The ting goes skrrrahh, pap, pap, ka-ka-ka

November 19, 2017 12:16 PM

UK comedian Michael Dapaah, better known under his pseudonym Big Shaq, has become an unlikely grime music icon with his simple ode to men who never take off their coats: Man's Not Hot. Recently Dappah sat down with Genius to explain the song. See also the Genius page for annotated lyrics. And here's the original viral freestyle.
posted by Frobenius Twist (20 comments total)

I'm calling "Two plus two is four / minus one that's three, quick maths" as lyric of the year
posted by Frobenius Twist at 12:30 PM on November 19, 2017 [7 favorites]

The Genius page has a bunch of lyrics annotated by Big Shaq himself. I think my favourite is his annotation to the lyrics:
Your girl knows I've got the sauce (flexin'), no ketchup (none)
Just sauce (saucy), raw sauce

Man’s got sauce. You don’t force the sauce. Sauce is something, you either have it or you don’t. Can you ask a egg, “How do you have your yolk?” You can’t. Either man’s got the yolk, or man ain’t got the yolk. Man’s got the yolk. Can you ask Heinz how you make ketchup? You can’t. Can you ask Heinz how you make baked beans? You can’t. Can you ask Heinz, “How does man make mayonnaise?” You can’t. Can you ask them about how you make salad cream? You can’t. How you gonna ask a man with sauce, how you get sauce? Either man’s got sauce, or man’s got no sauce. And I’ve got sauce.

posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:03 PM on November 19, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Cameos are the best thing about any of this. I actually thing Hi Hat's rap is actually funny. This is so nothing it's hard to even bother processing it but again, the faces of the people in the cameos was funny. I guess at least I can be thankful that unlike some of the other memed rappers who have been jokes, he's in on the joke.
posted by cashman at 1:17 PM on November 19, 2017

I'm not a fan of this sauce-scarceness mercantilistic attitude. Man sauce isn't a zero-sum game.

Or is it? I'm pretty sure I just revealed I'm sauceless.
posted by cardioid at 1:22 PM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

Re: the video in which he explains the lyrics: I think that "put me next to the sun. I'll still have my jacket on. The sun's gonna be hotter than me." is genius-level stupid. I don't know how he kept a straight face through that.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 1:35 PM on November 19, 2017 [6 favorites]

It's a cultural thing, I know, but having worked for a couple months at a McDonald's, where the workers shortened "Big Mac Special Sauce" to "sauce", I see nothing special with "sauce", especially when compared to ketchup; it lands somewhere in the middle of synonyms with "condiment", "dressing", "spread" (which In-N-Out Burger uses as euphemism for Big Mac Sauce) or, for us close to Latinx cooking, "salsa". Comparing it to the yolk of an egg is pretty wrong; the yolk is naturally occurring; the only semi-comparable "sauce" for any kind of meat is Au Jus.

yes, I can overthink a squeeze bottle of any sauce you like, and I am terrified where deep diving into his other annotated lyrics will take me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:45 PM on November 19, 2017

During my time in England I came to realize that they wore parkas whenever because they needed them pretty much never.
posted by srboisvert at 2:19 PM on November 19, 2017

Something about the genius videos rub me the wrong way...
From the way I understand it, his grammar and unconventional wordings are supposed to be funny because they sound so "uneducated." We all know grammar policing is just hidden classism. I want to laugh at this video but I can't help but wonder if the source of that laughter is racism/classism. Yes, the content is kind of funny... being so attached to wearing your jacket that you make a song out of it, but.. I'm not sure.
posted by eggs at 2:40 PM on November 19, 2017

I don't think it's classist or racist - he's satirizing typical grime lingo (if you've listened to grime, he's got the rhythms and style down pat, including the onomatopoetic gunshot sounds and hyperlocalized London slang) but it's clearly coming from a place of deep affection. Its crossover success is happening precisely because people like grime music and get the joke; I don't see anything mean-spirited in it.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 3:19 PM on November 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

Fair enough. I don't know anything about the genre.. the genius video where it breaks down the lyrics just felt a little off to me but I realize now that I am not the target audience here!
posted by eggs at 3:41 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

...how you make ketchup ... how you make baked beans ... “How does man make mayonnaise?” ... how you make salad cream ... Either man’s got sauce, or man’s got no sauce. And I’ve got sauce.

Man's got sauce, but apparently no cookbook.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:21 PM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

Here's a bit more on him where he's put in context. And yeah, clearly he's absolutely got the chops and the respect for taking the piss from the inside. His creator Michael Dapaah has a 20 minute interview here, too.
posted by ambrosen at 5:46 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sauce? You need Junior Spesh
posted by Damienmce at 6:46 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

OH OH so many Twitter jokes suddenly making sense now!
posted by taterpie at 7:58 PM on November 19, 2017

This is extraordinarily silly (and so, I apologize), but also very funny: video.
posted by vert canard at 11:11 PM on November 19, 2017 [7 favorites]

"You're not an English teacher"... call 999, I'm dying.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:16 AM on November 20, 2017

...how you make ketchup ... how you make baked beans ... Can you ask Heinz, “How does man make mayonnaise?” ... how you make salad cream ... Either man’s got sauce, or man’s got no sauce. And I’ve got sauce.

Man's got sauce, but apparently no cookbook.

Sure but I bet if you asked Heinz, they'd refuse to divulge their industrial processes.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:44 AM on November 20, 2017

Haha yes! I recommend people check out vert canard's link - it's great. There is apparently a robust Man's Not Hot meme culture, but I don't know much about it so I left it out of the fpp.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 5:23 AM on November 20, 2017

Can you ask Heinz how you make ketchup? You can’t. Can you ask Heinz how you make baked beans? You can’t. Can you ask Heinz, “How does man make mayonnaise?” You can’t. Can you ask them about how you make salad cream? You can’t.

Fucking magnets, how do they work?
posted by Naberius at 12:25 PM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

All I have to say is
posted by karlshea at 8:17 PM on November 20, 2017