Brockhampton are a Los Angeles based rap collective made up of rappers, singers, producers, designers and directors founded by Kevin Abstract. Or, at least that’s the way that most music publications would describe them. However, with the release of their debut album SATURATION and their show American Boyband on VICELAND the boys in Brockhampton were determined for the world and the media to see them as a boyband and on their aptly named second full length, SATURATION II, they continue their efforts to be recognised as the best boyband around by releasing one of the best albums of the year so far, two months after they’d already done exactly that.
Preceded by an array of excellent singles such as “GUMMY” and “SWEET”, SATURATION II sees the group hone in on one of the greatest strengths showcased on their debut; the ability to cohesively function as a group, with each member of Brockhampton getting a chance to shine on certain songs while playing more of a supporting role on others. Take the aforementioned lead single (that also serves as the opening track on the album) “GUMMY”. On this cut Kevin Abstract is front and centre, taking on the first verse as well as indulging in some M.I.A. worship on the song’s infectious hook, meanwhile in-house engineer and vocalist Joba is relegated to lending his signature falsetto to the song’s outro. Meanwhile, further down on the tracklist on second single “SWAMP” Joba, along with the brilliantly eccentric Merlyn Wood and the awesomely talented traditionalists Ameer Vann and Dom McLennon are each given a chance to steal the show with their verses as Kevin and Matt Champion handle the song’s hook together. As for who actually does stand out the most on “SWAMP”, it’s easily Joba, with his Justin Timberlake inspired vocals and his choppy half sung/half rapped flow it makes it feel borderline offensive that he was left to mostly handle refrains, outros and bridges on SATURATION.
One of the album’s highlights comes in the form of an Ameer Vann solo track entitled “TEETH”. Coming in at a mere 1 minute and 20 seconds, the song is one of the shortest on the album but manages to be one of the most impactful. Over an instrumental produced by Romil Hemnani, Brockhampton’s secret weapon, Ameer takes the time to tell the listener where he comes from and where he and his best friends are going. “I’m a project baby,a free lunch felon and I’m hungry every minute” he raps before alluding to the success he and the rest of the collective are about to experience (“Me and all my niggas getting stars down on Sunset Boulevard”). The conviction and grit with which he delivers the verse is only strengthened by the very minimal beat that consists of a sampled female vocal and twinkling keys backed by a resonant bass drum that can be heard booming every few bars as the song progresses.
It is worth noting that the production on SATURATION II is one of the strongest and most consistent elements of the album. In addition to the wunderkind Romil, the album was produced by the duo Q3, Brockhampton’s answer to The Neptunes (comprised of Jabari Manwa and Kiko Merley) with additional production provided by Joba, Kevin Abstract and the enigmatic singer from Belfast, Bearface.
There is not a single beat on this project that is not absolutely solid. It’s almost as if the instrumentals on the album are sentient, changing and adapting to suit the style of whichever member is rapping at any time. Of course, the beats cannot think for themselves and the switches throughout are entirely by design but they sound so seamless it’s nearly believable that the music is simply responsive to the various artists rapping over it. An excellent example of this is the second track, “QUEER”. While being consistently bouncy during Matt Champion’s opening verse, the instrumental becomes absolutely raucous as Merlyn Wood delivers his lyrics in his trademark shouting style, only to then become smooth and slow down during the chorus as Kevin Abstract begins singing. However, while the song is definitely an excellent example of how great the production on SATURATION II is, it is also an example of one of the group’s weaknesses.
Even when narrowed down to just the singers and rappers in Brockhampton,their roster is a diverse one and so, there is bound to be a range of ideas that each member tries to execute in the songs. But herein lies the issue,often the actual subject of a song ends up becoming unclear because there’s no real connectivity between the different verses and the hooks. It could be argued that it is totally normal for the verses on a posse track by a rap group to not be thematically linked (unless the theme is bragging) but for every “Rella” there is also a “Bed rock”. Songs by boybands are more often than not focused on one topic and for a group like Brockhampton, one so insistent on not being just another Hip-Hop collective but being a bonafide boyband it’s a shame that it’s difficult to come up with one thing that one of their songs is about. On the other hand, Brockhampton want to redefine what it means to actually be a boyband so the range of topics broached on a single song might just be a part of that process.
Make no mistake, this issue is not something that permeates every single part of this album. There are songs where there are obvious recurring themes, or at least a consistency in the type of topics discussed on a song. For example, on “JUNKY” each of the featured members of Brockhampton get super serious about a particular topic. Kevin Abstract, the group’s de facto leader laments the lack of LGBT representation in rap (“‘Why you always rap about being gay?’ ’cause not enough niggas rap and be gay.”) while proudly asserting his dominance by stating he does the most for the culture by simply being who he is. Later on in the track Matt Champion delivers one of the best verses on the whole album in which he divulges the contempt he has for guys that show no respect to a woman’s boundaries while issuing a warning to these same guys; if they don’t learn some respect, he won’t be responsible for his actions (“I get my 99, I don’t own one, hit the store to blow your brains off. “). This might sound like an empty platitude given the current meme that the idea of respecting women has become but after Champion has spent the rest of his verse talking about being indebted to his Mother for all she’s done for him and imploring men to “Respect my mother, respect my sister, respect these women boy!” it doesn’t seem that way. All of these lyrics are rapped over a woozy instrumental that sounds as though it could easily soundtrack a horror film, making all of what is said sound more impactful.
Another track on the album with verses that are thematically linked is “FIGHT”. The song features a hook performed by Merlyn and Kevin while Dom McLennon and Ameer Vann spit some of their best verses on the album. “FIGHT” is a strong case for the argument that McLennon and Vann are the groups most talented rappers on a technical level. The pair of them display intelligent rhyme schemes and captivating flows all while detailing what it means to be black in a world determined to teach young black children that being black is not good while simultaneously having to deal with people taking from black culture. McLennon raps “I see you culture’s dependent on what you didn’t inherit “ while Vann states that “My teachers would say ‘Little black boys have a place in the world’ like hanging from trees or dead in the streets.”
With SATURATION having only dropped in June of this year, it would be perfectly natural to wonder whether or not a sequel released so closely to the original would be able to meet the expectations set by its predecessor. Well, after listening to the album numerous times since it dropped, it is safe to say that Brockhampton didn’t just live up to the standard they set for themselves, they surpassed it. On “JELLO” Ameer, the cover star of the group’s first two full lengths, states that Brockhampton turned rap into the new pop. In the year that Hip-Hop officially became the most popular genre in the U.S. for the first time ever, this group of All-American Trash are more than worthy of being the face of what is now, by definition, pop music. One Direction might want to consider staying broken up, there’s a new boyband in town.
