No, Brockhampton’s ‘I Been Born Again’ Is Not A Religious Conversion Anthem

If a ’90s boy band had dropped a new single bearing the title “I Been Born Again” 20 years ago, we would’ve instinctively braced ourselves for some un-ironic urban-crossover Christian evangelism, with a video of awkwardly choreographed hat-to-the-back dance moves to match. Thank God it’s a new millennium.

The first new music from Brockhampton since the group’s 2018 album Iridescence debuted atop the Billboard 200 is also a preview of the follow-up album, Ginger, slated to drop later this month. And it’s as weird as they ever were, which is the only way to be in the year of our Lord and Savior, 2019.

Directed by collaborator and friend-of-the-band Spencer Ford, the accompanying visual is a dizzying, black-and-white clip of all-American boys baptizing themselves in the spirit. It’s a different kinda gospel, indeed: “Dancin’ like a bad b**** / Love on top my mattress / Hope the good Lord catch this,” Kevin Abstract raps. (This loosie is also the follow-up to his stellar solo outing, Arizona Baby, one of the most revealing and genre-nonconforming rap releases this year.) “I Been Born Again” was also recorded, in part, at Rick Rubin’s Shangri La studios, according to an Instagram post from group member Romil Hemnani.

No release date has been announced for the album, but the boy band’s Ginger merch page includes a digital clock ticking down the time till shop closes — which, apparently, is only days away.

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