Brooke Candy

Biography

Brooke Dyan Candy (born July 20, 1989) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and tattoo artist. She lived in Agoura Hills, California and rose to prominence after starring in Grimes' music video for "Genesis" (2012). After its success, Candy's status in the underground scene climbed as she began to release her own music including the songs "Das Me" (2012), "Everybody Does" (2013), and "I Wanna Fuck Right Now" (2013). In 2014, she signed a recording contract with RCA Records and released her debut major label single, "Opulence", with an accompanying EP of the same name. Later, she joined Columbia Records's U.K. roster. Candy's debut album was originally intended for a 2015 release but experienced a series of delays. Candy went independent in 2017 after a slew of pop-driven singles in 2016, including "Happy Days", "Paper or Plastic" and the moderately-successful "Living Out Loud" (with Sia), and had no label representation. Throughout 2017 and 2018, she toured alongside Charli XCX and Lizzo, headlining her own tour, the Tie Me Up Tour. Candy released her first full-length album, Sexorcism, in October 2019. After a brief hiatus, she released her sophomore album Candyland in July 2024 and her third studio album Spiral in October 2024, both of which showcased a major pivot into experimental pop music with house and industrial-inspired sounds.

== Early life == Brooke Candy was born in Oxnard, California to Tom Candy, the former chief financial officer of Hustler, a pornographic magazine, and a pediatric nurse. She grew up in Agoura Hills, about 10 miles west of Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. 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. Brooke often spent time in the office of Larry Flynt, the CEO of Hustler during her childhood. At the age of 12, she became addicted to drugs. After graduating from high school in 2007, Brooke Candy moved to San Francisco with the intent of becoming a photographer. While in the Bay Area, she interacted with "creative”, mostly LGBT circles who introduced her to the idea of creative sexual expression. She eventually returned to Los Angeles after deciding to start a career in music. She lived out of her car for a while, working as a stripper at the Seventh Veil adult club in Hollywood. Her activities as an adult dancer 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 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[ing] the mannequins slutty." Later, she repaired her relationship with her parents after they began to realize she was a successful performer in music.

== 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 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 the songs, "Das Me", "Everybody Does", and "I Wanna Fuck Right Now" on YouTube. Each video had amassed more than a million views by early 2013. Candy's first major label recording was 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 were 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 Candy was contacted via Instagram about writing a song for Sia. Sia eventually ended up executive producing Candy's debut EP, helping her get a record contract and finding in Sia's words, "decent, nice, honest management, and (helping her) make... art (she) want(ed) 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 in Venice, Italy before releasing it on April 22, 2014, for digital download with its official music video directed by Steven Klein and styled by Formichetti. The video explores the theme of "freaks," a concept 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 leading to Klein directing "Opulence," the music video to the eponymous lead single from Candy's debut EP. It was released on May 6, 2014 and commended by critics. On May 16, 2015, Brooke Candy uploaded on Vevo, "A Study in Duality", a video exploring "the various archetypes of today's culture" featuring the instrumental of her song "Happy Days", which was produced by More Mega and released in 2016. The video was directed by Candy and Lil Internet, with Formichetti's fashion direction and Hayley Pisaturo's styling. In August 2015, 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 Madden NFL 16, a 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 in Nylon. On May 13, Candy released a song titled "Changes" promoting a 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 premiered via Hunger TV. On July 7, another single called "Paper or Plastic" was released and received mixed reviews. Responding to criticism regarding her change in musical style, Candy said, "whatever I have to do (to) 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 to be called Daddy Issues and executive produced by labelmate Sia, who was a songwriter on the record. Sia opined that she "was the only person who could really support (Candy) in becoming who (she is) on a grander stage or platform". By 2014, Sia had written at least two songs for the album; one was "Living Out Loud," a single on which Sia was featured and another Cher-inspired track. 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 dropped on February 3, 2017. The same day the song came out, RCA announced Daddy Issues would be released in spring 2017. Aside from music, Candy starred in a fashion film directed by Gracie Otto and Thomas Kerr called Candy Crush, released in January 2017.

=== 2018–2020: 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 Matrix and expressed relief at leaving the label. She confirmed she was working on an EP to be released during the summer of 2017. The EP would have 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. Candy premiered the music video for her single "Volcano" on July 7, 2017, co-written by Candy, producer Cory Enemy, Sia, and Jesse Saint John. Candy released "For Free" as a promotional single on March 14, 2018 only in Germany. It was featured on Germany's Next Topmodel "Hip-Hop Edition" episode, where Candy made an appearance and a music video was filmed during the show. A single called "War" followed. it was intended to be 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 a lyric video, directed by MLMA, a Korean artist. The single "My Sex" featuring Pussy Riot, MNDR, and Mykki Blanco was released on August 17, 2018, with an animated music video directed by Swedish artist Pastelae and made in collaboration with ManyVids. The song was co-written by Charli XCX and produced by MNDR and Wade, with additional production by Trapchat. Candy teamed with Pornhub and Candy directed an erotic film called I Love You, which was released on August 29, 2018. On November 7, 2018, Candy said releasing a first full-length album was still a possibility. According to her, "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... 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 on the same day. On December 25, 2018, she released a collection of unreleased tracks for free download including a demo of her 2017 single "Volcano" and collaborations with SOPHIE, Lakewet, Cory Enemy, and other artists. Next was an Asian promotional tour, a Takahiro Nishikawa-directed tour documentary, Tokyo Tour Diary, which premiered on 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 American rapper Ashnikko, who is based in London. Candy talked about it. "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 said the album was titled Sexorcism and the first promotional single was "Happy", which came out 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 dropped 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, the Sexorcism Tour. Additional music videos for the songs, "Freak Like Me", "Nymph", "Honey Pussy", and "Cum" were released throughout 2019 and 2020.