Product Code Database
Brokencyde (stylized as brokeNCYDE) is an American hip hop group from Albuquerque, New Mexico, founded in 2006. The group's lineup consists of Michael "Mikl" Shea and Julian "Phat J" McLellan, and musically are one of the founding groups in the crunkcore genre, which (in general description) is crunk music with screamed vocals.
Brokencyde toured with bands such as Breathe Carolina, The Morning Of, Karate High School, and Drop Dead, Gorgeous. In July 2008, Brokencyde appeared on MTV's Total Request Live, where they performed the single "FreaXXX" on the segment "Under the Radar". They signed with Suburban Noize Records later that summer, and released the BC13 EP on November 11, 2008 during a promotion with the retail chain Hot Topic.
In 2008, the group performed dates on the Millionaires-headlined "Get F$cked Up" tour, and appeared twice on "Fearless Music TV", performing "Sex Toyz" and "FreaXXX" in December 2008.[1]
The group's first full-length release, I'm Not a Fan, But the Kids Like It!, debuted at #86 on the Billboard 200 in July 2009., Billboard.com Brokencyde was featured on the US Warped Tour 2009, but left the tour in August to play featured appearances in Europe.
Later Brokencyde played dates on "The Original Gangstour" tour with Eyes Set to Kill, And Then There Were None, and Drop Dead, Gorgeous. They played dates on the "Saints and Sinners Tour 2009" with Senses Fail, Hollywood Undead, and Haste The Day.[2]
In April 2011, the members of Brokencyde assaulted Punchline drummer Cory Muro at Smiling Moose in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This resulted in Muro needing three staples in his head and his friend Johnny Grushecky having a broken nose.
The group released their third studio album Guilty Pleasure on November 8, 2011. An updated version was later released on March 13, 2012 titled Guilty Pleasurez which the band is supporting with a European "Guilty Pleasurez" tour.
In 2012, Brokencyde played dates on the "Fight to Unite Tour" alongside other acts including Blood on the Dance Floor, Deuce (formerly of Hollywood Undead), Polkadot Cadaver, William Control and The Bunny the Bear. On October 29, 2012, Julian "Phat J" McClellan announced via his official YouTube page that he was amicably leaving Brokencyde to pursue a solo career.
In 2022, it was announced that Se7en had taken a leave from the group and that Phat J had returned to the lineup.
British comic book writer Warren Ellis considered Brokencyde's "FreaXXX" music video "a near-perfect snapshot of everything that's shit about this point in the culture". A writer for the Warsaw Business Journal attempted to describe their music: "Imagine an impassioned triceratops mating with a steam turbine, while off to the side Daft Punk and the Bee Gees beat each other to death with skillets and spatulas. Imagine the sound that would make. Just try. BrokeNCYDE is kind of like that, except it also makes you want to jab your thumbs into your eyeballs and gargle acid."
The NME stated in a review of I'm Not a Fan, But the Kids Like It!, that "even if I caught Prince Harry and Gary Glitter adorned in Nazi regalia defecating through my grandmother's letterbox I would still consider making them listen to this album too severe a punishment."
August Brown of the Los Angeles Times writes:
"This 'Albucrazy'-based band has done for MySpace emo what some think Soulja Boy did for hip-hop: turn their career into a kind of macro-performance art that exists so far beyond the tropes of irony and sincerity that to ask 'are they kidding?' is like trying to peel an onion to get to a perceived central core that, in the end, does not exist and renders all attempts to reassemble the pieces futile."
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, several music critics described Brokencyde as an antecedent to hyperpop artists like 100 gecs.
Touring members
Former members
Timeline
| 2009 | I'm Not a Fan, But the Kids Like It! | BreakSilence | June 16, 2009 |
| 2010 | Will Never Die | BreakSilence | November 9, 2010 |
| 2011 | Guilty Pleasure | BreakSilence | November 8, 2011 |
| 2016 | All Grown Up | Self-released | February 14, 2016 |
| 2018 | 0 to Brokencyde | Cleopatra, X-Ray | June 22, 2018 |
| 2008 | BC13 Mix | April 28, 2008 | |
| 2008 | BC13 | Suburban Noize | October 21, 2008 |
| 2022 | From The Mud | PushDrive | October 31, 2022 |
| 2023 | K$ EP (collab with BoyBandTroy) | June 2, 2023 | |
| 2024 | Polaroid Of My Heartbreak | PushDrive | May 10, 2024 |
| 2024 | While It Lasted | PushDrive | October 18, 2024 |
| 2007 | The Broken! | Self-released | July 7, 2007 |
| 2008 | Tha $c3n3 Mixtape | Self-released | 2008 |
| 2012 | The Best Of BC13 | BreakSilence | February 23, 2012 |
| 2012 | DJ Sku Presents: Brokencyde Vol. 1 | Self-released | February 23, 2012 |
|
|
