This is still timely, right? Right?
[Video]
[7.14]
Eleanor Graham: I wonder how all other musicians feel knowing they’ll never write a lyric with the visceral impact of “your dad is forty four.”
[9]
Iain Mew: Grime’s personality and energetic use of recognisable tropes make it easy to parody; its humour and self-awareness makes it harder to do it better than it already does itself. Big Shaq’s gonzo onomatopoeia succeeds, taking something familiar and stretching it past breaking point and beyond. The rest of it can’t do the same — a silly hook aggressively denying the need to take a coat off is but a small step from “fam, don’t @ me.” It’s part compliment to how right “Man’s Not Hot” sounds that the bunch of fumbled jokes around that leave the impression less of a parody and more of someone not quite carrying through on the ideas for a straightforward great.
[6]
Hannah Jocelyn: I kind of love the meme that this begat — like the Crash Bandicoot meme I kept running into earlier this year, it’s mostly harmless, goofy fun. Something’s different about “Man’s Not Hot,” though. Taken on its own terms, it’s a well-constructed piece of humor with its own internal logic and payoffs; the way that “when the ting went quack quack quack” teases the ad-lib barrage and the “quick maths” joke is expanded upon with “your daddy’s forty-four” in the second verse makes repeated listens somehow rewarding. The actual recording sucks the life out of the performance — Shaq is too aggressive for the humor to come across the same way, and it runs out of steam after the first two minutes. Still, the “take off your jacket/I said babe, man’s not hot” line gets me every time, for how much it reminds me of the repetitions of “Black,” and for how it suddenly gives the otherwise nonsense title context.
[7]
Kat Stevens: A song I can relate to! I have been that person in the club who refuses to take their coat off, mainly because the patriarchy demands women’s jeans cannot have front pockets big enough to hold a phone, and leaving the phone poking out of your back pocket is just asking for it be nabbed by a passing ruffian. My jacket, however, has zip pockets where a phone can be safely secured, and as Big Shaq implies, if you’ve forgotten to put on your BO-basher that day, then any damp armpit patches are hidden from view by said jacket. Win-win.
[8]
Micha Cavaseno: First off, “When the ting went quack, you man were ducking” is THE most British bar on Earth, and I love it almost as much as the more often (and deservedly) praised gun noise roll off. Secondly, the absurdity that Michael “Big Shaq” Dappah’s infamous Charlie Sloth freestyle (itself a reaction to one of my favorite UK meme providers Roll Safe’s freestyle) managed to transcend and become a global phenomenon, piercing the Anglophobia in the US rap community that even Giggs and Skepta getting Drakk cosigns couldn’t blows my mind. Is this what it takes? Will Big Narstie or even the likes of Shadrack & the Mandem get an opportunity like this? And why in the world are “roadman” comedians ACCIDENTALLY making singles that show more personality and capability than grime MCs in 2017?
[6]
Alfred Soto: Although I prefer the onomatopoetic bits, the existence of “Man’s Not Hot” and that it’s pretty good means we should keep a sharper eye on memes, God help us.
[7]
Rebecca A. Gowns: People have short attention spans these days. A song, a movie, a meme — they all have to grab you and convince you to stay in the first ten seconds, or you’re going to change the channel. The first ten seconds of this song are ludicrous. Did Big Shaq make this song because he believes in that opening fanfare with all his heart? Or did he, on some level, know that it was silly, and that the silliness would lead people to looking up more about him and his music? I believe it. After that initial moment of “what am I listening to?” the rest of the song gallops out the gate. Before you know it, three minutes have passed, the song has faded away, and you’ve had a fun time, admit it.
[7]