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If you have't been on the ground floor for the meteoric rise of Brockhampton over the past year then you have missed a lot. 3 tours, 4 studio albums and numerous uniquely crafted videos such as their one for the song GOLD. These overnight celebrities aren't without a large dose of controversy. A core member and face on all three of their Saturation Albums, Ameer Vann, was kicked out of the group after sexual assault accusations were made against him. I'll leave a link to that story here. This individual story has so much to unpack on what it means for the group going forward. So there is plenty to talk about when it comes to Brockhampton but I'd like to focus on one member in particular: Kevin Abstract.
Kevin Abstract could be considered the ring leader of the Brockhampton circus and his obvious musical talent is only part of the story that makes him interesting. Kevin Abstract is proudly gay in a genre that has a history of certain rappers to be homophobic. Having a young budding star that raps about his own romantic life the same way as any rapper out there sets an awesome precedent for the genre. Hip hop has a battle rap core and when you are going line for line, like a blow for blow boxing match, it has notoriously lead to misogyny and hate speech. Instead of rappers spreading misogynist rhetoric we have Kevin rapping about going to a male strip club with his boyfriend. What I am saying is we are making progress people!
The diversity of Brockhampton in general is truly refreshing for music as a whole. From the singing of Bearface to the bars of Dom, their diversity doesn't only have to do with the intersectionality of their band members but also the many different genres the band its self experiments with. They refuse to be called a rap group and insist to everyone they are a boy band. As some one who has seen them live they one hundred percent have the energy of a boy band. This is just one more of the unique characteristics of the group that set them apart from the pack.
With Brockhampton's most recent release, Iridescence, reaching number one on the Billboard hot one hundred I wanted to shed light on how far rap has come. In the early 2000s we had some landmark moments for misogyny such as 50 Cent's "Bitch Get in my Car" which is one of the most literal songs you will ever hear, to now having an all inclusive hip hop boy band lead by a homosexual. We have come very far in such a relatively short time. We certainly have more progress to make considering the highest selling rapper of all time, Eminem is still using homophobic slurs in 2018. Although that is still the case it is incredibly reassuring to know that the American public has brushed that off and has moved on to more progressive and inclusive music like Brockhampton.
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