Hip-hop collective redefines boy band
A grand swell of orchestral music opens “Gummy,” the first song on Brockhampton’s latest album, “Saturation II,” as if it’s gliding over a picturesque landscape in an old Disney movie.
Then the track is cut short by a sputter of harsh static.
The introduction feels appropriate for the Los Angeles alternative hip-hop collective of 14 rappers, artists, producers and creatives who pride themselves as being an “allAmerican boy band.” It’s anomalous, enticing, deliberate — just like the artists behind it.
“I wanted to redefine what it means to be a boy band and just give other kids out there who look like us someone to identify with,” says 21-year-old rapper Kevin Abstract, the band’s founder. “If they want to make a boy band, they can now do that because not every boy band looks like One Direction or ’N Sync or Backstreet Boys.”
It’s quite a path to blaze for the budding group, who are scheduled to perform Sunday, Sept. 24, at Social Hall SF. The members are racially diverse, straight and queer, and most are barely 21 years old.
The group began in 2010, when Abstract, then a 14-yearold new to a small Texas town near Houston, posted on a Kanye West Internet fan forum seeking other artists. Abstract eventually developed an underground following in his own right (he released “MTV1984” in 2014 and “American Boyfriend” two years later), but the virtual connections developed into a cohesive clan and, eventually, the Brockhampton sound that is now garnering critical praise.
The group of 14 moved in together in San Marcos, Texas, in 2015 and the following year ended up in south Los Angeles, where they began cultivating a fan base. Now Brockhampton lives in a house in North Hollywood that doubles as their creative factory for music and video making, where they’ve spent a busy summer breaking into the hip-hop world.
A stream of stellar singles like “Heat,” “Gold” and “Face,” released as homemade music videos, prefaced their explosively creative debut album, “Saturation,” in June, and Viceland simultaneously premiered a documentary series, “American Boyband,” about Abstract and the group. A week later, Brockhampton began working on its followup, “Saturation II,” which they finished in about a month and released at the end of August. A third album, “Saturation III,” the group says, will be released this year, perhaps as early as October.
And that’s not all. Brockhampton has next year planned, too, though the group is vague about specifics. (Abstract refers to a possible behind-the-scenes documentary and a scripted Brockhampton movie that “might be like a musical — like a ‘Purple Rain’-type thing.”)
“When one thing’s done, we kind of don’t really rest on our laurels or pat ourselves on our back,” says rapper Dom McLennon, 25. “We just keep moving to the next thing.”
Yet none of their music appears to be hastily packaged. Brockhampton albums are polished, brimming with sleek production and catchy hooks. The songs, on which about half of the 14 appear vocally, are consistently engaging — explorations of Millennial angst follow gritty rap tracks before giving way to guitar ballads or sweetly sung declarations of love and longing.
Brockhampton’s music readily fits into the rap and hip-hop box, but the members see themselves as part of a shift in the genre.
“Rap was about how hard you could be, and rap took over what hip-hop was,” McLennon says, though he adds that hip-hop can now be equally defined by being “transparent and honest about your feelings, and that to me is what we embody.”
To be sure, Brockhampton is not out to correct hip-hop (most of their influences are the genre’s standard torchbearers like West and Missy Elliott), nor are they entirely saccharine about their notions of self-acceptance. Their songs are just as often charged with charismatic braggadocio and aggression.
“We just want to be human,” Abstract says. “I’m not trying to break anything, I’m just trying to be myself.”
His sentiment is perhaps contradictory. Brockhampton’s very identity — an Internetbred boy band of misfit rappers — is a purposeful deviation. Abstract, who is gay, often raps about his sexuality, bucking against hip-hop taboo.
These moments might feel revolutionary, if only a low rumble, as Brockhampton is a young and relatively small presence in an age of viral rap hits. But if recent months are any indication, Brockhampton will likely become a louder voice.
“It feels like watching groups when I was younger blow up,” 21-year-old rapper Merlyn Wood says about the all-American boy band’s success so far. “Like being a kid and watching it happen to people I idolized, only it’s happening to us. And it’s surreal. But I know we worked for it.”