Shorties: bbno$ “lalala” is a landmark.
I struggle to write consistently. I struggle to do a lot of things, largely due to executive dysfunction from ADHD and internalized pressure to work like a neurotypical grind-set influencer. So instead of berating myself for not writing or doing other creative work, I’m going to write some shorties. These blog posts are no-pressure, little research, no big overarching questions of how things fit together, just sharing my thoughts on things I love.
Bbno$ (stylized bbno$, I’ll use the correct capitalization from here out) is a surprisingly divisive figure for someone who’s such a normal part of the internet landscape. He talks about politics enough that you know he’s on the right side of things but not enough to be preachy or fall into hot water. He’s funny, but rarely obnoxious. He does some corny antics to gain virality on short-form platforms, but he also seems like a normal person who does a lot of his cheesiest things in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Overall, I like him fine.
One common thing people say about him is that his music is “spiritually Israeli.” Frankly, I despise this line of criticism. Being generous, calling art “spiritually Israeli” is saying it’s the sort of mindless, art that only someone completely ignorant of taste in the way many are ignorant of the brutal conflict in Gaza. Being ungenerous, it’s saying “this artist I dislike is genocidal” or, “this art I dislike is Jewish.” Either way, it isn’t a good critique, it doesn’t actually say anything meaningful, and even if you mean it solely in opposition to the Israeli government and don’t hate Jews in any way, it gives cover for those who do.
Some actual critiques would be: "his music sounds cheap,” “he isn’t a very good rapper,” “he isn’t saying anything substantive with his music,” or “all he raps about is sex, reinforcing misogyny.” Those are all fair, reasonable statements that can lead to further discussion. While I agree with all three, I also have a counter for them- bbno$ is Souncloud Pitbull. All of those critiques (besides, perhaps, the first) apply to Mister Worldwide, and people like him (if in a post-ironic fashion).
Like the former Mister 305, bbno$ is goofy, charming, and has fantastic hooks. In Pitbull’s worst moments he relied so heavily on samples it seemed like his brain which previously had only thought “party party party, girls girls girls, drinking drinking drinking, dale!” couldn’t even manage that. By contrast, bbno$ rarely uses big obvious samples, and when he does (like on “Check”) doesn’t over-rely on them, especially for his hooks. And while he isn’t a very impressive rapper, he has solid hooks.
Of his hooks, “lalala” is probably his best. The first being the immediately incredible, “did I really just forget that melody?” which is a hilarious thing to say at the top of a song, and is doubly hilarious because he immediately follows with a melody you’ll never forget. Lyrically, the hook isn’t super impressive. He raps about what you expect rappers to rap about- he fucks your girl, he has a shiny wrist, he’s from his home (usually a city, in his case a country)- but what makes the hook stick is the groove. bbno$ sings the first part of the hook he sounds like he’s putting in no effort, like his mom asked him to sing it and he’s eye-rolling through it. In the second part he (or maybe the songs other credited artist Y2K, I think he’s just the producer but the youtube video credits some sung parts as his) really get into it, singing with a coy swagger that’s remarkably fun. Both parts fit so perfectly with the song’s beat it’s almost surreal. The verses are nothing special (often they’re mediocre), but with all the song’s other hooks (including the wonderful, “they wonder how (how I guap like that)” call and response) they don’t need to be for the track to be fantastic overall.
The weak verses aren’t an issue at all on the incredible remix. Before starting this article I just wanted to talk about this remix, which is genuinely incredible. Somehow, bbno$ and Y2K, two people who were more or less nobodies with only a following on Soundcloud and one song that went viral on a new internet platform got Canadian pop darling Carly Rae Jepsen and Latin pop mega-star Enrique Iglesias. Carly Rae Jepsen I can understand- though Canada is big the Canadian music industry is not- but whoever pulled the strings to get Enrique Iglesias into the studio must be a miracle worker.
Iglesias’ verses are simple, but effective. Lyrically, he’s blown away by a woman’s sexy dancing and then picks up the woman with a mix of his charm and the power of music. Putting a genuine Latin pop icon on this Latin-flavored song was an obvious decision, and Enrique Iglesias gives a solid performance.
The shocker is how amazing Carly Rae Jepsen is. Her persona is generally an oh-so-earnest every-woman who’s shy but houses an endless pool of emotions. On “lalala” she proves that she can play the diva too. Jepsen delivers the hook with a Beyonce-level swagger, and her braggadocio contrasts with her usually down-to-earth persona to make her flexing all the more powerful. Her verse doesn’t even rhyme, but she flips the original songs lyric, “modest with my jewels but check the bank” with her own, “got money but I still want him to pay” in a style so cool I don’t even mind.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s performance on the remix is the reason I wanted to write about this song at all (I’m a huge fan of hers), but I stand by the title’s statement even ignoring the remix. The original “lalala” is just an okay song, but it represents a sea change in popular music. The song is one of the first internet-viral hits that don’t feel like they’re either solely a gimmick, or where their virality is an extension of the song’s offline success. The song’s video is nothing special, but even before writing this article that image of bbno$ with his pencil mustache and blue suit had lingered in my mind from some long-ago time when I first saw it. His leaning towards eye-catching, unique images showcases what is most unique and most interesting about bbno$- he’s an internet personality as much as he’s a musical artist.
In our chaotic time there isn’t much divide between the internet media landscape and the traditional world, but it still feels like there is. Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, or even Drake going from television acting to music feels congruent in a way that KSI or IShowSpeed transitioning from their platforms to music doesn’t. With his start on Soundcloud and his virality on TikTok, bbno$ straddled those two lines, and it ultimately seems like he’s leaned more on the internet side. You can find bbno$ in plenty of youtube videos; he did a song with Smosh, he had twitch streamer Ironmouse feature on one of his songs, he collaborated with a bunch of short-form creators, Jacksfilms interviewed him on “The Questions Get Worse”, and you can find him in plenty of other spaces. Fellow early TikTok hitmaker Lil Nas X was in a similar position, and while he found success in a more traditional path, a stint out of the spotlight due to mental health struggles means he’s unlikely to be tearing up the charts again. Which path similar artists will go down in the future is anybody’s guess.
