GINGER Tracklist
GINGER is BROCKHAMPTON’s fifth studio album and was released on August 23rd, 2019. The title of the record was initially teased through merch that members of BROCKHAMPTON were seen wearing in early 2019. The album features many of the usual in-house posse cuts that have been featured on their past record, but vocal performances from guest artists such as slowthai, Deb Never, and Ryan Beatty as well.
On July 1st, 2019 a 49 second teaser video of “LOVE ME FOR LIFE” was released on BROCKHAMPTON’s Instagram and Twitter, ending with the text “GINGER” printed over white. Shortly later, Kevin Abstract confirmed in a comment “ALBUM THIS SUMMER.”
On July 18, 2019 BROCKHAMPTON uploaded another teaser officially announcing the album release to be in August of 2019.
On July 31st, 2019, the group released the first single off of the record, titled, “I BEEN BORN AGAIN,” along with an accompanying music video.
On August 7th, 2019, the second single of the record was released, titled, “IF YOU PRAY RIGHT,” and again came with an accompanying music video.
On August 14th, 2019, the third single of the record was released, titled, “BOY BYE,” and once again came with an accompanying music video. Additionally, the BROCKHAMPTON Twitter account posted the release date of the album accompanied by the cover art and track listing.
On August 21st, 2019, the group released the fourth single off of the record, titled, “NO HALO,” again with an accompanying music video.
According to a statement by Kevin Abstract in his Instagram stories, the album is inspired by Shia LaBeouf, the song “Shit I’m On” by DJ Muggs and Roc Marciano, as well as the album The Best of Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church, Louvale, GA by the Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church.
“GINGER” Q&A
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Translations
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What was the promotional rollout for the album?
Through social media, Kevin and other band members have repeated cryptic phrases. For example, on June 30th, 2019, all the band members changed their bios to:
TAKE THE ODDS, I’LL KEEP DREAMING
On June 1st, 2019, after releasing the snippet video for “LOVE ME FOR LIFE,” they changed their Twitter theme as well, which featured the phrase in the header image:
The group released four promotional singles during the album’s roll out, one every week prior to the record’s release. They also put on three Apple Music Beats1 shows during the week of the album’s release, titled GINGER Radio.
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How did they describe the working process for the album?
From an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1:
Kevin Abstract: It was around the time I was getting close to finish my solo album. I kind of got in a weird head space for like I couldn’t finish it and I wanted to start on a new creative project, so I asked the guys if they wanted to start the next BROCKHAMPTON thing. I think it was like March.
Jabari Manwa: Before we start even recording songs, me and Romil and Kiko were making beats way back in like March, even before we got together and recorded, although a lot of these beats did not make it onto the album. We were doing all that and after that we started hanging out Shia [LaBeouf], he came to the house, he just put us on so much game.
Kevin: Going back to Arizona Baby, I couldn’t the right video idea I was proud of for my song “Georgia” and I really hate asking people for things but I decided to hit Jaden and asked if he can introduce me to Shia. I’ve been such a big fan and then Jaden told him I wanted to talk to him. Shia text me the same and we’re all freaking out. He came over like maybe a week later or something.
Going back to what Jabari was saying, the original idea was let’s get the producers in the group to make as many beats as possible so when the entire group gets together, we can meet up and just like start recording to all these beats kind of like we did like back in the days on our early stuff.Jabari: I think one of the reasons why we did that too because our living situation has changed so we were trying to be able to come back and just be able to work.
Dom McLennon: I remember when Shia came to our house I think for the first time, immediately after our conversation ended, me and Jabari just went downstairs and I think we made like two or three tracks that night. That was like the first time that we like really really got into a flow of just you know being really ready to like start that next step and it was just it was a really really fun, exciting moment.
Kevin: We made over 100 songs since we started in March.
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What did the artists reveal about the creative process of the record?
On GINGER Radio, Kevin revealed that they made over 100 tracks for the record. Eventually, the band listened to all the tracks they made and started cutting tracks based on which ones the group liked in that moment.
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How did this album perform on the charts?
GINGER performed at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 charts for the week of August 31st, 2019. It moved 77,800 units (57,000 in pure sales).
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Is the album part of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES trilogy?
Although the BROCKHAMPTON’s last album iridescence claimed to be the first of three albums making up “THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, all marketing for GINGER (including the album cover/reverse) has lacked to mention the trilogy.
There has been no official confirmation from the group.
