- Avant Garb
Brockhampton: Boy Band of Rap
Updated: Dec 4, 2018
Written by Chris Ritter
Illustration by Zac Wilson

In August of 2017, critics didn’t know what to make of BROCKHAMPTON. The15-member music collective had just released their second album since June, with rumors of a third by the year’s end. The group released a total of nine lo-fi music videos over the three month span, showing members of the group rapping in parking lots, the backs of golf carts, and even a bathtub full of Fruity Pebbles. BROCKHAMPTON material was as plentiful as it was outlandish. In just three months, the group had released enough material to fill a short career.
“I think what we’re doing hasn’t really ever been done before,” said BROCKHAMPTON’s
de facto leader Kevin Abstract, a 21 year-old Texan artist best known for his indie-inflected rap
on albums mtv1987 and American Boyfriend: a Suburban Love Story. Abstract spoke to music/
culture mag The Fader of the group’s dynastic ambitions as a boyband as well as a media
company and ad agency, building a brand that defies the limits of the “band” title.
Still, music is still the central money maker for BROCKHAMPTON. The group released the
mixtape All-American Trash in 2016, but didn’t gain substantial attention until their debut album
SATURATION arrived in 2017. A sprawling work, SATURATION meticulously attempted
to introduce 15 distinct characters to a world that had met almost none of them. For a group of 15
men, BROCKHAMPTON is about as diverse as a “boyband” can get: the multi-racial cohort
includes rappers, producers, and visual artists who are straight, gay, and rep anywhere from
Northern Ireland to Grenada to Connecticut. Though tracks like “SWIM” highlight Abstract’s
indie-pop tendencies, the eclectic group earned the most praise from critics for its tag-team
verses on “STAR” and “GOLD,” gaining them comparisons to Odd Future and other rap
groups.
But “rap group” isn’t their preferred title. Much has been made of BROCKHAMPTON’s
insistence that they be called a “boyband” instead of this more obvious label. With each
SATURATION album, the group seems to draw from an increasingly mixed bag of
genres, but nearly every voice you hear on the SATURATION trilogy is that of a rapper, or
at least someone who raps. At face value, the “boyband” claim could be seen as a shallow
attempt to differentiate BROCKHAMPTON from predecessors like Odd Future or
competitors like Flatbush Zombies, but that would miss the essence of BROCKHAMPTON
entirely.
While far from the Beatles or One Direction, it is easy to draw parallels between
BROCKHAMPTON and the personal branding that has historically made a boyband a boyband.
Though BROCKHAMPTON doesn’t have a “sweet” one or a “flirty” one, as USA Today
has dubbed members of One Direction, they similarly accentuate members’ personalities. On
“STAINS,” a single from SATURATION III, Ashlan Grey (one of the group’s photographers)
interrupts a verse to shout, “Y’all motherfuckers made three albums still talking ‘bout the same
shit— the one gay, the one selling drugs, the one that’s tryna act like ‘Lil Wayne…” It’s a selfdeprecating quip, but at three albums in, it hints at the boyband aesthetic BROCKHAMPTON
has worked so hard to perfect.
At their worst, the 15 members and 6+ voices of BROCKHAMPTON can sound
frenzied and disjointed, especially within albums exceeding 15 tracks. But even as members clash,
distinct personalities shine through. While Kevin Abstract’s affinity for M.I.A. style vocal effects can
be overbearing at times, it serves him well on the hook of “GUMMY.” As Abstract sinks into cool
disinterest: “Cash don’t last, my friends’ll ride with me,” Merlyn Wood echoes the sentiment in
all caps: “CASH DON’T MEAN SHIT SHIT! CRIED MY LAST TEARS, BITCH!”
Wood, a 21 year-old rapper from Austin who dropped out of architecture school to join
the group, is undeniably abrasive, but that’s the point. Every time Wood enters a song at maximum
volume or yells “MERLYN!” unprompted during an interview, fans of BROCKHAMPTON are in
on an inside joke that connects beyond music, and furthers the boyband branding that’s brought
them into the national spotlight.
The same can be said of JOBA, a Houstonbred singer whose falsettos range from tender to
downright psychotic, displaying the full range on SATURATION III between “BLEACH” and
“BOOGIE.” JOBA’s emphatically mediocre dance moves are a live show favorite, inspiring chants of “Go JOBA,” as he flails his limbs centerstage.
It’s almost a shame that the group’s boybandish antics distract from the sheer skill of
several of the group’s rappers, notably Abstract and Ameer Vann, whose stone-faced flows
often contain the richest lyricism of the group. “JUNKY” contains a candid recount of addiction
from Vann, with bleak lines like “My acts of desperation, I’m on an empty stomach / So fuck
the consequences, I ain’t running from them.” But even he has his meme worthiness. Vann might be
the first ever rapper to rhyme “dank” with “Secret Agent Cody Banks,” as he does on “STAR,” but
he’s also “the one selling drugs,” as Grey refers to him, rapping so much about his dealer days that
he’s inspired fan memes about it.
Band members having their own distinct styles isn’t anything new, but the
BROCKHAMPTON brand reaches far beyond music. While BROCKHAMPTON visuals
contain a certain degree of ridiculousness, they’re filmed casually in bedrooms, parking lots, and
empty streets. BROCKHAMPTON merch, which sells out in minutes, is just as nonchalant,
donning phrases like “boys make me sad” in all lowercase. It’s a kind of aesthetic that breeds
inclusivity, conveying a sense of understated specialness among members that’s easily extended
to fans. Abstract, self-dubbed “dumbass” on Twitter, interacts with fans almost daily, congratulating them on college acceptances and laughing with them at videos of straight men
reacting to his gayness.
With so many personalities to keep track of, BROCKHAMPTON can be a challenging
group to follow, both outside of their music and within it. The group has earned better reviews
with each SATURATION album, improving their music as quickly as critics are catching up.
But their complexities have made them successful from the beginning. While their sales have been
as middling as their reviews (their top track has a modest 18 million streams on Spotify),
the BROCKHAMPTON brand continues to thrive with a cult-like energy. The band doesn’t
have the broad fanbase of past boy bands, but BROCKHAMPTON fans have no trouble
showing the same hyper-enthusiasm: they have been filmed showing up hours early to shows,
clad in signature BROCKHAMPTON blue face paint, giggling to interviewers about their
favorite members. Major label RCA recently took note of the brand-driven success, signing
the group to a $30 million record deal. Despite the pay raise, Kevin Abstract says that the group
won’t change their DIY aesthetic. Three albums and $30 million in, it’s hard to imagine why they
would.