Explaining Namjoon’s verse in Dope - a thread.

First of all, the main message in Dope is concerned about the youth who are constantly pressurised by society to do well, but actually have it harder than ever with the increase of cost of living, houses, tuition fees, etc.

The older generation don’t realise this because in their outdated experience, life was easier, so to them the younger generation has gotten lazy. Dope talks about how the youth are working so hard to the point they wanna give up, yet they also want to live life at the same time.

Here is Namjoon addressing how the media and adults have already given up on them before even allowing them to try. (They also mention this in Baepsae where the adults kept saying ‘just work harder’ with the members responding ‘as expected from those that came before us.’)

Namjoon’s verse mentions ‘sampo sedae’ (giving up on 3) and ‘opo sedae’ (giving up on 5). He is actually referring to the main things that the generation is giving up on from 1 to 10. (10 being the last).

Here it demonstrates how each time they give up on something (one by one), it means life gets worse up to the point where they don’t want to carry on with life anymore.

In his verse, though, he only goes up to ‘chilpo sedae’ (giving up on 7). As you can see in the list, it goes up in odd numbers. Namjoon, however, talks about ‘yookpo sedae’ (which is not in the list) which is the last thing before hope.

He is indirectly highlighting the dangers of giving up on hope because once that happens you are also giving up on yourself and life. This is why he says ‘So can I get a little bit of hope?’ near the end of the verse.

Namjoon is basically emphasising how his generation should keep going (‘wake your sleeping youth, go!’) and don’t ever let go of hope. Because when one gives up on hope, there is nothing to look forward to and you will fall into despair and misery.

Therefore, Dope was created in order to demonstrate how the boys do understand the suffering of the generation by showing how hard they work but they are also encouraging the youth at the same time. Take Yoongi’s verse as an example.

To conclude, the main point is not to lose hope. There are people who understand your situation and you will be rewarded for all your effort one day, so keep going.

(Here’s Joon’s full verse.)

I hope I explained it well!