Brooke Candy
Brooke Dyan Candy is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and tattoo artist. Raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, she rose to prominence after starring in Grimes' music video for "Genesis". Following its success, Candy's status in the underground scene rose as she began to release her own music, including the songs "Das Me", "Everybody Does", and "I Wanna Fuck Right Now". In 2014, she signed a recording contract with RCA and released her debut major label single, "Opulence", with an accompanying EP of the same name. Later, she joined Columbia's UK roster.
Candy's debut album, Daddy Issues, was originally intended for a 2015 release but saw a series of delays. Following a slew of pop-driven singles in 2016, including "Happy Days", "Paper or Plastic" and the moderately-successful "Living Out Loud", Candy left the labels in 2017. Throughout 2017 and 2018, she toured alongside Charli XCX and Lizzo, also headlining her own tour, the Tie Me Up Tour. Candy released her first full-length album, Sexorcism, in October 2019.
Early life
Brooke Candy was born in Oxnard, California, to Tom Candy, the former chief financial officer of the pornographic magazine Hustler, and a pediatric nurse. She grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills. She is of Italian descent on her mother's side while her father's side is Orthodox Jewish. Her parents divorced when she was eight. Candy frequently spent time in the office of Larry Flynt, the chief executive officer of Hustler during her childhood. At the age of twelve, Candy became addicted to drugs.After graduating from high school in 2007, Candy moved to San Francisco, California with the intent of becoming a photographer. During this time, she interacted with "creative”, mostly LGBT circles that introduced her to the idea of creative sexual expression. She eventually returned to Los Angeles after deciding to start a career in music. Candy lived out of her car for a period, working as a stripper at the Seventh Veil adult club in Hollywood. Her activities as a stripper strained her relationship with her parents who disapproved of the job due to its sexual nature. While working as an intern for Rachel Zoe, Candy contacted Larry Flynt, seeking work as a photographer for Hustler, though was instead employed as a mannequin stylist for Hustler store fronts, a job she described as "dress the mannequins slutty." Candy later repaired her relationship with her parents after they began to view her as a successful musician.
Career
2011–2013: Underground beginnings
While working as a mannequin stylist for Hustler store fronts, Candy was approached at a party by producer Khris Lorenz, who was drawn to her outlandish fashion style and invited her to the studio to create a song together. Already having had amateur experience with publishing song concepts and covers of popular rap songs on her Tumblr blog, Candy and close friend Jesse Saint John worked with Lorenz on Candy's debut single "Das Me", which eventually received an official release on October 16, 2012.In August 2012, Candy co-starred in the music video for "Genesis" by Canadian musician Grimes. The two met at a party after Candy's fashion caught Grimes' attention. During 2012 and 2013, Candy independently released her first three music videos for her songs; "Das Me", "Everybody Does", and "I Wanna Fuck Right Now" on YouTube. The videos had each amassed more than a million views by early 2013. Candy's first major label recording took place when she appeared on the track "Cloud Aura" on Charli XCX's debut album True Romance. The two were introduced by Azealia Banks when Candy hosted Banks' Mermaid Ball in Los Angeles. Candy recorded several club-rap songs during her early years in the music industry, eight of which accumulated on her debut mixtape,The Mixtape, self-released on June 25, 2013.
2014–2017: Breakthrough, ''Opulence'', and major-label releases
In late 2013, Candy caught singer and songwriter Sia's attention, and was contacted via Instagram with the purpose of writing one song for her. Sia eventually ended up executive producing Candy's debut EP, helping her to get a record contract and to find, in Sia's words: " decent, nice, honest management, and help make the art want to make from a place of positive mental health and love".Candy eventually signed with RCA Records in February 2014. "Opulence", co-written with Sia and produced by Diplo, was her first single with the label. Candy performed it on April 3, 2014, at Nicola Formichetti's debut Diesel fashion show on Venice before releasing it on April 22, 2014, for digital download along with its official music video directed by Steven Klein and styled by Formichetti. The video explores the theme of "freaks," a concept that was conceived by Candy and Formichetti at a drag bar in Tokyo. It features transgender women, drag queens, and gay men who are friends with Candy. "We're all freaks and outcasts, and this was meant to empower them," Candy said. Formichetti, Candy and Klein worked on a V Magazine shoot that led to Steven Klein directing "Opulence," the music video to the eponymous lead single from Candy's debut EP. It was released on May 6, 2014 to praise from critics.
On May 16, 2015, Brooke Candy uploaded on Vevo, a video called "A Study in Duality", where she "explores the various archetypes of today's culture". It featured the instrumental of her song "Happy Days", which was produced by More Mega and released the following year. The video itself was directed by Candy and Lil Internet, under Formichetti's fashion direction and Hayley Pisaturo's styling. In August 2015, Brooke Candy partnered with MAC Cosmetics on a line of makeup products. She released a single called "Rubber Band Stacks" on August 13 with a music video, directed by Cody Critcheloe and styled by Formichetti on August 17. The song is featured on the Madden NFL 16 video game.
Candy released "Happy Days" on January 29 to positive reviews from critics. On February 4, 2016, its video, also styled by Formichetti and directed by Renata Raksha, premiered on Nylon. On May 13, Candy released a song titled "Changes" to promote her second makeup line with MAC. On June 2 a new track called "Nasty" along its music video, directed by Rankin and co-styled by Candy herself premiered via Hunger TV. On July 7, another single called "Paper or Plastic" was released to a mixed reception When responding to criticism regarding her change in musical style, Candy stated: "hatever I have to do garner a larger, broader audience to spread my message on a larger scale, I stand for women, I stand for freedom. For love and self-preservation." The music video for the song, directed by Darren Craig, premiered a week later.
Candy's debut album was set to be called Daddy Issues, being executively produced by then label-mate Sia, who was also a songwriter on the record. Sia opined that " was the only person who could really support in becoming who on a grander stage or platform". In 2014, Sia had written at least two songs for the album, one being the then-upcoming single "Living Out Loud" which she featured on, and another Cher-inspired record. Other collaborators included Greg Kurstin, Jack Antonoff and Matthew Koma. Candy released a KDA remix of the previously unreleased song on December 16, 2016. The original and proper single version of the song was released on February 3, 2017. The same day of the song's release, RCA announced Daddy Issues would be published in spring 2017. Outside of her music, Candy starred in the fashion film directed by Gracie Otto and Thomas Kerr called Candy Crush, released in January 2017.
2017–2021: Independent career and ''Sexorcism''
In 2017, the release for Daddy Issues was canceled after Candy left RCA. Candy spoke to Bullett magazine about her experience with RCA Records, comparing it to the film The Matrix and expressed relief at leaving the label. She also confirmed she was working on an EP set to be released during summer of 2017. The EP would consist of all original music as Sony owned the songs Candy previously created. During June 2017, she toured as a supporting act for Lizzo and performed at LA Pride. She premiered the music video for her single "Volcano" on July 7, 2017, co-written by Candy herself, producer Cory Enemy, Sia, and Jesse Saint John.Candy released "For Free" as a Germany-only promotional single on March 14, 2018. It was featured on the Germany's Next Topmodel "Hip-Hop Edition" episode, where Candy made an appearance and a music video filming took place. This was followed by a single called "War", intended as the lead single for Candy's punk rock-inspired second EP titled Who Cares? before it was scrapped due to Candy focusing on new material. The single was written by Candy with Jesse Saint John, MNDR, Peter Wade, Will Ivy and Dave Sharma and released on May 18, 2018, alongside its lyric video, directed by Korean artist MLMA. The follow-up single "My Sex" featuring Pussy Riot, MNDR and Mykki Blanco was released on August 17, 2018, along its animated music video, directed by Swedish artist Pastelae and made in collaboration with ManyVids. The song was co-written by Charli XCX and also produced by MNDR and Wade, with additional production by Trapchat. She also teamed up with Pornhub directing an erotic film called I Love You, which was released on August 29, 2018.
On November 7, 2018, Candy stated that releasing a first full-length album was still a possibility. "Because of my experience with Sony, I must have made like 60 songs and they just never let me put any of them out. I had a full album ready to go and that kind of burnt me a little bit and put a bad taste in my mouth. I questioned my music and my art for a while and just stopped making it completely," Candy explained. "I'll release the next couple of songs but I'm planning an album and it's in the works. I don't want to jump ahead and say things because if things don't happen like, godammit!" On November 16, a new single called "Nuts" featuring American songwriter and rapper Lil Aaron was released. The song was written along frequent collaborator Jesse Saint John and Sarah Hudson. On December 12, 2018, she released a joint single along production duo Ojivolta called "Oomph". The music video, directed by Candy herself, debuted the same day. On December 25, 2018, she released a collection of unreleased tracks for free download which included a demo of Candy's 2017 single "Volcano" as well as collaborations with SOPHIE, Lakewet, and Cory Enemy among others. Following a promotional tour in Asia, a Takahiro Nishikawa-directed tour documentary, Tokyo Tour Diary, was premiered via Noisey on January 4, 2019.
On January 10, 2019, Candy confirmed that she had finished her debut album. It was recorded in London with English producer Oscar Scheller along with London-based American rapper Ashnikko. Candy spoke on her time alongside the pair: "Ashnikko is basically a savant! We agreed she would help with an EP if I helped with a music video, but we had three tracks done in a day… within four days we had twelve strong, cohesive songs!" On February 28, Candy confirmed the album was titled Sexorcism and that the first promotional single was called "Happy", which was released on March 29, 2019 along its official music video directed by Rankin. Sexorcism was slated for a tentative September 2019 release via Sega Bodega's imprint NUXXE. The other singles and their music videos, "XXXTC" featuring Charli XCX and Maliibu Miitch, "Drip" featuring Erika Jayne, and "FMU" featuring Rico Nasty were released on July 2, 2019, September 10, 2019, and October 21, 2019. Sexorcism was released on October 25, 2019 and was promoted through a concert tour titled, Sexorcism Tour. Additional music videos for the songs, "Freak Like Me", "Nymph", "Honey Pussy", and "Cum" were released throughout 2019 and 2020.