Music Review: Austin Mahone & Pitbull "Mmm Yeah"

Austin Mahone & Pitbull

Mmm Yeah

Album: Junior Year

Year:  2014

                       Austin Mahone licks his lips at a pretty girl in the frothy   “Mmm Yeah.”

Bubbling synths open the single, setting a bursting tone.  In the intro, Pitbull says Mahone is really good at getting girls. Pitbull gives him some advice. Simply tell women they are a complete match, one without the other and their lives would unravel.. Pitbull uses the example of former NBA Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who won multiple championships together.  (“Austin M keep doing your thing/Let these boys keep slipping man/I'm not into gymnastics but I'm into flipping things/I told these women that it's all about the team, Jordan and Pippen man/So if you wanna join the team/Now tell me little this thang/Dale.”)

Mahone begins with the chorus. He was outside, talking on the phone with a friend that a girl in long, blonde hair catches his eye. He immediately told his friend he had to go and rushed over to talk to her. He introduced himself and wanted to know her name. She furrowed her eyebrows at him, giving him a puzzled look and crossed the street onto the next block. He stood there, watching her with his mouth wide open, panting. (“When I saw her/Walking down the street/She looked so fine/I just had to speak/I asked her name/But she turned away/As she walked/All that I could say was/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/All that I could say was//Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/All that I could say was.”)

               He says all he needs is one date. Nothing will be off-limits to them. He’ll have his entourage close off a street, if she wants to have some privacy. She can play hard to get all she wants. But he can detect some emotion from her. He’s not just telling her what she wants to hear. He keeps an eye for her and when he sees her, he waves to her. (“Rock ‘n roll one time, we'll make it up as we go/I know you feel it cause I mean what I said say, say, say/We can do whatever, do whatever we want/When she walk past me I say hey, hey, hey.”)

In the pre-chorus, when girls ignore him, he doesn’t worry about it at all. There’s always another girl. However, it really hurt him that she doesn’t like him back. (“So tell me where you're from, where you wanna go/But she walked past me like I ain't said a word/Stood there like man/‘Cause l I don't usually feel some type of way/But this one hit hard me in some kind of place/Like man.”)

               The chorus is sung again.

 
                 She loves her heels. She wears them with every outfit. He says he’s a celebrity, which makes him important. He likes to party and namedrops all the other celebrities he knows. She shakes her head and crosses the street. (“6 inch heels clicking up down the street/You know she's coming and when she walks away way way way/I'm a big big deal, a little fun's all I need/But I can tell she don't believe what I say, say, say.”)

           The pre-chorus and chorus are sung again.

          Pitbull thinks there’s a wild girl hidden underneath the icy demeanor. He admires her well-shaped butt while namechecking 90s rap group, Kriss Kross. He says they should go the ocean and step outside of themselves for awhile. He then comments on the critics and peers who thought he was a flash in the pan. He calls the critics dumb and his peers irrelevant. He tells her to not pay attention to what she just said. It has nothing to do with her. (“Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/She looks so good but she bad bad/You can see that back from the front frontBooty like Kriss Kross, jump jump/Meet me in the middle of the ocean, we can find ourselves and lose our minds, rewind/Wawawawa play/Find ourselves and lose our minds/Austin M and Armando caluando latino siringo gosando me entiendes/For those that thought that we would stop/Deftinely don't even have a mind to think with, brainless/Most of them broke but they're famous/Some of them got hits but they're nameless/But mamita,  forget about that/When I see you/All that I could say was.”)

The final part of the chorus (“Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/Mmm Mmm yeah yeah/All that I could say was”) is repeated four times to end the single.

 
           Mahone’s frivolous vocals goof off and play up the ridiculousness of the title. His endless energy mocks his celebrity a bit, letting himself be seen as clueless. Instead of arrogant (as the lyrics suggest), he becomes endearing.

 
            Pitbull’s flavorless rap slows down the beginning, holding the synths back. By the bridge, he strolls in, trying to catch up to the beat. His 90s references, which would fit in one of his songs, age him here. He justifies his being on the track, calling the other rappers has-beens and irrelevant. The pettiness sticks out even more, making him humorless and bitter, even though it seems like he’s been on every single song since 2012.  

 
        The charming “Mmm Yeah” is an unexpected delight.