"24K Magic" is a song by American singer Bruno Mars from his third studio album of the same name (2016). Atlantic Records released it as the album's lead single on October 7, 2016, for digital download and streaming. It was provided as an instant grat track for those who pre-ordered the album. Mars, Philip Lawrence and Christopher Brody Brown wrote the single. Calling themselves Shampoo Press & Curl the three of them handled production, with additional production by the Stereotypes. The song has been described as a funk, disco and contemporary R&B track. The A.V. Club noticed the synthesizer riff and backbeat resembled the one in "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The song's lyrics address extravagance, glamour, and the party lifestyle.
"24K Magic" was generally well received by music critics. Some of them complimented Mars' vocals and compared them to James Brown, describing the song as engaging, fun and evoking feelings of nostalgia. Others criticized it for not being innovative as it tried to emulate "Uptown Funk" (2014). The song was a commercial success. It peaked at number four in the United States and number three in Canada and Australia. It has been certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ). The single reached number one in New Zealand, France, Belgium (Flanders) and Argentina. It has received a diamond certification in France Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (SNEP) and diamond by Music Canada (MC). In the United Kingdom and Spain, the song peaked at number five, being certified three times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Director Cameron Duddy shot the song's music video with Mars. It depicts Mars and his bandmates partying and having fun in a Las Vegas casino. At the end of the video, Mars is riding a jet ski in the Fountains of the Bellagio Hotel. He performed "24K Magic" on television shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Late Late Show. It was first included on his 24K Magic World Tour (2017–18) and on his shows of Bruno Mars Live (2022-24). The song received several nominations and won Record of the Year at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018. Kendrick Lamar's single "Loyalty" (2017) featuring Rihanna sampled the song's introduction.
Background and development In September 2014, Bruno Mars tweeted "Now it's time to start writing chapter 3", hinting he was working on new music. Following the release of the successful Mark Ronson and Mars's single "Uptown Funk" (2014), the latter headed to the studio to record more songs. Mars said he had no plans to release a new album "[u]ntil it's done". It was due in March, but his appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show postponed it for several months. At the time, seven songs were already recorded. On October 3, 2016, Mars revealed the song title and release date through his Instagram account after he uploaded nine photos. They showed the singer looking down wearing a white hat with "XXIV k" inscribed on it. Mars wrote, "You can call it my first single, but I call it the invitation to the party".
The Stereotypes had known Mars and worked with him since 2007, however, after the singer signed a deal with Atlantic Records they did not collaborate very often. Nevertheless, in 2015 Jonathan Yip talked with Mars about working together. Since the singer was already recording 24K Magic, Mars asked for "some beats" and Yip sent them. Later, he asked for more beats and the Stereotypes sent them, but they never heard from him, "nothing came of it". In June 2016, Yip touched base with Mars. He asked Yip if they would like to help him finish a song for his album, to add a little "seasoning". He needed another song with a certain tempo and key. Yip sent Mars an idea that caught his attention, and he asked the Stereotypes to come to the studio.
Once in the studio, it took them some time to "get the groove" on the track. They spent the first couple of hours catching up and having fun. When they began working, Ray Charles McCullough II was "getting scared". He felt this was a "make-or-break moment"—they needed to help Mars with the song. Ray Romulus recalled the singer telling them he wanted to create something that would make people dance again, because in clubs the crowd is on their phones, not moving and glancing at each other. At this point, Mars showed them a "rough idea" of the song. The Stereotypes started programming the drums for "24K Magic" and finished it in a day. It was the first track the team recorded for the album. Brody Brown affirmed: "On the song "24K Magic", we tried it many times until we found that gold."
In an interview with NME, Mars said he wrote "24K Magic" when "Uptown Funk" (2014) was "number one", so the songs share the same "spirit". In another interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1, Mars explained that the album was going to be a movie and the lead single was its opening. He wanted the song "to get the party started". To achieve that it needed to sound genuine and that he was having a good time, so he used his emotions and feelings to guide him. He also admitted that "24K Magic' was influenced by West Coast hip hop artists like "Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, Suga Free ... [they represented] a time when it was okay to party, to be flashy, to get on the dance floor". In November 2017, Mars was a guest on the Charlie Rose Show sharing that the song was the vision he had intended for this album "I saw us having fun on stage. I saw us draped in silk and gold and me and my friends going up on stage and having the best time. It was important that we had the content to do so".
Production and release Mars, Philip Lawrence and Christopher Brody Brown wrote "24K Magic". They handled the production under the name Shampoo Press & Curl with additional production by the Stereotypes. Mars, Lawrence, Brown and James Fauntleroy provided the background vocals. Dave Foreman played the guitar, while Byron "Mr. Talkbox" Chambers and Mars provided the vocals on the talk box. Charles Moniz, with engineering assistant Jacob Dennis, engineered and recorded the song at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank. Serban Ghenea mixed "24K Magic" at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, with John Hanes serving as the mix engineer. It was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, NYC.
"24K Magic" premiered on October 7, 2016, at midnight on radio station WBMX. Atlantic Records released the single on the same day for digital download and streaming. The album was made available for pre-order worldwide via Mars's official site, with the song as an instant download. Warner Music Group also issued the track for radio airplay in Italy on the same date. BBC Radio 1 began adding the song onto their playlists on October 8, 2016. Subsequently, the song was released to US contemporary hit radio stations on October 11, 2016. On May 26, 2017, Atlantic Records made a remix version by Dutch DJ R3hab available for digital download and streaming.
Composition
"24K Magic" is a funk, disco, and R&B song, heavily influenced by hip hop. It is composed in the key of F minor at a tempo of 94 beats per minute. The song begins with a talk box intro, performed by Byron "Mr. Talk Box" Chambers and Mars. Initially, reviewers thought the vocals on the intro had Auto-Tune, a vocoder or synthetic vocals. Eventually, they concluded that it was a talk box, developed by Roger Troutman and Zapp, which heavily influenced the single. Forbes and Entertainment Weeklys music critics noticed the resemblance between the "robotic-sound" intro on "24K Magic" and Tupac Shakur's "California Love" (1995). The song features several layers of funk synthesizers in its instrumentation, which drew comparisons to Prince. It also features bass lines similar to The Gap Band's style. Its structure borrows from "Uptown Funk" as Mars raps while singing the track with a "call and response" composition. The bridge features a record scratching, while the backing vocals of Mars, Lawrence, Brown and Fauntleroy make heavy use of a vocoder. The synthesizer riff and backbeat of "24K Magic" has been interpreted by The A.V. Club as having a resemblance to the one in "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Critics found the sound to be closer to that of the 1980s electronica, hip hop and R&B, than the 1970s style of "Uptown Funk".
The track reaches its "ebullient" and "infectious" chorus where Mars sings, "Put your pinky rings up to the moon, What y'all tryna do? 24K magic in the air". All the verses are designed with a "call-and-response hook". In the opening lyrics, Mars shouts, "Guess who's back again!/Oh, they don't know? I bet they know soon as we walk in", punctuating the verses, he continues with more confidence "I'm a dangerous man with some money in my pocket", while backed up by a chorus "adding tough-guy punch to his mellifluous" shouts. The exhortations and confidence in his vocals reminded critics of James Brown. The lyrics celebrate extravagances, glamour and the party lifestyle. Many reviewers felt "24K Magic" condensed a playlist's worth 80's electro-R&B into one song, with a modern twist on its lyrics.
Critical reception "24K Magic" has received generally positive reviews from music critics. Entertainment Weekly Eric Renner Brown gave "24K Magic" an "A" note. He praised the lead single, saying it is on the same level as Mars's earlier, "Just the Way You Are" (2010) and "Locked Out of Heaven" (2012), and maybe even better due to its "detail and finesse". According to Brown, these qualities along with "world-class vocals", allow "24K Magic" to "levitate". He felt Tupac Shakur's "California Love" (1995) and Michael Jackson's Off the Wall (1979) influenced it. Jay Willis of GQ called the song "delightful"— the second part of "Uptown Funk". Willis praised Mars for using the same formula as the earlier single and described the intro as "reminiscent of mid-1990s K-Ci & Jojo". Carl Williott of Idolator rated the song a nine out of ten, comparing it to "Pure Funk compilations, West Coast G-funk and to Midnight Star". Williott said the track did not bring anything new, but it came at a time when there were not enough party songs. In the same review, Mike Wass awarded the song 8 out of 10 feeling that it is a mash-up of the 70's, 80's and 90's R&B into "a nuclear-power party anthem" to be played in discos over the next years. Time Tekendra Parmar called the title track "delicious". The staff of Rap-Up thought Mars created a great song, calling the hook "infectious". Jason Lipshutz of Billboard compared "24K Magic" to the TV show Stranger Things (2016), since both evoke nostalgic feelings. Lipshutz found the single "impressive", with a "killer groove" that mashed the "G-funk" genre into a song with modern elements. He also complemented Mars's vocals and "ear for melody". Patrick Bowen, reviewing the album for Idolator, said "24K Magic" has the best chorus Mars ever wrote, being superior to "Uptown Funk" in every detail.
In a mixed review for Idolator, Rachel Sonis gave "24K Magic" a 6.5 out of 10. She described the track as "glossy, lavish and teeming with old-school The Neptunes vibes", but concluded it does not accomplish anything new. Robbie Daw of the site rated the track 5 out of 10 saying that it is a throwback to the 80's R&B as a continuation of "Uptown Funk". He too thought it did not add anything new—"it simply keeps the party going".
Accolades