Gucci Flew Him to Berlin and Put Him in Gucci Clothes. He Makes Industrial Techno in Queens.

Gucci does not usually book industrial techno producers to headline its own parties. But that is exactly what happened to BrokinPaper, the Queens-born producer whose brooding, EBM-inflected sound just landed him inside the world of luxury fashion, twice in two weeks.

What did Gucci actually do?

This was not a shoutout or a tagged Instagram story. Gucci flew BrokinPaper (real name Harrison Lee) to Berlin in May 2026 to DJ the afterparty of its Cruise 2027 show, staged just after creative director Demna unveiled the collection. The brand had a full Gucci outfit waiting for him in his hotel room. During the set, his face was projected onto the city's digital billboards. Two weeks later, Gucci called again, this time booking him for a techno-informed set at a second event in Times Square, blocks from where he grew up.

"Being born and raised in New York City, it was just so crazy," Lee told Billboard. "I've been here my entire life, and then this was happening."

That Berlin booking, he said, was the real turning point: "It was a lot of visibility and also helped align BrokinPaper with high fashion, because shortly after that Gucci reached out with their opportunities." Timbaland has separately voiced public support for his music, a co-sign from an entirely different lane of the industry that has followed him into dance press coverage this year.

What is "Function Over Form" actually made of?

Released September 9, 2026 on Bandcamp and streaming platforms, "Function Over Form" is BrokinPaper's third studio album and his first built explicitly to survive a DJ set, not just a stream. The seven tracks include "Damage," the first BrokinPaper cut to land on official Spotify and YouTube Music editorial playlists, plus "Malice," "SUBVERSIVE," "EXHAUST," "Berlin," a "Desolation" featuring Limbo Slice, and a remix of his earlier single "Antidote" made with Belarusian producer Jenasi.

"It used to be that I would plan DJ sets and it would honestly be stressful for me," Lee said of his older material, which he found didn't translate well to the booth. "Function Over Form" was built to fix that: tracks engineered from the start to fold into a live set rather than fight it. Working with Jenasi, he said, confirmed the direction he wants to keep pushing: "harder and darker."

Why is Mixmag Asia grouping him with three Asian producers?

Mixmag Asia's September 2026 emerging-artists feature placed BrokinPaper alongside Moni-Moni, the Cebu-based DJ and founder of the Cradio Radio platform; Sanjonas, the Yogyakarta producer behind an October 15 deconstructed-club LP, "Ngelmu Tirakat," on RAMPAK G; and Siiry, the Hyderabad artist fusing Indian classical music with electronic production. The four have little sonically in common beyond being singled out as the scene's next wave, a reminder that the editorial radar for underground electronic music right now spans Queens warehouses and Yogyakarta collectives with equal weight.

"I realized that if I'm not enjoying it, then why would I expect them to enjoy it?"

A companion record, "Form Over Function," is already planned as a melodic counterpart to this album's harder edges.