Alright let's talk about my Brockhampton phase

I’m sorry to do this to you all, but it’s time to talk about Brockhampton.

Brockhampton, for those who are unfamiliar, were “the best boy band since One Direction” — a critical darling rap collective that were a hit among experimental hip-hop fans and the white boys at my liberal arts college.

As a lifelong lover of boy bands, of course I had a Brockhampton phase. So it’s been a bit of a shock to see the band — who disbanded not too long ago — reemerge in popular culture through nostalgic TikTok videos (we are so cooked if we are nostalgic about 2022 by the way). 

Today, I want to talk about these videos and Brockhampton’s legacy in our cultural memory.

Brockhampton’s star burned fast and bright. It's something that you just had to witness to fully grasp. Their peak was electric — so much so that people online have begun to reminisce on their “Brockhampton phases,” both with disdain and fondness.  

It has been a bit of a jumpscare to see mentions of a “Brockhampton phase” so often over the past few months online. On TikTok, many people have been reminiscing on the glory days of the group and begging for a “new Brockhampton” to emerge. Seeing this, I thought it might be best to recap what that group was for their fans in an effort to understand what it is people actually want. 

Brockhampton was made up of rappers, producers, vocalists, designers, and more. The main performing members of the group at the end of their run were leader Kevin Abstract, Dom McLennon, Merlyn Wood, Matt Champion, JOBA, Bearface, and Jabari Manwa, who was previously a producer. Rapper Ameer Vann was a part of the group before exiting in 2018 following sexual misconduct allegations.

The band broke out in 2017 with the SATURATION trilogy, which remains one of the most impressive outputs in recent memory. Who else could release three fresh-sounding albums in one calendar year? That kind of work ethic and innovation is what people grew to respect Brockhampton for.

But a big part of their appeal, at least in the beginning, was that they seemed to be deconstructing toxic masculinity in a genre that’s often known for it. The promise of Brockhampton was of a progressive boy band/rap collective that addressed topics such as homophobia, rape culture, and mental health. Many of their fans were women who found this refreshing.

So it was disappointing — almost like a betrayal —  when the allegations against Vann came out. It felt antithetical to Brockhampton’s entire ethos to keep him in the group. I distinctly remember this happening as a friend and I were working together at our old café job (we became close because of Brockhampton). Everyone wondered: How would the band respond?

Vann exited the group and the band paused their engagements to reset. Brockhampton would later reach new commercial heights without Vann, especially with iridescence and GINGER. Still, it felt like Vann’s ousting caused a rift that the remaining members could never fully overcome. 

That seemed to be confirmed in Brockhampton’s penultimate album, 2022’s The Family (which is really just an Abstract solo joint). Abstract addresses his relationship with Vann as well as the impact that Vann’s actions and exit had on the group, specifically on the track “All That.” 

The band had other controversies too. In 2020, there was an infamous Google Doc titled Everything Wrong With Brockhampton, which detailed old uses of slurs, allegations of predatory behavior from several band members, and continued associations with Vann (for what it’s worth, Vann appears to be featured on Abstract’s upcoming album).

The doc has been deleted, and many of the allegations are hard to find now. Half the fandom insists the doc was “debunked” while the other half refute that. It was never addressed by the band, but it had an impact. A lot of fans were turned off from the group because of the doc, which has been frequently brought up alongside this recent Brockhampton revival online. 

@trumankayla

[it was allegedly debunked?? idek i stopped paying attention in like 2019 sooo] u had to be there when that doc hit the tl but putting our... See more

Internally, there was strife too. In The Family, Abstract copped to his toxic pursuit of fame, at times at the cost of his bandmates. By 2022, when the band broke up, the relationships between the members appeared to be hanging on by a thread. 

The dissolution of Brockhampton was twofold. First, many fans felt they could no longer trust the band’s moral compass. Perhaps fans expected too much (as one fan put it “putting our trust into a group of like 15 men was lowkey cray.”) I think a lot of us projected an ideal onto the band members who, as Pitchfork said, “never sought a soapbox” but rather had a sense of “why-not inclusivity.” 

Second, the band didn’t seem to adjust well to their success. Toward the end, everyone seemed miserable. While Abstract had always said the band would not last forever, their eventual demise seemed to end in not a bang but a whimper. 

So now, as people reflect on Brockhampton’s apex between 2017 and 2019, what is it that they miss? The music, of course, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to the group that people yearn for too. Is it the diverse members who have different approaches to rap? Is it the impeccable branding, done in-house, that gave Brockhampton a distinct visual language? Is it a version of this band before all the baggage (as one TikToker put it, an “unproblematic version”)?

@leel1e

i remember the literal day i made my brockhampton twitter half the members were getting canceled

Unfortunately for everyone, there can never be an “unproblematic” version of any artist or group. They are all human and there is always room to disappoint. This is not to dismiss whatever harm that individual Brockhampton members may have done to people — artists should take accountability when they do something wrong. However, I think it’s unrealistic to believe that your favorite musician will completely align with your own values. I have seen this time and time again online — people expect their favorite artists to be perfect and they are massively let down when they prove not to be. 

I don’t think a group like Brockhampton will exist again, although people have tried their best to crown a successor. Whatmore, Laundry Day, PARTYOF2, and Paris, Texas have been named in this conversation. But I think it’s a futile exercise to try to project the magic of Brockhampton onto another group because it’s setting up an unfair expectation onto people who are trying to do their own thing. 

@whatmoreeee

muttttt @Leon Thomas 🐕🐕

Brockhampton is dead. The band is never coming back. Kevin Abstract doubled down on that fact on X recently. It is a great era of music to reminisce on, and I think their influence has yet to be fully understood. But it’s over — as their final Coachella outfits said back in 2022, “All Good Things Must Come to an End!”

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Fuck it, here’s a Brockhampton playlist for old time’s sake. Then we don’t have to talk about this again.

In this week’s playlist (all by Brockhampton):

• FACE

• SWEET

• SISTER/NATION

• 1998 TRUMAN

• HONEY

• ST PERCY

• COUNT ON ME

• MAN ON THE MOON

Other things I want to share with you.

• TikTok has become a regular presence during high-profile legal cases, and it has become popular for creators to build names for themselves by bolstering misogynist rhetoric during these disputes. This includes the Sean “Diddy” Combs criminal trial happening now, in which Diddy is charged with racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution. TikTok creators, who have no such training or skill when it comes to such sensitive subject material, have taken to covering the Diddy trial with gleeful affectation when recapping Cassie Ventura’s testimony of abuse. I’m sure I don’t have to tell this newsletter’s audience, but it’s always critical to get reporting from actual journalists. Here are links to reputable coverage of the Diddy trial from my former employer NBC News and Nadira Goffe at Slate.

• Influencer Kayla Malec, who I mentioned last week, has addressed James Charles’ response to her experience with domestic violence and her ex-boyfriend’s guilty plea to assaulting her. Another instance of TikTok viewers and creators making someone’s experience with violence into entertainment or about themselves, Malec is sharing her story and feelings in her own words.

• Recession indicator: Los Angeles Apparel, owned by the founder of the defunct American Apparel, is opening a brick and mortar in SoHo, New York.

• I don’t feel like a lot of people are talking about this but Chrissy Chlapecka, TikTok’s foremost BimboTok representative, has been taking her music in a different direction and it’s really working. It’s like Miley Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts era infused with more glam metal. “Clam Casino” reminds me of a cunty “Cherry Pie” by Warrant lol.