GINGER by BROCKHAMPTON

GINGER is the fifth studio album by American hip-hop collective BROCKHAMPTON. It was released on August 23, 2019, through the band's label Question Everything and RCA. It features Slowthai, Deb Never, and the band's members. On April 21, 2019, Kevin Abstract tweeted that he started the making of a new BROCKHAMPTON album. In a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, Kevin revealed that he could not finish his solo album, ARIZONA BABY, due to a lack of creativity and needed to work on something else, which marked the beginning of GINGER. In the same interview, producer Jabari Manwa said that he and fellow members Romil Hemnani and Kiko Merley made around 100 songs during the making of GINGER. In an interview with GQ in June, Kevin Abstract compared the sound of the album to Outkast's "Hey Ya!", and said the group's approach was taking lyrics about topics like anxiety and depression "and putting it on a song that a bunch of people could dance to". On June 20, thirty seconds of a new song from the album titled "SUGAR" was found on the app TikTok. Some fans also found that the song could be played in digital jukeboxes in some local bars. The full song was leaked online the next day. On a GQ episode of "ACTUALLY ME", the band stated that GINGER was their personal favorite out of their projects. On July 1, 2019, BROCKHAMPTON revealed the album title in a video posted to their social media. The video consisted of a shot of member Matt Champion tying his shoelaces while a snippet of "LOVE ME FOR LIFE" played in the background. The group performed "BOY BYE" in Spain on their summer festival tour. The group announced that the album would be released in August 2019 in a clip of flashing images of the vocalists, with a snippet of "ST. PERCY", posted to social media on July 18. GINGER merchandise was available on their website starting on July 23. The band released the first single, "I BEEN BORN AGAIN", a song featuring all vocalists, on July 31, 2019. The music video is black-and-white with a fisheye lens rolling on the ground and the members performing. The band went on Beats 1 with Zane Lowe on August 1 to talk about GINGER and the development of the group, where it was announced that the album would contain 12 tracks. On Kevin Abstract's Instagram Live, various snippets were shown days before the release of GINGER. The second single, "IF YOU PRAY RIGHT", was released on August 7, 2019, and has two parts. The music video featured the members playing instruments in space suits on a field and a snippet from another track, titled "HOOD STILL LOVE ME". "BOY BYE" was added to the International Standard Recording Code database on August 6, 2019 and was released as a single on August 14, 2019. It's one of the rare occasions in BROCKHAMPTON where all current producers and vocalists are on a song together. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest on August 12, the date for Ginger's release was revealed to be August 23, 2019. The fourth single, "NO HALO", was released on August 21, 2019, and features vocals from Deb Never and Ryan Beatty. The band held their own "Ginger Radio" on Beats 1 from August 22 to 24. On the release date of GINGER, they had a free live show called "Friday Therapy" at Fonda Theatre where they performed the full album. Guest artists that came and performed included JPEGMAFIA, Dominic Fike, 100 Gecs. Videos for "HEAVEN BELONGS TO YOU" and "DEARLY DEPARTED" were released on August 26 and 29, respectively. The former was released in tandem with the announcement of their Heaven Belongs to You Tour with special guest slowthai, who also appears in the video. On August 28 and 30, they had interviews for Genius and Power 106 LA. GINGER debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 dated September 7, 2019, with 77,000 album-equivalent units (including 55,000 pure album sales). GINGER fell to No. 61 in the next week's Billboard 200 chart and was not in the Billboard 200 chart dating to October 5, 2019. The fifth single "SUGAR" peaked at No. 66 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated March 21, 2020 – 7 months after the song's release. It was the first song by BROCKHAMPTON to appear on the chart, and became the group's first platinum record on April 29, 2020. ℗ 2019 Question Everything, Inc. under exclusive license to RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.