Songfacts®:

• Run BTS is a South Korean variety web series starring the K-Pop group. Broadcast since 2015, each episode involves the band members taking on games, challenges or secret missions. The boys earn prizes if they succeed or receive punishments if they fail. This fast rap song both references their variety show and looks to their future.
  
  "For 'Run BTS' we kept saying we wanted to try doing a song in our older style, so we chose a title that both shares its name with our variety show and reflects who we are—always running," Suga told Weverse magazine. "All the members have come a long way, and there's times when we're exhausted but there's also things we want to do moving forward, so I think we tried to include those desires as well."
• "Run BTS" is one of three new tracks the K-Pop group recorded for their anthology collection Proof. The other two are the album's lead single, "Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)," and a continuation of "Epilogue: Young Forever" titled "For Youth."
• Suga's verse gave him an opportunity to show off his rap skills, something he's not had much opportunity to do on recent BTS albums. "It made me think of the past, which made me want to write something a little tighter, but rapping it was really difficult," he said with a laugh. "We got it recorded quickly, but it had been a long time for me, so I really had to work at it when we were recording."
• RM, J-Hope, Jung Kook and Suga co-wrote the song with Daniel Caesar (of Caesar & Loui), Ebenezer, Oneye, Ludwig Lindell, Melanie Joy Fontana, Michel "Lindgren" Schulz, Feli Ferraro and the track's producers Dem Jointz and GHSTLOOP. When RM, J-Hope and Jung Kook had trouble with the melody in the first verse, they split up and wrote separately. Junk Kook came up with something that worked, so he took care of the first verse. He told Weverse magazine: "I wrote a new melody and connected each of our parts into one."
• This is Dem Jointz's first production for BTS. The Californian producer contributed to four tracks on Kanye West's 2021 album Donda, including "No Child Left Behind" and "Jail."
• BTS performed the song live for the first time on October 15, 2022, during their Yet To Come concert in Busan. Part of the city's World Expo 2030 bid, it marked the boy band's first show in six months.