"We want to leave a mark, you know? I want people to look back like: Damn, Brockhampton did all of that in a very short amount of time and inspired so many people." - Abstract
Breaking the Mold
Brockhampton is not your average boyband — in fact, many wouldn't even call it a boy band. It is a group far removed from the Hollywood factory that churns out artist after artist. The members blur the prescribed lines for masculinity and sexuality to challenge prescribed notions of men in the hip-hop genre.
The MOLD
Five-man Band
Traditional boy bands have a five-man archetype: the bad boy, the cutie, the heartthrob, the older brother, and the shy one. Every member is white and plays into their "role" in the group. These groups almost always do coordinated dances at their shows and their public image is always controlled by their management team. The members confirm masculine and heteronormative stereotypes; they only show emotions relating to female relationships and never talk about deep emotional struggles in their songs. These groups rely on white male stereotypes to dominate the market.
breaking these norms
SExuality
Brockhampton challenges hip-hop and the music industry's heteronormativity. Its founder, Kevin Abstract, is openly gay and many BROCKHAMPTON songs feature verses about his sexuality. This directly challenges the music industry's set norms for both boy bands and hip-hop artists. Their lyrics touch many different identities and do not prescribe to the same rigid ideas of male-female relationships. This is especially impactful for their listeners, many of whom are teenagers finding their own identities because there is virtually no LGBTQ+ representation in hip-hop.
Abstract and Champion in the spring merch lookbook — the band sells t-shirts, sweatshirts and water bottles that say "Gay" on them.
"WEIGHT" details Kevin's worries about his sexuality and other struggles the members face. Abstract raps: "And every time she took her bra off my dick would get soft. I thought I had a problem, kept my head inside a pillow screaming."
Masculinity
BROCKHAMPTON challenges strict gender norms for men of color through their art. Hypermasculinity is a key aspect of both the boy band identity and hip-hop culture. Hip-hop artists augment masculine characteristics as the antithesis to femininity, avoiding anything that could be perceived as feminine in their image. Hip-hop praises men for engaging in misogyny, domestic violence, and crime. BROCKHAMPTON tries to combat those stereotypes. Throughout the SATURATION tours, the band wore orange prison jumpsuits onstage and black bulletproof vests that said "FIEND", "F*GGOT" and "N****". on them to directly challenge the constructed images of black men in the media. Also, the group does not use the degradation of women as a key aspect of their music, a stark difference from the hip-hop mold for men. Men are not allowed to cry or show real emotion in society today, and suicide is the third leading cause of death for boys. Holding in their emotions has taken a significant toll on the mental health of men in the United States, something that BROCKHAMPTON starts to remedy for many of their male listeners. The band makes boys feel like it is "cool" to be emotional and appeals to teenagers — a demographic at an extremely vulnerable time in their life.
The band strives to challenge masculine norms, saying in an interview "one space where society doesn’t think it’s OK for men to be emotional is (in our) insecurities. It’s seen as a sign of weakness as a man to be insecure, to want to cry or look for acceptance from another man. We just want to challenge society’s stereotypes." And they do that by talking candidly in their music about the issues they face, something that is largely unheard of for men in the music industry.
We see this in the video above — the members wear bulletproof vests to make a clear statement about police brutality of men of color and challenge image expectations. These themes are far deeper than those typically brought up in hip-hop, and the lyrics in "BLEACH" (the song in the video) challenge norms of being "hard" to fit in as a man.