Throughout the early 80s to mid 2000s boy bands were a popular trend in the music industry. Household names such as the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Boyz II Men have all made their mark throughout the world and are known for their ability to blend a variety of music genres. Brockhampton, founded in 2014 by Hip-Hop artist Kevin Abstract, was a new organic boy band that consisted of Kevin’s high school friends Ameer Van, Matt Champion, Dom Mclennon, Merlyn Wood, and Joba. Initially, the group went under the name AliveSinceForever and produced their first EP in 2013. By 2014, the official establishment of Brockhampton went underway with Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, Merlyn Wood, Ameer Van, and Dom Mclennon being the dominant vocalists. Assistant vocalists and producers consisted of Russel “Joba” Boring, Bearface, and Jabari Manwa. Brockhampton’s producers consisted of Kiko Merley and Romil Hemnani. The group also had a personal photographer Ashlan Grey, graphic designer Henock “HK” Sileshi, and web designer Roberto Ontenient.
Brockhampton’s roots begin in San Marcos, Texas, after Kevin Abstract and several other members including Russel “Joba” Boring followed along. By the time the group developed, they released their first single titled, “Bet I”, which received over 50 million views on YouTube. Unfortunately, in 2017 the song was removed from all platforms due to Kevin Abstract believing that the song didn’t represent him or the way the band was moving forward. In the same year, Brockhampton teased their debut album, Saturation, which released on June 9, 2017. Over 15 songs were released within the album with some notable ones being Gold and Cash. Overall, the album received massive success and resulted in two other albums continuing the trilogy titled Saturation II and Saturation III. Due to the three albums, Brockhmapton started to receive notable recognition. Saturation II included popular songs such as Summer, Gamba, and Tokyo. Summer produced great success receiving nearly 100 million streams on Spotify alone.
In 2018 Brockhampton signed their first record deal under Sony RCA records. The band was gaining success and had toured nationwide twice before their third tour involved controversies among one of the members Ameer Vann. Amerr had been facing sexual abuse allegations which led to massive controversy and disapproval from fans. As a result, Ameer departed from the group and went on to do his own solo-work. After Ameer’s departure the group released a statement referencing how Brockhampton was intended to make others feel safe and Ameer’s actions did not reflect the band’s ideals. Besides the controversies faced throughout 2018 the boyband also released another album titled iridescence. The album included 15 songs and received massive success reaching the top spot on the Billboards 200 within the first week of release.
With the rising success of Brockhampton they released their fifth studio album, Ginger, on August 23, 2019. Prior to the release, snippets of songs featured in the album were teased by Kevin Abstract on his instagram. The album featured 12 tracks with a running time of 44 minutes across the whole playlist. In comparison to their other albums, Ginger, was arguably one of the best produced albums featuring strong vocal tones and clear instrumental blending within each song throughout the tracklist. Some of the most memorable songs of the album include, “SUGAR” and “BOY BYE”. Within the same year of Ginger’s release “SUGAR” became viral on famous social media platform TikTok. Various famous TikTokers such as Charli D’amelio and Addison Rae danced to SUGAR and it was considered one of the most memorable songs of 2019. ‘SUGAR’, received over 500 million streams on Spotify alone, went platinum twice, broke Billboard Hot 100, and charted internationally.
After 2019 and the rise of the pandemic, Brockhampton would only produce remixes to some of their songs with SUGAR being one of them. The new remix featured famous pop-star Dua Lipa. In 2021 Brockhampton released another album, ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE. The album featured 13 songs and had collaborations with artists such as Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky, $ASAP FERG, Charlie WIlson, and Baird. Generally speaking the album was liked by most fans though some argued that the boyband’s dynamic changed once Ameer departed from the group. What made this album standout for the others was that this one was considered to be the last album of the group as the band progressively disassociated from each other.
Once 2022 hit it was pretty clear to fans that the band was going to split apart. Each member began producing their own creative ideas and personal conflicts between the group began to rise. Brockhampton would release two more albums, “The Family”, and “™”. The album would take hits at the group’s conflict with lyrics in some of their songs such as ‘All that’ stating, “I missed Ameer, so me and Dom kept fighting’- He almost pushed me off the edge but honestly I shouldn’t have said what I said.” Another song titled ‘37th’ had Kevin Abstract saying “Linked up with Ameer to see what he has been to… Can we get the band back together and be civil again?” Following the release of ‘The Family’ Brockhampton would release their final instagram post saying their goodbyes to fans referencing “The show is over. Thanks for everything.” The boy band would also release merchandise following their departure.
