Here's the newest track off the upcoming Bruno Mars EP It's Better If You Don't Understand, which comes out May 11. This song started cropping up on YouTube last night. It's not as good as "Nothin' On You" or the first single off the EP, which you can hear below.
But it is likely to be the one that gets the most attention. Because while Bruno Mars is likely to be a huge star once his full-length comes out, possibly later this year, right now he is much better known through his associations. The B.o.B. verse comes from an obvious connection. Cee-Lo's appearance makes sense for artistic reasons; they're both genre-bending, scene-stealing singers.
Raised in Hawaii by Filipino and Puerto Rican parents, Bruno Mars appeared on the cover of Hawaii's MidWeek magazine as Little Elvis at the age of four. If you click through that story, you'll find a photo of Mars doing Michael Jackson impersonation as a teenager.
Before he carried B.o.B.'s "Nothin' On You" to the top of the Billboard chart with that sublime hook, Bruno Mars was better known (inasmuch as he was known at all) for his work behind the boards. He is one half of The Smeezingtons, who have done production and/or writing work for K'naan, Brandy, Maroon 5 and Flo Rida (sigh).
The Smeezingtons also produced both tracks on which Bruno Mars has thus far sung, "Nothin' On You" and Travie McCoy's "Billionaire," for which the video premiered yesterday.
"The Other Side" is the second song from It's Better If You Don't Understand to make it onto the internet -- the first is "Somewhere in Brooklyn," which you can hear below.
