Earlier this month, Bruno Mars teamed up with Sexyy Red to unleash their new track, "Fat Juicy & Wet." They marketed the collab as a "strip club anthem," and so far, it's received mixed reviews. While some listeners find the raunchy single fun, others think it missed the mark. Regardless, Mars reached a new career milestone this week, and quickly took to social media to celebrate.
According to Spotify, he's the first artist ever to reach a whopping 150 million monthly listeners on the platform, which is certainly no small feat. He reacted to the exciting news with a joke about recent rumors that he gambled his way into $50 million debt in Las Vegas. “KEEP STREAMING! I’ll be out of debt in no time," he wrote.
Bruno Mars Says He'll Be "Out Of Debt In No Time" After Reaching New Spotify Milestone
Mars' collab with Sexyy Red may have helped him break this new streaming record, but not everyone is a fan. During a recent episode of his podcast, for example, Joe Budden weighed in on the song. He made it clear that it isn't for him, even if it's a commercial success. “Will it work? Yes. They’re gonna pay for this to work,” he said. “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."
“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," Budden continued. "I’m not trying to bring race into everything. However, as I age, race does have a lot to do with sh*t. 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."
