The pop-rap pioneers are back with a new album – a reaction to a year of grief, growing up and getting to know one another again
As the various members of Brockhampton, AKA the self-proclaimed “best boyband since One Direction”, log in to a slightly chaotic eight-way Zoom call, it is quickly apparent that no one is immune to lockdown cliches. The band’s producer Romil Hemnani arrives first, wandering past his laptop cradling a puppy, before returning 10 seconds later holding a different, much larger, dog. There isn’t time for anyone to laugh at my “Not a fan of journalists?” gag after he (the dog, not Hemnani) growls into the camera, before vocalist Joba, AKA Russell Boring, appears sporting shoulder-length hair and a patchy beard that screams “re-open the barbers”. By the time de facto group leader Kevin Abstract emerges, sitting in front of a swimming pool, with his rainbow-coloured dye
Job, it’s full house on the Zoom bingo card.
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