After a string of knockout synth pop singles, from20 has reinvented himself as a hyper-sexualized cartoon character. Last year’s Eye Candy and Social established this persona and new single Big Boy takes it even further. These songs remind me of a certain style of early-2000s pop/hip-hop — deliberately silly but also attempting a sort of shock value to establish the artist in popular culture.
I was the perfect age back in the early-2000s for this schtick, but decades later it’s fascinating to approach it with a different lens. I like from20 quite a bit and admire what he’s been able to achieve as an indepedent artist outside the idol system. And though the music he’s released as this new character feels beneath his talents, at least it has a clear point of view.
Big Boy completely (and intentionally, I assume) rips off Justin Timberlake’s Sexyback, offering a sleek, funky hip-hop beat. However, that’s not the element most listeners will likely focus on, as Big Boy‘s lyrics are designed to raise your eyebrows. The song is refreshingly pansexual in nature, casting its tent as wide as possible. However, there’s really not much song here. It’s mostly just from20 talking for two minutes about how hot and big he is (and we are?). The schtick gets old pretty fast and lacks the goofy hooks that made Eye Candy such a grower. It feels more like an exercise in character branding than a song I’d actually choose to listen to, which is a shame because his discography has been pretty bullet proof up to this point.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.25 |
Grade: C
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