The world of Brockhampton can be overwhelming to the uninitiated. The collective put out a dizzying three albums last year—each of them great—and they just announced their next one: PUPPY comes out this summer. It's time to get on board with the crew, but for Brockhampton that takes some background knowledge. So let’s get the basics out of the way.
Who are they? (A boyband—they write it as all one word)
Why are there so many members? (The band’s 14 members includes vocalists, producers, graphic designers, and more. They are a one-stop shop enterprise.)
Do they all sing? (Seven of them are regular vocalists. Some sing, some rap, some do both.)
Didn’t they meet on a Kanye West fan forum? (Several members were active and met on a site called KanyeToThe.com. Brockhampton is an off-shoot of the 40-person group AliveSinceForever that emerged on KTT. There are members from Texas, Connecticut, Florida, Grenada, and Ireland.)
What’s the deal with the skits and the guy speaking in Spanish? (His name is Roberto. He’s the webmaster and also a recurring character in a story that has yet to be explained.)
Why is everything IN CAPS? (No one knows. It may or may not be important.)
What is a “Helmet Boy”? (A character developed by group member Kevin Abstract that traverses his solo music videos and short video series.)
You may have heard about a Viceland TV Show. It’s called American Boyband, and it details the bands arrival and establishment in Los Angeles. You may have heard about the dozen-plus music videos filmed at their home, the short film called Billy Star, and a rumored feature-length movie.
Plus, there’s a rabid teen fanbase and a subreddit where folks dissect the mysteries of the known Brockhampton universe. It’s one of the best spots for fan memes, updates, and theories. There are mosh pits and raps about being gay.
Here's what you need to know.
The Music
The trivia, lore, and easter eggs might draw some into Brockhampton fandom, but that’s really just window dressing; it’s the music that will keep you around. In the span of half a year, the group released 49 tracks on three different projects, 2 other singles, and a box set that included a slew of demos. Each album in the Saturation trilogy (made up, unsurprisingly, of Saturation I, II, and III) is bursting with energy. That feeling is assuredly a product of their writing and recording techniques.
Brockhampton albums are collaborative efforts. The size of the group allows for the artists to make space for contrast in the midst of cohesion, and their best songs distill each member’s talent and style. Tendencies that could overwhelm solo efforts become part of the appeal. The result is more a heady brew than a tasting flight.
In the making-of documentary included in the Saturation box set, you can see a group of young men in their early twenties gathered around a microphone in a bedroom. The walls are off-white and scribbled over with verses, and the blinds are drawn tight. Your guess is as good as anyone’s what time of day it is. It is sometime in the Summer of 2017 in South Central Los Angeles. The only lights are from phones pulling up lyrics and a laptop playing a fresh beat. This group of young men takes turns on the microphone, spitting inspiration in the form of verses and melodies. No one is sure where this song will end up, but the beat goes and the boys bring the energy.
Only six or seven vocalists will end up on the album, but even the non-musical members of the group are encouraged to take the mic. This process will continue for days and nights. Any ideas the boys have will be thrown into this room and splattered on the walls. Their riffs, motifs, and melodies will simmer under the heat emanating from the center of the room. They’ll intermingle and take on different hues. When the dust settles, the producers will take all the sounds and turn them into an album. They’ll work with Terrence Malick-esque fervor, and find the songwriting plots in the recording and editing rooms. They’ll chop and whittle until an album comes out.
Brockhampton is a boyband that strains the notions of what a boyband—or, for that matter, any artist with footing in both hip hop and pop music—should sound like. Unlike projects that serve only as vehicles for singles, each installment of the Saturation trilogy has plenty to keep your interest piqued. There is something here for everyone, here's a brief rundown of what to start with:
A Party Starter: "BOOGIE"
A Ballad: "SUMMER'
An R&B Song To Slow Dance To: "SWIM"
A Song To Rob A Bank To: "GUMMY"
A Song To Get You Hyped: "ZIPPER"
A Song To Drive To: "STAR"
A Song To Listen To At The Beach: "SUNNY"
A Southern-style hip-hop song: "ALASKA"
In other words, if you want to put Brockhampton’s sound in a box, you’re going to need a very big box.
The Boys
The Boyband
Much to the group’s chagrin, media coverage tends to hedge when using the group’s chosen description. They’re referred to as, among other appellations, a “self-proclaimed boyband,” “internet boyband”, “self-described boyband,” “not your typical boyband.” It’s easy to imagine the thoughts implied in these modifiers: They don’t look like a boyband. Do boybands rap?
Brockhampton is too unruly and too black to fit most people’s image of a boyband. So the term is not taken at face value, instead getting treated as a put-on or ploy that needs unpacking. True stans insist on the moniker; the only acceptable additions are “All-American” or “Since One Direction, best.”
Boybands are typically combine a handful of young male vocalists who don’t play instruments and are brought together by a powerful producer like Simon Cowell or, to take it back a few generations, Maurice Starr. Their aims, both sonically and aesthetically, are orchestrated with an eye for popular appeal.
For an independent boyband, taking a label becomes a way of shedding labels. It’s way of deconstructing how a multicultural, DIY, queer-inclusive group of young men can be defined. It’s a way of preempting the conversation.
Here’s where it gets complicated: they are also quite self-consciously more than a boyband. They call their house “The Factory,” and if you ask them who they seek to emulate they’re as likely to say Apple, Facebook, or Spike Jonze as Kanye West, One Direction, or N.W.A. Brockhampton is a one-stop shop: a boyband and the enterprise that produces the boyband. It’s an artistic project with a horizon that exceeds music. For Brockhampton, the lines separating musician, media company, and film studio are just questions of will and ambition.