After departing from the controversial rap group, the post-boy band MC, Merlyn Wood, stands out when one looks at the Brockhampton roster of vocal performers. During his days performing alongside the boy band for the last seven years, Merlyn's reputation was built on his dynamic energy and loud but eccentric verses, with the occasional bar about how much he hated college.
After Brockhampton's official break up in April, the rapper, and singer returns with "Green Light", his first official solo single in five years.
During their run, a popular talking point amongst the BH fan base was always "who do you want to see go solo?". A popular response to this among Reddit discussions and chatrooms was "Merlyn." Out of the entire crew, Merlyn brought this fanatic energy to every verse, and despite not having a more prominent presence on most of Brockhampton's discography in comparison to Kevin Abstract or Dom McLennon, he always provided a stand out line on almost every song he was featured on.
He knew his strengths too, with songs like "BOY BYE," and "SWEET," demonstrating the potential to carry the song by himself.
"Green Light," proves otherwise. An aggressive introduction to a new era that recognizes the rapper's strengths but fails to execute them in any form of entertaining and engaging way.
Attempting to stick to his role in the Brockhampton formula, Woods keeps it short, but not sweet. The start of the song is awkward, Woods's wordplay is good, but his delivery feels forced. It's as if he took what would be a verse on a BH song and extended it past its lifeline.
The production from producer CONNIE doesn't hit where it needs to, and Woods has no chemistry with the instrumental, resulting in the performance coming off as constrained.
"Green Light," sees the ex-boy band member in a new light, attempting to recreate a synergistic magic through a solo performance. Despite the song being lackluster as a whole, it does present the same strengths Merlyn is known for, which I can only hope to see more of in the coming singles.
