"Money Machine" (stylized in lowercase) is the debut single by American
hyperpop
Hyperpop is a loosely-defined music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early-to-mid 2010s. It is characterized by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the genre ...
duo
100 gecs
100 Gecs (stylized in all lowercase) are an American hyperpop duo formed in 2015 that consists of Dylan Brady and Laura Les. They self-released their debut album, '' 1000 Gecs'', in 2019 to critical acclaim, followed by a "companion" remix alb ...
, released on May 29, 2019 as the only single from their debut studio album, ''
1000 Gecs
''1000 Gecs'' (stylized as ''1000 gecs'' or ''1000 gec'') is the debut studio album by American hyperpop duo 100 Gecs. It was released on May 31, 2019, through Dog Show Records two days after the single " Money Machine" was released.
Featuring an ...
'' (2019).
Production and release
100 Gecs is a duo made up of
Laura Les
Laura Les (born December 2, 1994), previously known as osno1, is an American music producer and singer-songwriter best known for being one half of experimental electronic duo 100 Gecs, alongside Dylan Brady.
Early life
Laura Les grew up in a s ...
and
Dylan Brady
Dylan Marshall Brady (born November 27, 1993) is an American music producer and singer-songwriter best known for being one half of experimental electronic music duo 100 Gecs, alongside Laura Les. He also owns and operates his own record label, ...
. "Money Machine" was produced some time after the release of their debut EP ''100 Gecs'', because they were interested in returning with the project. Brady started the project, creating the melody on
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI music sequencer, sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which ...
. Les thought the instrumental was "sarcastic", as if the bass was "laughing at you". She recorded "a hilarious burst of trash talk" after fighting with men and after a day of working at her job. Les explained: "I had been watching a lot of ''
King of the Hill
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...
'', and I constructed in my head a sort of
Hank Hill
Hank Rutherford HillSeason Five, Episode Ten: Yankee Hankie (at time 04:42 of 22:30) Birth Certificate has his name listed as Hank Rutherford Hill (born April 15, 1953) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Fox animated tele ...
asshole character to just absolutely break down. I was just kind of getting into that sort of mindset of these people that Iād grown up with, these people in St. Louis talking about their big trucks." About the song title, Brady said that he gets inspiration for song titles from objects; "must have been some money on the ground".
A remix by
A. G. Cook
Alexander Guy Cook (born 23 August 1990) is an English music producer, singer, songwriter and the head of the UK record label PC Music.
Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah ...
was released on October 23, 2019, as the lead single off of their first remix album ''
1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues
''1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues'' (stylized as ''1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues'') is the debut remix album by American experimental music duo 100 gecs, released on July 10, 2020, by Dog Show Records, Big Beat Records and Atlantic Records. It ...
''.
Composition
In "a whiny chipmunk voice"
and "
akingthe idea of asserting dominance lyrically to the absurd",
the song opens with the lyrics "Hey you lil piss baby / You think you're so fucking cool, huh? / You think you're so fucking tough / You talk a lotta big game for someone with such a small truck",
"
canning
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...
as pure chest-puffing braggadocio
nd containingone of the most appealingly strange taunts in recent memory",
and then goes into a chorus "of scraping power chords that are kind of like a cross between
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...
and
Sophie
Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise".
People with the name Born in the Middle Ages
* Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018ā1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson
* Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
. It's bizarre, a bit silly, but for the exact same reason, endlessly fascinating."
The song also "compares arms to cigarettes, laments inadequate truck size and uses the term 'piss baby' as an insult". ''DIY'' described it as a "glitchy electronic-pop banger", and Pitchfork described it as "pulsing
ndcavity-inducing".
''We Rave You'' described it as a "bass-heavy
..headspinner".
Music video
On June 13, 2019, an official music video for the song was released.
The music video has Brady and Les as "badass rapper-types mugging for the camera" as they step into a parking lot with some "rather large trucks", and distorted by layers of visual effects. According to ''Paper'', "
e overall effect exists somewhere between a cybernetic hallucination and a
deep fried meme. It's hard to pinpoint what is exactly so damn appealing about the video, but perhaps it's for that exact same reason that it's so damn entertaining."
Reception and legacy
''Pitchfork'' named it the 61st best song of 2019. Sasha Geffen, for the same website, wrote that the song "is a purification ritual for the rotted-out brain, a seething, monstrous prayer to burn the slime away".
According to ''The New York Times'', the music video for "Money Machine" helped 100 Gecs get a burst of attention. According to ''The Boar'', they "exploded onto the scene" with the "preposterous" song, which "paved the way for future hyperpop artists who would go on to replicate these distinct features". It was included on ''Vulture'' list of "9 Songs That Wouldn't Exist Without
Sophie
Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise".
People with the name Born in the Middle Ages
* Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018ā1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson
* Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
".
Charts
References
{{100 Gecs
2019 songs
2019 debut singles
100 gecs songs
Hyperpop songs
Songs written by Dylan Brady