BROCKHAMPTON: Social Advocacy and Diversity in Rap Music

Abstract

BROCKHAMPTON is a diverse, multiracial rap group that has recently garnered rapidly increasing popularity and influence in the rap industry. Because of this, I wanted to determine if the popularity of the group’s SATURATION  trilogy was affected by the content matter they addressed and how that intersected with the American color line in music marketing. With the research question, “To what extent does the race of a BROCKHAMPTON member and the advocacy they utilize, whether it be pro-social or anti-social advocacy examined through the usage of corresponding social themes, influence the popularity of a given song from BROCKHAMPTON’s SATURATION trilogy?”, this study found that it was influenced to a minor extent, with no strong correlation found between race and social themes discussed, or between popularity and the dominant thematic category of a song.