The title track “Swim” from BTS’s new album Arirang has taken over the No. 1 spot immediately upon release across music charts. According to the domestic music platform Melon, “Swim,” which was released at 1 p.m. today (March 20), shot straight to the top of the main “Top 100” chart within just one hour of its release (at 2 p.m.).

In addition to “Swim,” all 14 tracks from the new album—including “Body to Body,” which features the signature Arirang melody—simultaneously charted on the “Top 100.”

As for physical album sales, as of 3 p.m. the same day, total sales had easily surpαѕѕed 1 million copies. Previously, in January, the album had already recorded over 4 million pre-orders.

While BTS’s music is steadily dominating the market, their promotional content for the album is also taking over social media. One example is the live broadcast titled “STUDIO NOTES I ‘ARIRANG’”, which lasted over an hour on Weverse immediately after the album’s release. During the session, the members shared insights, discussions, and behind-the-scenes stories about their music production process following their military discharge.

Among the highlights, one revelation by Suga regarding the inspiration behind his attempt at falsetto rap in this album sparked lively discussion within the K-pop community. Specifically, SUGA mentioned: “Back then, that guy... was it Curtis? The tall guy? I was inspired by him, so I said I’d try rapping in falsetto. I went in and just started rapping like that.”

This remark led some fans and major entertainment outlets to αѕѕume he was referring to Martin, a member of the group CORTIS under BigHit Music—particularly since Martin is notably tall (around 190 cm), and March 20 also happens to be his birthday. Moreover, despite his young age, Martin is well known not only as a leader but also as a talented rapper and producer, further reinforcing speculation that the “tall guy” and “Curtis” who inspired SUGA was this BigHit's 5th Gen idol.

However, this turned out to be a significant linguistic misunderstanding. The “Curtis” SUGA referred to was neither CORTIS nor Martin, but Kurtis Wells—a “tall” producer who worked with BTS during the production of Arirang in Los Angeles. The Trinidadian-born, Berlin-based artist contributed to two tracks, “FYA” and “They Don’t Know About Us.” Kurtis Wells’s rap style leans toward melodic, vocal-driven delivery, often incorporating light head voice or falsetto, particularly in hooks, bridges, and melodic rap lines.

Once the truth came to light, fans couldn’t help but laugh at the υиєχρє¢тє∂ mix-up. Many pointed out that the initial speculation lacked solid basis, as SUGA and CORTIS’s Martin have not had enough musical interaction to significantly influence one another. Others “consoled” the embarrαѕѕing misunderstanding by attributing it to language differences, pronunciation, and the fact that it was easier to αѕѕociate the name with CORTIS’s Martin—an idol under the same label—than with Kurtis Wells.

On social media, fans shared a wave of amusing reactions, including:

- Nope, they're talking about one of the tall producers, Kurtis Wells not Cortis Martin. We all misunderstand

- No they were talking about producer Kurtis… he wasn’t talking about Martin but everyone misunderstood

- Everyone there's a slight misunderstanding. Yoongi is talking about kurtis wells not cortis. Maybe today is martin's birthday so everyone sticks him to this conversation easier than kurtis?

- I went back and listened to the whole context again, and yoongi wasn’t referring to our cortis, he was actually talking about Kurtis, one of the producers, because the rap part he was talking about is from “One More Night.” which is heavily influenced by Kurtis Well singing technique! Just a lil misunderstanding because of kurtis/cortis sksksk

- But yoongi also mentioned he’s a tall guy but when I looked up Kurtis’ height it says 5’7 and I think that ain’t tall im not sure if it’s accurate tho

- where it’s kurtis or cortis isn’t too important. happy birthday martin chingu

- i just find this misunderstanding cute, bangtis crumbs. Anyway happy bday martin <3

- It's okay we are all blind and deaf by BANGTIS crumbs

- tbf, its a very valid misunderstanding, but happy bday Martin.Its all right Armys and COER, we can clown ourselves (and only ourselves for this misunderstanding lol)

- Almost got our bangtis crumbs but it’s fine, I appreciate everything and everyone that inspires him