BROCKHAMPTON’s latest single in the ‘Technical Difficulties Radio’ series showcases the eclectic rap group’s appeal, says our Deputy Editor…
Back in March, Childish Gambino gave us his album 3.15.20 in a pretty odd way by streaming the whole thing online out of the blue, a week before its official release on Spotify. Rap collective (or boyband?) BROCKHAMPTON seems to be trying to outdo Gambino with a similarly bizarre approach to releasing music: dropping new singles on YouTube, only to remove them within days. At the time of writing, new song M.O.B. is still online, so perhaps it’s worth opening it in another tab before it vanishes!
With its black and orange cover art and introductory lo-fi soul sample, the first impression M.O.B. gives is reminiscent of another piece of music known for taking advantage of the digital landscape, Kanye West’s album The Life Of Pablo. And like much of the content on TLOP, this song – whose name supposedly stands for Money Over B*tches – comes with some impressive highs and frustrating lows.
Kevin Abstract leads the single with its opening verse. In terms of flow and delivery, it’s solid stuff, up to the standard we’ve come to expect from excellent works like the Saturation trilogy and 2019’s GINGER. Lyrically, however, these bars fall apart. Most of the lines are passable, but a few depicting sex on the beach fall short of successfully imitating the steamy scenes you’d find on Frank Ocean’s Blonde and end up being more than a little embarrassing to listen to.
The song gets better as it progresses, luckily. Matt Champion’s hook (“We bring the mob out”) is timed perfectly with a glorious beat drop and carries the same energy that made I BEEN BORN AGAIN one of the band’s strongest tracks last year. The mixing here is golden with the looped soul vocals, drums and Champion being carefully layered against each other to great effect.
The member-to-member relay continues with a baton pass to Dom McLennon and then to Ciaran “Bearface” McDonald, who both keep the song fresh by bringing different vocal textures and rapping styles to the table – the key to the group’s enduring charm. It ends with a return to the hook, this time also featuring Abstract alongside Champion to make sure no two sections of this song feel the same.
For the outro, the soul sample is freed from its loop and allowed to run its course, concluding the song in a relaxing, stripped-back fashion. We’re not left with any impact by way of concept or message, but the writing structure does its bit to tell some semblance of a story and make for a satisfying listen nonetheless.
Shaky lyrical content aside, there are some gimmicky flourishes this song could do without. The children cheering at the start – while thankfully not repeated a dozen times throughout like in Jay Electronica’s duff debut earlier this year – is a blemish on the soulful opening. Additionally, the slightly irritating “Pardon the, uhh, technical difficulties” clip found on the group’s other recent singles is present here, but there’s the possibility that this is just being used as a watermark ahead of a neater Spotify release.
M.O.B. is a strong offering from BROCKHAMPTON that shows off some of their sharpest talents. Unfortunately, there are a couple of blunt moments that leave room for improvement if this song finds its way onto an album or EP, but even in its current state it makes for a great addition to the lockdown playlist.
Rating: 8/10
By Jamie Morris
Feature Image Credit: Question Everything, Inc