BROCKHAMPTON – “SATURATION III” review

With 2017 drawing to a close, California based hip hop boyband BROCKHAMPTON is giving us their 3rd full-length album & the final installment of their highly acclaimed SATURATION trilogy. The album starts off with “BOOGIE”, where they’re talking about how they’re taking over the game & the instrumental from Romil Hemnani & Jabari Manwa will make you wanna throw a party. The next track “ZIPPER” talks about their continuing rise to fame & the beat is infectious as Hell. The song “JOHNNY” is basically the group going back & forth reflecting about them during their adolescence up until now & the jazzy horn sample is super dope. The track “LIQUID” talks about their individual rags to riches stories & the beat is super murky.

After the “CINEMA 1” skit, we then go into the next song “STUPID”. Here, they talk about not wanting boys to see what’s in their phones & the last 2 verses from Dom McLennon along with his brother & BROCKHAMPTON de facto leader Kevin Abstract fits it perfectly. The track “BLEACH” talks about their demons over a druggy instrumental (with the deepest verse coming from Ameer Vann) & then the song “ALASKA” talks about feelin’ brand new over some strings referencing Facebook founder & Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The synths during the hook are great as well. The track “HOTTIE” sees the group talking their consciouses & I absolutely love how JOBA goes back & forth with both Merlyn Wood & Matt Champion on here.

After the “CINEMA 2” skit, we then get into the next song “SISTER / NATION”. Where they talk about finding themselves & their days are coming to rubble over a beat that starts off abrasive yet noisy, but then transitions into something spacey. The track “RENTAL” essentially tackles the idea of the collective losing it all & the beat from Romil alongside Q3 is pretty spacey. The penultimate song “STAINS” expresses their gratefulness of where they are now over a Neptunes-esque instrumental. After the “CINEMA 3” skit, we then go into the closer “TEAM”. It starts off with bearface. singing over a guitar, but then it changes into something more funky as the other members go back & forth with each other as they get semi-political.

As expected, BROCKHAMPTON finished the SATURATION trilogy the way they started it: near perfectly. The production is more experimental & it’s a bit more introspective. Can’t wait to see what they’re gonna do on their 4th album Team Effort in 2018

Score: 4.5/5

BROCKHAMPTON – “SATURATION II” review

Almost 3 months after their breakout debut SATURATION, San Marcos hip hop boyband BROCKHAMPTON is now delivering a follow-up. The opener “GUMMY” addresses their haters along with how they’ll ride with each other until the end over an amazingly eerie g-funk instrumental from in-house producers Romil Hemnani & Q3. The next song “QUEER” starts off even more abrasive both sonically & with the first 2 verses that’re delivered by Matt Champion & Merlyn Wood, but then it sounds more relaxing & the way they express & transition into each mood are just flawless. The track “JELLO” talks about their newfound success over an suspicious sounding instrumental & while the hook from the collective’s de facto leader Kevin Abstract is high-pitched, it is catchy. The short Ameer Vann solo cut “TEETH” vents about going from getting in trouble all his life to tanning on an island over some beautiful female soul vocals in the background. The track “SWAMP” talks about them going from rags to riches & while Jabari Manwa’s production does sound Neptunes inspired, it doesn’t come off as generic whatsoever. After a 40-second skit of Robert Ontenient sending a message to a lover, things then transition into the next song “TOKYO” where the group vents about internal conflict along with finding yourself over a jazzy instrumental. However, the Trick Daddy inspired hook from Kevin is just meh to me. The track “JESUS” solely has these somber keys throughout & it sees Kevin Abstract rapping a verse directed towards his ex-lover for the first half, but then we get a beautifully sung outro from bearface. on the other half. The track “CHICK” pretty much tells the internet gangsters to relax & that they’re only gonna become more popular over an ominous yet galactic-sounding instrumental. The song “JUNKY” has a hardcore beat & the way that they vent about their individual problems was very passionate. Especially with the first verse, where Kevin Abstract fires back at all the people who criticize him for being bisexual. After a skit where Robert’s praying in Spanish, we are then treated to the next song “FIGHT”. Here, Ameer & Dom McLennon talking about being bigger than just a target & not letting their worlds be attempted over an instrumental with a creepy Middle Eastern vibe to it. Funny enough, Kiko Merley’s production on the next track “SWEET” sounds kinda reminiscent to Madlib’s Beat Konducta in India album & out of all the verses, the last one from JOBA really stood out to me. Mainly because of the way he continuously changes the pitch of his voice throughout the duration of it à la Kendrick Lamar. The song “GAMBA” sees the group singing about being happy with their lovers over a spacey instrumental that sounds just as beautiful & mood-enlightening. The penultimate track “SUNNY” talks about not wanting to see bad days along with smoking after talking to Ameer’s parole officer over a twangy guitar with a Southern tone to it. The closer “SUMMER” is pretty much bearface. singing about how his male crush should be his over some somber piano keys, but then comes in a guitar that sounds reminiscent to the psychedelic rock era from the 60’s & you can’t help but just slowly groove along to it. Not a lot of sequel albums live up to the hype of their predecessors, but this is one of those rare occasions where it actually does. It’s similar to the first one in a few ways (i.e. the letters of the song titles along with the Ameer solo cut & the bearface. closer) but it sounds so much different & it’s just as consistent, creative & passionate than before. This definitely makes me anticipate SATURATION III to drop by the end of the year, because they’re really continuing to be a breath of fresh air in today’s hip hop scene

Score: 4.5/5

BROCKHAMPTON – “SATURATION” review

BROCKHAMPTON is a San Marcos, Texas based hip hop collective & this is their breakout full-length debut. The tape opens up with the song “HEAT”, where we get 4 aggressive verses about things such as robbing your crib along with depression & the ominous instrumental from Romil Hemnani actually reminds me of Odd Future. The 2nd track “GOLD” is a braggadocious tune & Q3’s production on here sounds a lot more mellow than it did on the opener. The song “STAR” making tons of pop culture references including the A24 Films coming-of-age drama Moonlight over a menacing tuba from Jabari Manwa & out of all of them, my personal favorite was the one near the end of the first verse where Dom McLennon’s talking about the collective “going ’04 Pistons on ’em”. The track “BOYS” talks about feeling like southern hip hop’s answer to 1 Direction & the vocal effects that happen during the hook actually took me a minute to fully appreciate. Also while I presume that a lot of people will automatically dismiss Dom’s verse on here because it has auto-tune on it, the auto-tune on it, it actually doesn’t bother me at all. The song “2PAC” is a 1-minute Ameer Vaan solo track & he pretty much talks about his internal conflicts over a smooth piano from Kiko Merley that enhances the emotion of the track. The track “FAKE” talks about hitting them up on their phones over a spacey instrumental & while it was interesting to hear that the voices on all 3 verses are all high-pitched, I feel like Dom didn’t have to throw Auto-Tune on top of his. The song “BANK” sees Dom & Ameer respectively talking about not slippin’ anymore & reminiscing about selling weed until moving to California over an instrumental that starts off with a tropical vibe, but then transitions into a more murky beat during Ameer’s short verse. The track “TRIP” talks about being who you want, but all 3 verses are so heavily Auto-Tuned that it sounds too robotic for me. The song “SWIM” discusses love & I absolutely love how it starts off with just an acoustic guitar, but then they throw in some drums & a couple blaring synths. The verses are auto-tuned again but here, they’re not throwing an excessive amount on it like they did on the previously mentioned track. The track “BUMP” energetically goes in about ridin’ down to Mexico & drug dealing over a beat that mostly sounds dubstep-influenced, but briefly transitions into a sole guitar passage every single time the hook from the collective’s de facto leader Kevin Abstract hook comes around. The lyrical content on the song “CASH” is self-explanatory & Kevin’s extremely short verse sounds buried in the mix, but the next 3 verses sound way more passionately delivered & I like the guitar licks throughout the song. The song “MILK” talks about self-improvement & the instrumental has this really cool psychedelic vibe to it. The penultimate track “FACE” talks about how upset they are now that their significant others have left & the somber-tuned instrumental fits perfectly with the tone of the track. The closer “WASTE” is a 2 & a half minute bearface. solo track where he’s singing about losing his way albeit being alright over some killer electric guitars & his voice to me is reminiscent to Frank Ocean’s. This thing has gotten A LOT of hype since it dropped a few days ago & it actually does live up to it. The content is on point, both the passion & energy are there, it sounds more creative & well put together than their previous mixtape All-American Trash did, the auto-tune only gets to me at certain points, & it’ll all make make you anticipate seeing what they’re gonna do next

Score: 4.5/5