KhakiKid ‘Must Be A Man’

Loud cheering and yelling mimic the camaraderie of being in a bar after your favorite team wins a football match. On top of the layered cheers, you hear the loudest voice in the room, a drunk man screaming ‘La la la!’ as loudly as he possibly can. Before you’ve even heard any of the lyrics to ‘Must Be A Man’, the intro already gives away the theme of masculinity that KhakiKid is about to explore.

After an event, the Dublin-born artist was invited to speak briefly about his mental health and what being a man means to him. Once on stage, the host began asking questions he had never really considered before, prompting him to explore themes around his own masculinity. He quickly came to realize that much of what he had learned was what not to do as a man. Eventually, he turned these clichés and tropes of masculinity into a song about the unwritten rules of being a man.

KhakiKid has the incredible ability to explore serious themes in his songwriting with a sense of humour. It invites the listener to let their guard down, allowing him to deliver the truth once he has them locked into the song. He pokes fun at the stereotypes and contradictions of masculinity, finding humour in the absurdity of some of these common behaviours. He ticks all the boxes, from refusing to cry to getting sunburnt because apparently sunscreen is not for lads. The video takes it one step further, showing men receiving their very first flowers only at their funerals.