i was mature for my age, but i was still a child – grouptherapy.

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2023	i was mature for my age, but i was still a child	grouptherapy.	★★★½	71	Hip-Hop	Alternative Hip-Hop

It’s impossible to listen to grouptherapy. — a young, alternative hip-hop collective that uses internet-aged DIY production to blend rap, pop and R&B while discussing Gen Z themes — without thinking about BROCKHAMPTON and the impact they had on internet hip hop music in the mid 2010s. In a way, i was mature for my age, but i was still a child is a passing of the torch moment  one year after BROCKHAMPTON officially broke up to keep that youthful, creative style going. 

BROCKHAMPTON — which probably took that mantle from Odd Future before them — started as a pretty chaotic group of high schoolers, with fun music that jumped all over the place, in-your-face lyrics, an overwhelming amount of different voices and contributors with different backgrounds, and loud, scatterbrained production. They evolved overtime to more of a boy-band presentation, with smoother, more emotional beats and more mature vocal performances and  themes. It lost much of its youthful edge, but resulted in more thoughtful and artistic albums and songs as the group aged. 

Made up of former child actors who are now in their mid 20s, grouptherapy.’s music has similar DIY vibes, the same emotional highs and mood swings, and some of the in-your-face aggression of BROCKHAMPTON. But grouptherapy. starts their run almost where BROCKHAMPTON left it, with a smooth presentation and a more experienced approach to songwriting and production, creating a surprising and fun journey through different musical influences and genres. 

“American Psycho” is a pop rock inspired track with some distorted guitar and spoken-word passages. “smiles :)” has jazz drums and piano.  “how i’m feeling” and “thatsmycheck” are upbeat, summer pop rap songs that follow modern production trends that make it feel like it could be on the radio without being too generic. “Nasty “ reminds me of early 2000s tracks by The Neptunes or NERD. “HOT!” introduces breakbeat drum loops . “TrunkPoppers.com” is a serious sounding, reflective hip-hop track about violence that sounds like it could be from an early Chance The Rapper or Kendrick Lamar project. 

“club song :(“ is a lovely acoustic guitar-driven indie folk ballad and is followed by another softer moment, “Peak.” Probably my favorite song on the record, “Peak” features a bit of hyperpop production with pitched up vocal samples, airy and glittering synths, a danceable, pulsing rhythm and intimate R&B vocals. “FUNKFEST” also has hyperpop energy but with some punk guitar and bass lines and rapped verses. 

The performances by the three artists here — Jadagrace, TJOnline, and SWIM — are pretty impressive (especially Jadagraces’s singing). Just like the beats themselves, the trio is able to morph vocal styles not only song to song, but sometimes verse to verse. They show off their skills as rappers by mixing and matching different flows and aggressions, and move back and forth from powerful lead vocals to effective background harmonies and sections of group singing.

The lyrics throughout the album aren’t anything groundbreakingly poetic, but touch on common modern themes like mental health struggles, living up to lofty expectations, race and gender identity, as well as age-appropriate references to partying, having a good time and frustrations found in their world. There are some serious moments here, but for the most part, it sounds like the group is having fun, goofing off and just going for it.  

As is the case with a lot of the hyperactive, glitchy, DIY records that come out today, it’s hard to decide if what grouptherapy.’s doing is in fact the cooled things in hip-hop, or if it actually feels artificial, lame and kind of annoying. “American Psycho” and “Help 2” in particular I don’t think work as well as they should and are kind of cringy. But there’s a fine line between great and terrible when it comes to art sometimes, and i was mature for my age, but i was still a child much more often than not falls on the “great” category.