Bruno Mars has proven that he has a sense of humor about himself, as he recently made a joke about rumors of an eight-figure gambling debt in the midst of a career upswing thanks in part to his new hit with Sexyy Red.
Earlier this week, the pop superstar reacted to the news that he’d become the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
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In an unserious nod to reports last year that he had allegedly racked up an enormous $50 million gambling debt in Las Vegas, he commented on his Instagram Story: “KEEP STREAMING! I’ll be out of debt in no time.”
Check the post below.
Bruno Mars reacts to himself becoming the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify:
“KEEP STREAMING! I’ll be out of debt in no time 🕺🏽” pic.twitter.com/LNZMJtUV0T
— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 28, 2025
The news of Bruno’s huge streaming numbers came amid the success of his hit collaboration with Sexyy, “Fat Juicy & Wet.”
The track was first teased just days before it was released, when Bruno shared on Instagram that he was “headed to the studio right now to make a strip club anthem.”
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“Someone please help me get in touch with Sexyy Red!!” he pleaded.
Sexyy was immediately on board and quickly hopped into the comments with, “Heyyyyyy Bruno! @BrunoMars,” then headed to X to tag him there as well.
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She also added, “I heard Bruno say he lookin for ah real bthc baby I’m right hur @BrunoMars.”
The song was released just three days later. It was almost immediately trashed by Joe Budden, who compared the singer’s change in style to tactics employed by Donald Trump.
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Speaking on his self-titled podcast, Budden offered up a scathing review of the raunchy, strip club-ready track.
“Will it work? Yes. They’re gonna pay for this to work,” he began, referring to Bruno and Sexyy’s respective labels. “The video says that, the feature says that, the [Lady Gaga] cameo [in the video] says that, [gamma. boss] Larry Jackson and all of his relationships say that. This song is going to work.
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“Now, where it will work is a whole different thing. I don’t know if Gary, Indiana is playing this in the strip clubs out there. I also don’t think it was made for that.”
The former Slaughterhouse rapper then laid out his issues with the sexually-charged song: “I’m not trying to bring race into everything. However, as I age, race does have a lot to do with shit. This song is formulaic and I have a problem with the formula used to attract Black listeners versus the formula used to attract a white audience.
“Sexyy Red, when it’s time to sell a mixtape or get shit poppin’ in the hood at ground level where you need it to be, it’s a whole bunch of, Pull my tampon out, fuck me in the ass raw. It’s the raunchiest, nastiest shit that works because we like that shit.”
Budden continued by comparing Bruno Mars to Trump: “Bruno Mars said, ‘Pussy so good, make me wanna gangbang and throw up a set.’ I’m sick of — my same point last week with Donald Trump using his mugshot to relate to Black people, this is the same thing to me!
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“I want there to be a day where white people, or Bruno Mars and his people, don’t feel like in order to attact us, they need to start talking about gangbanging.”
