The song was released for digital download as a single on April 6, 2016. It is the first single from DRAM's debut studio album, Big Baby DRAM, which was released in October 2016. A limited editionpicture disc 7" vinyl version of the song was released on November 25, as part of Record Store Day's Black Friday sale. In an interview with Genius, DRAM spoke on the creation process behind the song:
"I was first introduced to Yachty through Rick Rubin. I was in Shangri La and Rick asked me if he could bring Yachty through. We linked and played each other music. A good month later, one of my main camera guys was following Yachty around during his SXSW run and I came about during the conversation. We exchanged numbers and I saw he was in LA, so I called him and he answered on the first fucking ring. He came to the studio and we had the loop of this going. We weren’t sure on what was going to make it carry over. At first, it was the piano with the drum loop, we had the flute and when that went in, everyone started vibing. Yachty started on his verse and I didn’t have any bars at first so I told him to go in. When he left, I didn’t even have my verse, I just had the bridge."
Critical reception
James Grebey of Spin said "the pair’s affable, clever rapping is a delight over the beat, which switched from a grizzled boom to some flighty, Kirby’s Dreamland-esque twinkling." Pitchfork's Marcus J. Moore opined, "D.R.A.M. comes through with his usually energetic rhymes, proclaiming his territory while giving the track even more punch." The same magazine listed "Broccoli" on their ranking of the 100 best songs of 2016 at number 33. The track was named the 47th best song of the year on Rolling Stones "50 Best Songs of 2016" list. Billboard ranked "Broccoli" at number three on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list. In the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Broccoli" was ranked at number 26.
The song's accompanying music video premiered on July 22, 2016 on DRAM's YouTube account. The video makes extensive use of wiggle stereoscopy. As of March 2020, the music video has 390 million views on YouTube.
"Broccoli" debuted at number 87 on BillboardHot 100 for the chart dated July 2, 2016. It rose to number 65 on the Hot 100 the following week and has peaked at number 5, making it DRAM and Lil Yachty's first top 5 entry. As of January 2017, the song has sold 1,104,000 copies in the United States. The song was certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on April 6, 2017, for combined sales and streaming-equivalent points of five million units in the United States.
