The core members of AG Club — Baby Boy, Jody Fontaine and Mick Antony — grew up in the East Bay Area of San Francisco with little to do aside from listening to music, something they credit for the collective hyperfocus they have today. Jahan (Baby Boy, AG Club’s lead vocalist and in-house graphic designer) and Manny (their go-to director aka 777 Media) met in high school Biology class. Jody (writer and rapper) meanwhile, stumbled upon Jahan’s music on Twitter. All parties assembled for a fateful session before inviting Mick Anthony (singer and rapper), who appeared on their radar two years later, along for the ride.
Together, AG Club make hip-hop but not as you know it. “We make shit that we like to listen to,” they explain, “…and we listen to a lot of shit, so we make EVERYTHING.” And you can tell. Their lyrics, production, everything they do seems to pay homage to their favourite artists, video games and movies, yet ends up sounding wholly original. There are hints of A$AP Rocky’s 2011 mixtape Live. Love. ASAP, combined with the energy of Brockhampton, presented through a lens of their own.
Back in April they released their debut EP, Halfway Off The Porch, whose lead single “Memphis” got picked up by Spotify playlists and racked up an incredibly impressive 5 million streams. Taking that virality and running with it, AG Club went and released a remix of the track, this time with features from NLE Choppa and A$AP Ferg. Chaos ensued.
The product of said chaos, “Columbia” — a track which blasts its way into existence with a horn, bass rumble and their own kind of battlecry — was released just last week. “That song was made right after we had a call with the record label [of the same name],” the group, currently unsigned, told i-D. “It was at the beginning of all this crazy shit, so we made a song about how we were feeling. A lot of label shit was happening and we were consumed by all those feelings of being discovered.”
When it came to the accompanying music video, Manny and the others had big plans: “We had this idea for this alien video that we presented to our management team but they told us that it was way too expensive… so, we went out and made a cheaper alien video!” With road trips, UFOs, Men In Black references, news reports and an actual alien, we see little room for improvement here.
As they gear up to release their debut album, FYE (FUCK YOUR EXPECTATIONS), familiarise yourself with AG Club via these 10 quite interesting facts…
1. They remember their first impressions of each other clearly
“We definitely had crushes on each other. But on the real we saw what one another was doing and we all saw an opportunity to make cool music and honestly grow.”
2. AG Club has an open invite… we think
“It’s the Avant Garde Club. Everyone is in the club, unless you're not. AND YOU WILL KNOW IF YOU'RE NOT.”
3. Rumour has it they sampled the Roblox ‘oof’ sound on “Columbia”
“No comment.”
4. They’ve never seen an alien, but they’ve definitely had supernatural experiences
“No aliens, but HELLA ghosts.”
5. Their incredible music videos are made by club members 777 and Cajh
“We’ve been doing music videos for rappers in our area since high school, but took it to the next level on this AG shit. We were super passionate about it and took a college class for film where our final project was written, directed and shot all by ourselves. The professor didn't give us any credit… partly because we forgot to put our name on it, but also cause he didn't believe we did it on our own.”
6. They know exactly what movie their music would soundtrack well
“Probably like, The Emoji Movie or some goofy shit.”
7. Aside from AG Club, they’ve been members of other clubs in their time
“Baby Boy was president of the Christian Club for a minute. He also started a fashion club. Mick Anthony started the ukulele club.”
8. The fictional crew they most identify with is a Cartoon Network-based global organisation of children that battle adult tyranny and defend kids worldwide
“Code Name: Kids Next Door.”
9. In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, they’re a bunch of brilliant nerds
“90% of the group are ridiculously addicted to Minecraft.”
10. They plan to, um, take over the world
“We want to take over every form of media from music to TV, film and fashion. We want to be the group that came in and changed everything forever. We also want an AG Club Meal at McDonald's… it'll be vegan and FIRE.”