Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

by

Eve Griffiths

I guess you can call this version of Chicken Noodle Soup an origin story, J-Hope before he was J-Hope.

Influenced by the 2006 song of the same name by DJ Webstar, Young B and featuring The Voice of Harlem, this is one of the songs that J-Hope first began to dance to, igniting his love for his craft and as the lyrics tell, led to him joining his street dance group Neuron.

The feel of the song is nostalgic and carefully created to pay homage to a highly influential and much loved song but given just enough of an update and a freshen up to give it a J-Hope twist plus the latin feel of featuring artist Becky G comes through to bring it right up to date.

It opens with the repeated chant that you hear throughout the song:

A let it rain, I clear it out

A let it rain, I clear it out

A let it rain, I clear it out

A let it rain, I clear it out

Chicken noodle soup

Chicken noodle soup

Chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side

Chicken noodle soup

Chicken noodle soup

Chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side

After some research I found out a bit more of what the meaning is behind these lyrics; letting it rain is an observation of the behaviour of the community that DJ Webstar was from, people would repeat the task of letting it rain and clearing the rain water from their steps/house rather than finding a way to stop the rain from getting in.

Chicken noodle soup was seen a cheap meal referring to the economic climate of that time, the soda on the side was representative of the allure of having the unhealthy option being a state of mind, a need for sugary instant gratification.

Listening to the song on it’s release without this kind of background understanding was interesting, first the opening Becky G being the main voice you hear and the drop of the beat as J-Hope joins in and begins his rap.

From Gwangju one gang of you-know-what Geum-nam

Choong-jang Street, that’s my Harlem

Joined NEURON Bounce with ma Team

Went head over heels for dancing, workaholic, everyday

Grew being up all night as a teen, that’s the

Case My height is measured by dance, I’m Ok

Plan to draw up a grand vision

The kid who drives the dream

The steps stomping over the rhythm

Popping, Rocking, Hopping, Tutting, Dougie, Flexing, Swaggin’

Still do it errday, ASAP For my own sake

Always whipping me on the carrots are on the trophies

Betting on my life, dancing is my cash

Hope on the street, now it’s just my way

With Becky G on the side

Every day I lit...

Every word of his rap is personal and gives you the typical honesty that BTS bring to every song; he makes references to his Harlem, another way to make this a song respectful to the original. Talking about joining his street dance group, the way he fell for dance and it became his everything. He danced all night because he had a plan, it took his dream to keep him moving, he bet his life on dance and that is how he made his cash.

Throughout every word he was performing and showing his stand out dance skills and he shone. His style of rhythmic rap perfectly complementing the backing music with its light repetitive beeping and twanging and then dropping in his low gravelly rap to change up the mood and the underlying track.

Becky G then came in, I have to admit I knew of her, but I hadn’t heard any of her songs so had no idea what to expect from her, first impressions she was small and cute and had a nice voice.

Her chorus was nice too all about the love they both have for their home, this could be meaning their actual home or the fact that both J-Hope and Becky G both grew up listening and dancing to the original Chicken Noodle Soup and this kind of music, this could be their musical home that they feel represents them.

And then she literally pops back into the frame in the video and starts to rap!  This I wasn’t expecting, but I loved it. The interaction between them both in the video was adorable and J-Hope is the perfect partner, to Becky G when she is letting it rip with her rap in Spanish.  Mixing it up from a sweet sassy rap to a full on independent woman shout my ass off rap. Loved it!!

Chicken noodle or chicken with spaghetti

None of these women has the flow that Becky has

Latin American I am from here

Innocent face but freakyyy

Yeah

What will I say (huh)

If I already saw everything (huh)li

What you gonna do what you gonna do

What you gonna do what you gonna do

What you gonna do what you gonna do

What you gonna do what you gonna do

Look back at it

Lights camera action

Definitely the best on the scene

Word on the street we got the people reactin'

People who criticize always make me embarrassment

The instrumental breakdown between Becky G’s pre-chorus and bringing J-Hope back in is inspired; it takes the energetic loud mood back down and brings your focus back into the music and what is happening on the screen.

As the camera pans around through the group of dancers (you can tell they are just itching to move to the infectious beat) and closes in on J-Hope, you get a feeling of anticipation coming through, what’s going to happen next?

The beat drops and the chant begins again and J-Hope dances towards the camera, the atmosphere builds again and the night scene drops in with the group dance, the scene set and ramped up with the hydraulic cars bouncing in the background to the heavy beat.

After all that, the outro switches the feel of the song to a completely different song; it’s heavy and hard, and the perfect closer. It gives the song a whole dirtier dimension, the beat and the vocals have a totally different vibe to them and I would listen to a whole three minutes of that, possible remix? I hope. The perfect music to showcase the dancers' talents to in the music video as well.

The end of the video with the names of the dancers listed and the behind the scenes video of the whole group, including J-Hope and Becky G, just enjoying the moment and whole experience together reminds you how grounded he really is.  Even though we think he is the sun, in person he is Hobi, the kid that loves to dance, rap, and sing with his mates.

Overall I love this fantastic, energetic, floor filling earworm.  Being a teenager in the 90's I feel the nostalgia coming through and I love it, I’ll say it again I love it.  I want to dance to it, listen to it on repeat and sing it in my sleep.