Ask any musician who’s produced a massive hit song and they’ll tell you about the pressure to replicate it with a follow-up. That burden is especially unique for someone like Kyle Gordon, a musician whose whole career is built around making fun of other musicians.
Gordon experienced massive success in 2023 with “Planet of the Bass,” which parodied ‘90s Europop groups like Aqua. As that song blew up online and made him an internet star, he was featured in the New York Times, Rolling Stone and NPR. Some called it the “song of the summer.” The song was even remixed in “The Simpsons.”
Gordon, 33, subsequently released two comedy albums with spoofs of genres including emo, nu metal and British rap, but none broke through in the same way that “Planet of the Bass” did — until now.
His latest work to take the internet by storm is “Mr. Jambo,” a hilarious yet admittedly catchy song in which a character named Barry Bergen travels the African savannah and claims to experience enlightenment, all while the locals can barely abide him. As one particularly frustrated man tries to explain to him in Zulu that he can’t understand him, Bergen simply decides the man is telling him about seeking love in “the valley of the soul” and “the wisdom written on the ancient scrolls.”
