All of BTS’s Korean albums, whether mini or full-length, follow a parallel format. All of them start with a track labelled as “Intro” and end with “Outro”; some have skits, and some have interludes, but never both on the same album; and up until this latest release, they all had a rap-heavy track with “Cypher” in the name. Starting from their second album, O!RUL8,2?, the Cypher tracks get numbered, and there are three parts in total.

As we saw with “Outro: Circle Room Cypher”, these aren’t strictly freestyle tracks. Rather, “cypher” here merely refers to the practice of taking turns one after the other. The real purpose of appropriating the word “cypher” is that it’s appropriative — it’s to indicate that the rapping is the point of these tracks, and to enhance their aura of rap authenticity over other BTS tracks.

Though the songs are credited to BTS, the vocal line is entirely absent in the numbered Cyphers. The only personnel across all three tracks is Rap Monster, Suga, J-Hope, and producer Supreme Boi, a member of Rap Monster’s crew DNH and a former Bangtan trainee. Across the three tracks, the Cyphers evolve, not just in tone — after the B-Free incident, they go from casually defensive like in “We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2” to muscular and aggressive — but in accordance with the rappers’ increasing abilities and confidence. As we’ll see under the cut, the Cyphers are a benchmark for the evolution of each of the rappers’ styles over a relatively short amount of time.

“BTS Cypher Pt. 1” (O!RUL8,2?, 2013)

Note how this track is already named Pt. 1. It sticks out on the album for being the first of its kind, but as a song and even as a rap song it’s less interesting than “We On”, which is the same idea (basically, #NotAllIdolRappers) with smoother execution. And better mixing. I don’t know if the reason the track sounds like this is that they were still going for freestyle verisimilitude, but if it is I’m glad they gave up on that because it’s silly to even try, and if it isn’t then I’m still glad they gave up on that.

But I’m missing the point, since “Cypher Pt. 1” is trying to be something different from “We On”, even if it doesn’t do something different. If the medium is the message, then the real message is not what words they’re saying but how good they are at saying them. All three rappers do reasonably well here, but they’re all a little dry and don’t emphasize their differentiating features. And it’s nothing compared to the scenery-chewing and bravura that will come.

“BTS Cypher Pt. 2: Triptych” (Skool Luv Affair, 2014)

This track is 100% a response to the B-Free incident, which may or may not be the reason why everything has suddenly levelled up. There’s a subtitle now (“Triptych”), the levels are much louder, and Supreme Boi doesn’t just drop a producer tag but an intro where he refers to BTS as his “fam”, unafraid to align himself with these idol rappers. The rapper line show no fear of the “idol rapper” tag themselves, unlike on “Pt. 1”; if anything, the majority of their brags here seem based in the fact that they’re idols and why that makes them superior, from “leading hallyu” to being constantly on TV to, of course, getting money.

The rapping has levelled up, too. From the start, J-Hope’s verse shows more diversity than before, like the part where the beat drops out and he buzzes like a bee. But his verse is impersonal, and frankly he’s mostly here as a hype man, e.g. he says “Follow the leader” just before Rap Monster comes in. Then the beat suddenly changes into something low and slippery and cool. It plays for a bit, as if Rap Monster needs his own separate intro, and when he opens his mouth, it’s clear he does. Suddenly, there’s the Rap Monster style: different voices, complex puns, whiplash shifts in tone from gleeful to snarling and back, and at least a bar in English.

J-Hope comes back for the hook, and then Suga appears on the same menacing beat as Rap Monster. I find Suga’s approach here harder to describe, except maybe with a sports metaphor: he’s not a finesse guy, he’s a goon. He’s the one who mentions B-Free the most directly (“Go to Hawaii, go home”), and the rapid-fire part at the end (and breathless laughter afterward) is scary not because of his skill but because of his button-mashing relentlessness. And “Like your parents, my heart hurts every time I see you” is just straight-up mean.

“BTS Cypher Pt. 3: Killer” (Dark & Wild, 2014)

“Killer” develops the themes and style of “Triptych”, but now that they no longer have to worry about their reputation being under direct fire, it comes across as less laborious, and conversely more intense. This has the most pop song-like structure of the three — verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus — throwing away the last pretense of being a cypher except for the name. Through some weird magic, Supreme Boi’s hook sounds like a blend of all three rappers’ voices: his timbre is somewhere between Suga and J-Hope, and his strained, verge-of-hyperventilating tone is reminiscent of Rap Monster’s when he goes there.

Rap Monster developed his peak style in “Triptych”, so his verse here has the same features while still doing different things with them. My personal favourite is when he switches to a basic flow in order to call out rappers who stick to it. It’s a cheap trick, and it works. J-Hope, on the other hand, is barely recognizable. (When it came out, some listeners didn’t even think he was on this track — they thought he was Supreme Boi.) This is his strongest verse yet, and there’s an audible difference in his intensity and ability from “Pt. 1” to now. I’m still unsure of pinning a style on him (and he seems to have abandoned satoori rap pretty much entirely, though not his identification with Gwangju and Jeolla-do), but for what it’s worth this is the most threatening he’s sounded on these tracks yet. Suga, previously the most threatening, turns freaky here, both in the weird sense (“a.k.a. Agust D” has yet to be officially explained, though this fan makes a valiant attempt) and in the sexual sense (“flow job”; “my voice takes you to Hong Kong”, a common euphemism for having an orgasm).

All three rappers have come a long way from “Pt. 1” within the span of 11 months, and so have the Cypher tracks. They no longer need to lean on the significance of the word “cypher” to show their worth; it’s the content that does it now.