On Thursday September 27 PST, Brockhampton released their third music video “New Orleans” off their newest album, Iridescence. The music video follows the boys around a theater packed full of fans who crowd around the band while dancing. Members shown include Dom McLennon, Kevin Abstract, Joba, Bearface, Matt Champion, Romil Hemnani, and Merlyn Wood.
BROCKHAMPTON – NEW ORLEANShttps://t.co/PliM4HhOXT
— BROCKHAMPTON (@brckhmptn) September 28, 2018
Brockhampton filmed the video on September 27th when they premiered their theater exclusive documentary The Longest Summer in America, which highlights the band’s struggles of being signed with RCA and having to deal with the sexual misconduct allegations of former band member Ameer Vaan and the impact of kicking him out of the band. The documentary showing and video shoot took place in Sydney, Australia.
The combination of the videographer’s perspective with member Kevin Abstract dancing chaotically with equally chaotic fans moshing and even grabbing at him in the background perfectly captures how frantic, energetic, and invigorating a real Brockhampton mosh pit is. The stylistic approach to this video is also aesthetically on brand to the group’s other two videos from this album, with a lot of close up shots and unique camera work. The transitional elements and camera point of view was also amazingly executed and came to a finale shot of Merlyn diving into the crowd of fans.
Russell Boring, also know by his stage name, Joba, was another performance that stood out. The visuals of a long ascending stairwell lined with fans while Joba walks down the middle performing his verse is a very aesthetically pleasing one. While still remaining in the chaotic-ness of hundreds of fans dancing, Joba is able to truly convey his verse’s energy on this specific song and stand out with his mannerisms and almost high strung energy. Joba and the fans surrounding him convey this energy that captivates watchers.
Following the release of “New Orleans,” Abstract said on Twitter that after the documentary screening and Q&A portion of the evening, he asked the audience if they wanted to be in the new video.
we played our documentary last night at a movie theater in sydney, Australia for like 600 kids. once the doc was over we did a q&a which was felt really intimate and special. then i asked everyone if they wanted to be in our new video. NEW ORLEANS
— ian (@kevinabstract) September 28, 2018
The Brockhampton twitter account also showed a continuation of the posted video where it continues to “Thug Life” off the newest album.
— BROCKHAMPTON (@brckhmptn) September 28, 2018
The director of the music video was Kevin Abstract, the director of photography was Ashlan Grey, and the video was edited by Henock Sileshi.