the material they’re performing, they always add a lot of personality to their delivery.

      I’ve enjoyed reading your comments on the Arirang reviews; it’s refreshing to see a unique perspective of someone who enjoyed the album. When we all start expounding on our shared dislike of a song, it starts feeling a bit like an echo chamber, 😂 so I really appreciate seeing your different opinion on it to help me kind of reset my mind. I especially like your comment in the Swim review where you pointed out that the songs on Arirang are (to quote you) “genuinely different from everything they have released before, and that’s truly difficult to achieve when you have a discography of 250+ songs.” I hadn’t thought of that, and you made me realize how impressive it is that they’re still expanding their sound and exploring different genres after 13 years.

      As someone who has been silently lurking on this blog daily for almost 3 years (but didn’t officially subscribe and start commenting until this year), I can tell you that Nick consistently rates songs of this nature 6 and below. It’s nothing personal. As another commenter suggested, he was maybe even a bit generous with this one if you compare its review to similar songs in the recent past. He’s not being unnecessarily harsh just because it’s BTS. Even if he were to be, it makes sense for everyone’s expectations/standards to be high for a group that has over a decade’s worth of great music and has basically become the face of K-pop, don’t you think?

      Anyway, sorry for yapping so much. 😭 I just wanted to say that I like that your opinions seem well thought out and that you’re willing to share your thoughts even when you disagree with the majority. I look forward to seeing your thoughts on any future Arirang reviews, or just any reviews in general.

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      • Hey thank you so much. What you say is fair. I may have exaggerated with the negative bias thing but tbf he did make many many tweets about this comeback so this is where my comment came from. But I didn’t want to discredit his review in any way and I’m sorry if it came across that way. After all, this is thebiaslist.

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        • Ah, I don’t have Twitter, 😅🤷‍♀️ so your comments are understandable considering the added context that you have. Also sorry if I seemed too critical/defensive/dogmatic in my reply to you earlier

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    • yeah sure Nick prob would’ve given this a higher rating if this was released by a group like TWS. but listen here, Nick in no way has a negative bias towards BTS. just because he rated a song below average doesn’t mean he doesn’t like the group as a whole. If you look at his past reviews, he has given many 9+ ratings and even 10s to BTS.

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      • Yeah I know that, I’ve read them all. When I mentioned that he has a negative bias, all I meant was that he is currently getting increasingly annoyed at how omnipresent this group (and their fandom) is. And it shows in his reviews and in his tweets. That is… all I meant “by negative bias”. I wasn’t talking about a secret sinister agenda or something.

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        • well, i don’t check twitter or all that, so i dont know what happens there. but from my point of view he’s getting annoyed because the music BTS has been releasing is just underwhelming for him. if BTS released songs he liked a lot his attitude would probably be much different.

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    • I am new to this blog and in fact I am coming back to kpop after a long time, having lost interest in it for a while. I am mostly listening to rock and alternative hip hop these days. You will find me on rateyourmusic more than you will find me on kpop Twitter. I am curious about what you like about this song because I personally find it to be very annoying and grating. In the rock hip hop spheres where I am active this album was panned hard. So I am interested in understanding what kpop fans are liking about this. I don’t think this album is particularly kpop sounding in fact BTS have never sounded more in tune with their American music influences. Yet this album falls flat for me. I can’t imagine it appealing to any hip hop or alternative fan.

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      • Well since you want my opinion about this song in particular, it is indeed one of the weakest of the album, to me. I won’t skip it but I won’t seek it either. I enjoy seeing it performed and I like the rap verses and the statement of it. I wouldn’t promote it as a title track. That’s all I can say. About the album in general, there are several songs I genuinely love. It is not their best work, but I personally think it is far superior to map of the soul 7. I like that they’re doing something different, I found their sound unexpected, their vocals are used in ways that I’ve never seen them being used before. I loved the vocoder in into the sun, I loved Hooligan and especially the hahahaha part that everyone seems to hate, FYA is hot, Body to body gets me hyped, Merry go round and they don’t know bout us have this alternative pop/rock sound that just works for me, well, I just loved it? I think overall it is a meaningful addition to their discography.

        Everyone here, including Nick, follows this narrative that the only people who will listen to this album are the hardcore fans and the general public hates it. This narrative falls precisely under the “negative bias” I was talking about. As for the rock/alternative hip hop spaces you’re in that hated the album: I don’t have an opinion on that. I personally came across hip hop fans who were never into kpop and yet liked this album in particular. I won’t bother comparing these two extremes to see which one is the most common. On the Internet you see what you want to see. That’s the algorithm. As a rock fan and a woman, I will say that these spaces both online and irl are dominated by straight male music nerds who chronically *hate* big acts that girls like, and they always find great reasons to do so. One of the first comments I just found on rate your music was a guy that says that Arirang’s hip hop aspects are bad because they are meant to appeal to young girls. Am I supposed to take this opinion seriously and treat it as objective and unbiased? Well I don’t.

        “I can’t imagine it appealing to any hip hop or alternative fan” again idk what to say to that. Sure I’m a huge BTS fan, which is obvious, but I’ve listened to alternative rock all my life, in fact, this is my main music style. And I like the album. I don’t mind people hating it. What I do mind (and this is why I’m bothering writing these comments in a mildly negative space such as this one), is the narrative that people who like this album do so *only* because of bias and the army cult. This is not the case. Some people do genuinely enjoy this. That is all.

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  27. I’m stunned at the horrible mess this song is, I can’t understand releasing the mess first, there are a few good songs on this album but Swim made me want to stick a fork in my ear after hearing SWIM,SWIM,SWIM in the same note 50 times in a row, now we get pop pop pop pop pop pop do do do do do do….without a decent beat, slow and painful! NO, this is 100% American slop, yes I AM American, but I cannot get past how bad this is and how is it is NOT HIP HOP at all.

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    • Hit ’em up is a Tupac song & Truth hurts is a Rakim song. So the lyrics are alluding to hip-hop artists that bts admires — maybe you find the lyrics bland but it seems a bit harsh to call this “screed”.

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      • Correction: truth hurts & Rakim did a collab. I was reading other people’s interpretations of the lyrics – I’m not that knowledgeable myself

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