Bruno Mars: 24K Magic
Details
Genre: Funk, R&BPros:
The funk is where it's at. More bad ass and slightly more original in textureCons:
Although it uses the lyrical flow of "Uptown Funk" as a template, the lyrics here are empty of calories and quite lackluster“Uptown Funk” singer takes a turn into Inglewood funk with pimps ‘n gold homage
“Uptown Funk” singer takes a left turn into Inglewood funk with pimps ‘n gold homage
Most people still think that “Uptown Funk” was a Bruno Mars track. It was actually Mark Ronson’s; Bruno was just a featured artist on it. But hey — the cool “Locked Put of Heaven” singer-songwriter deserves his own flash of funk to parade around. And so here comes “24K Magic,” a big synth-fueled funk monster ball flirting with hip-hop brashness. The opening lines on the verses even has Mars spitting out lyrics like an old-school emcee from the Bronx (“Players only, come on/Put your pinky rings up to the moon/Girls, what y’all trying to do?”). It sounds like something that would easily slide into the pages of Netflix’s The Get Down, except that its strange intro is obnoxiously covered with toxic Autotune — slightly hinting at Roger Troutman’s vocoder legacy. No, it doesn’t sound like disco as some news outlets have improperly coined it. It’s just straight up funk dipped in some real cheesier-than-Cheetos Will Smith-esque lyrics. Unlike “Uptown Funk,” the music on this track doesn’t rip off recognizable riffs, just borrows influences of The System and the Gap Band. But there’s no telling if some hungry soul isn’t going to try to snatch some fast cash in court off of this one. That’s because it’s probably going to linger on our ears for a minute. In closing, “24K Magic” is not as poppy or as memorable as “Uptown Funk,” but the song and its pimpin’ homage music video will do for now.
