Childish Gambino and Quavo Are Collaborating on New Music - HipHop

BROCKHAMPTON formed in 2015, largely as a rebirth of a group known as ASF (AliveSinceForever). Over the course of the next two years, they dropped a few singles, eventually releasing a mixtape by the name of "ALL AMERICAN TRASH" in the summer of 2016. That winter, frontman of the group Kevin Abstract released his sophomore album "American Boyfriend", touring for the album and earning a following and notoriety for the larger group. Then, in the spring of 2017, the group returned with the first single from SATURATION, "FACE". In the space of around a month, they reportedly created around 40 songs for their sophomore mixtape, which evolved into their debut album. Of those 40 songs, 14 made the cut, in addition to 3 skits, creating a 17 track album. With each single leading up to the album, they steadily built more and more hype, with one of the final songs to release before the project, "BOYS" premiering on Beats1 Radio on Apple Music. The group's chemistry and their unique music videos quickly found a larger and larger audience, highlighting the talents of a diverse group of members, including rappers, singers, directors, visual artists, and producers. All members of the group (excluding singer Bearface who was in the UK until the day of the album's release) lived together in a house in Van Nuys, California for the creation of the album.

Review

When reading an album of the year writeup for BROCKHAMPTON's debut album, SATURATION, given the state of this corner of the internet, most people would expect the reviewer to try as hard as possible to refute criticism of the music, and to argue that the group is something unique and special. The music isn't perfect, but they are doing something special. There are valid criticisms: while rapper Dom McLennon impresses with his technical ability the content of his verses can at times be entirely abstract and unrelated to the song, and Merlyn Wood, while fun and energetic, is justly divisive in the vocal performances and style he can bring to a track. The oft repeated lines of "Kevin always raps about being gay" or "Ameer always raps about dealing" (and just where will Dom's heart be put next?) while true, aren't necessarily bad things, and the members of the group have responded within their own music in an adequate manner. This album isn't necessarily even the best album of the year. An argument could be made that the sequel, SATURATION II is better, as well as projects such as who told you to think??!!?!?!?! by Milo or 4:44 by Jay-Z. An album such as 4:44 will invariably go down in hip hop's canon as a classic, a step in the right direction for the craft. So, given all of this, declaring SATURATION to be album of the year seems confusing.

A project has to be the most enjoyable music released within a year for it to be the defining album of that year. Let it not be taken, however, that this is saying that BROCKHAMPTON has made a genre-defining album: they're simply too obscure at this point for that. But at a critical level, SATURATION does serve as an album that embodies the state of Hip-Hop in 2017. In fact, the album at times reads as a revue of hip-hop, opening up with a stretch of songs that switches from gritty and aggressive to smooth and danceable.

BROCKHAMPTON are something special. Not because they formed over the internet: of course groups like Odd Future have already done that more famously. While Odd Future tapped into this punk destructive energy that allowed them to set a fire with the youth of America, BROCKHAMPTON are tapping into a part of the genre often critically panned: pop rap. What BROCKHAMPTON is focused on is straddling a particular line: that between the poppy rap tunes of artists in the ilk of Recovery-era Eminem, and the aggressive offputting experimental hip hop of such groups as Death Grips. These aforementioned acts are direct influences on members of the group, as are such performers as M.I.A., Prince, Master P, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, Kanye, and the list goes on. These artists styles would seem to clash with each other and BROCKHAMPTON exists on that very point of conflict. Their music serves as an answer to the question of being both accessible and off putting, and they manage those two lanes beautifully.

BROCKHAMPTON crafts tunes that are both poppy and experimental. Even if your tastes are weirder than the music that the group produces, it's disingenuous to suggest that their music isn't weird to your average listener. Switching from distorted bass and manic rapping to a soft acoustic guitar and crooning simply (a la "BUMP") isn't something in a lot of rap that many people find accessible. People can't be blamed for finding highly experimental music off putting, but it is a shame that people don't listen to it because of that unease that it creates. SATURATION exists as an inbetween point: "FAKE" has quickly become a favourite for many from the project. And when you think about it, that is strange. The verses are pitch shifted, the beat is wonky (thriving from the same Pharrell influence that most of their production does), and the subject matter is deliberately off putting. But the hook is undeniably catchy. Tracks like "FAKE" are easy to listen to and yet have weirder depths to them.

"HEAT" is perhaps the best example of this. "HEAT" isn't a purely political song. For many of the members it's more personal than that, with rapper Matt Champion talking about his experience being cheated on, or Dom McLennon talking about his feeling unable to be around other people. But there certainly is a political bite to it: not too heavy handed at all, but there. The messages and themes in the song become available to anybody who wants to find them: a classic anti-cop rap sentiment, the politics of drug dealing, a sense of discontentment with the state of the world. They're setting up a world for the viewer that while ultimately escapist, does remind the listener of the realities back home.

When BROCKHAMPTON keeps on rapping about how different they are, how special their music is, it can seem like the yuppie protagonists of a blockbuster film at times: i.e that these are people who exist in this idealised world that just isn't real. Perfectly relatable, both broke and receiving riches, self-loathing and cocky, a nonexistent contradiction. But there is always that bite of home: the message that brings the group back to where they really are. While Ameer Vann can rap about dealing and make it sound cool, this showmanship also functions as an exploration of his real past. While so much of the album is concerned with dreaming of them in the spotlight, future kings of music, we are reminded every now and then of what they're running away from, whether it be disappointed parents or the general weight of the world. There's a sad beauty in their flights of fancy, and it comes across elegantly in their music.

You don't have to like BROCKHAMPTON's music to appreciate them, and they should be appreciated for what they're doing. Artists shouldn't have to live in a world in which they have a choice between making a living or making art. The viewer shouldn't have to choose between self-obsessed works of auteurs and worldly but ultimately milquetoast mainstream pieces. Many shy away from this altogether: they just pick a side and they're done with it: they'll make their money and not care what the critics say, or they'll make their original ideas flourish and not care about the money. Sometimes, creative people strike on something so good that people listen to it and support them anyways. The fact that BROCKHAMPTON are trying to create a roadmap to striking that gold, and are attempting to remove the fog of mystery that lies over the line between experimental and popular is commendable. They're not there yet, but they're certainly on to something. SATURATION is the starting point for it all.

Favorite Lyrics

"I've got pipe dreams of crack rocks and stripper poles"

"HEAT"

"I got a dream I'm willing to die for

I got a team I'll commit a crime for

Got some dead homies I ain't get to cry for

'Cause I'm working for my freedom, while the world cry war

Cry wolf when the shepherd finds a way to strike gold

'Cause the stocks gon' crash and the dollar gon' fold

You don't know that the poor eat the rich when there's no profit

They gave you the floor but you brought up the wrong topic"

"CASH"

"Was I more than it's worth

Or will you see my name and I'll fade?

Pitch my camp in your mind

Sat by the fire, behind your eyes

And I'll look through them just once or twice

But I might see something I don't like

Like your hands in his shirt

Entwined in cotton, his loving smirk"

"WASTE"

Discussion Questions

BROCKHAMPTON's career is on an upwards trajectory in terms of popularity, and yet there's still a raging debate over how relevant they truly are. At what point is an artist no longer a "nobody"? At what point is an artist "relevant"? Is BROCKHAMPTON relevant?
BROCKHAMPTON insist that they are not a rap group but in fact a "boy band". What do you think of this? Do you agree with this statement? Why do you think they claim this?
Once the SATURATION trilogy ends, what direction should BROCKHAMPTON go next (who knows what's happening with that SATURATION III announcement)?

Thanks for reading!

Be sure to check out the other BROCKHAMPTON writeup for today, done by the great /u/snidelaughter, as well as tomorrow's writeup for billy woods terrific album, "Known Unknowns", done by the amazing /u/ReptiIe!

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