We’re finally here on the precipice of Brockhampton's follow-up to 2017’s SATURATION trilogy. It’s a long time coming: we’ve been through a seemingly endless cycle of shelved album (four!) and deleted tweets. Iridescence’s tangibility finally feels like a revelation - but this digital messiness is one of Brockhampton’s defining characteristics. It’s a staple of their process that’s been with them from the start. Take a look at last June’s non-album single, LAMB.
It’s the archetypal Brockhampton track: a breezy, heavily-autotuned rendition of their band-as-family mantra, tucked in the crevices of their DIY online presence. The only place you can (officially) find LAMB is on Brockhampton’s YouTube channel which is proving an increasingly important archive of their numerous test runs - it’s just one part of the digital scrapbook they’re set on cultivating.
Given this, chances are you haven’t heard LAMB more than once - it’s not on any disc of the SATURATION trilogy and might’ve fallen victim to our reliance on conventional streaming services. And, although it boasts a modest 2.7 million YouTube views, it hit the net wedged a few days either side of the iconic STAR and the first SATURATION’s release day. Brockhampton’s recent output has them leaning on their penchant for bangers, full of ramped-up siren loops and aggressive flows, and LAMB is a humble reminder of their roots.
Roberto, the SATURATION trilogy’s narrator, opens the song’s music video with another one of his preludes. This one, however, isn’t a cryptic clue in some convoluted, universe-binding narrative. He simply muses: “My name is Roberto, and this is my family,” a simple, candid address about his fellow members before they all pop up onscreen.
More than any of their other music videos, LAMB encapsulates the dream state the boyband occupies. Absent is the concept work of their other music videos: it condenses nothing but their most integral familial values into a three-minute mosh of white tees and oversized dimples. It’s not hard to imagine Kevin Abstract on the day just telling someone to pick up a camera at golden hour and hit record. The boys casually sing along, more content bumping shoulders with their kinfolk than hitting the right notes; there’s an intimacy to it that defines the Brockhampton thesis, a feeling of companionship you just want to live in.
To some hip-hop heads, the video’s visual similarities with Playboi Carti’s R.I.P. are hard to miss – a moshpit of male bodies rapping to the camera; full of energy, possessed by music – but the songs couldn’t be further apart. LAMB’s more of an inverse than a companion piece, the anti-R.I.P.: Carti’s yearning for external pleasures is replaced by Brockhampton’s desire to be remembered by those around them. The crux of this comes through Kevin’s hook, a hopeful hymn to boyband’s still-burgeoning legacy:
“This ol' sky, if I die
I hope I'm no random guy
Somewhere out there they will say
He is mine, he is mine”
read more: Brockhampton are premiering their documentary while they're in Australia for Listen Out
It’s an ode to being remembered by those around you, to doing something that has a lasting impact. Brockhampton’s central message is one of inclusion, of tight-knit community, and nowhere is that more present than in LAMB.
It’s most interesting to return to following the tectonic shift that was Ameer Vann’s removal from the group. In their late-night TV debut on Jimmy Fallon, the boyband debuted Tonya, a song that offers a stark contrast to LAMB’s emotional whereabouts. In the performance, the boys are again uniformly dressed but in an entirely different context, donning lifeless flannels and bowed heads as the chorus runs:
“And I've been feelin' like I don't matter, how I used to
And I've been feelin' like I don't matter, how I used to”
In the constant tug-of-war between fame and anonymity that Kevin chronicles online, LAMB marks a defining moment in Brockhampton’s career. It’s a record of a place of euphoria that now seems lost as the boyband continue to rebuild themselves from the ground up – hell, it’s probably their best song too.
