Dirty Work (Austin Mahone song)

In late June, Austin revealed the "Dirty Work" single artwork on Twitter, and announced that it would be released to iTunes on July 10, 2015.[2] It was premiered on radio the next day, and given an early iTunes release on July 1, 2015.[3]

On November 17, 2015, Mahone released a "Dirty Work" remix featuring T-Pain for free on his official SoundCloud page.[4] In 2017, "Dirty Work" became a sleeper hit in Japan after comedienne Blouson Chiemi began using it in her "Career Woman" comedy routine.[5] After seeing her comedy routine, Mahone offered to collaborate with her, and a "Dirty Work" remix featuring Blouson Chiemi was released on iTunes on June 8, 2017.[6]

"Dirty Work" is a "bouncy, funky jam"[7] that Mahone describes as having "a Bruno Mars / "Uptown Funk" type of vibe."[1]

The song received positive reviews. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard called it Mahone's "best and most ambitious single to date".[8] Mike Wass of Idolator called it a 'retro-leaning banger' and likened it to hits by Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake,[9] while Fuse's Jeff Benjamin wrote "At times the guitars sound a bit like the ones in Michael Jackson's "Black or White."[10]

The music video for "Dirty Work" was filmed in April, 2015.[11] Mahone stated in an interview with WiLD 94.9 that the video would be in black and white.[1] However, Mahone later re-shot the video with an entirely new concept, and this original version of the video was never released.

In early July, Mahone filmed a second video for the song, inspired by the TV series The Office.[12] This version of the video was released on July 27, 2015.[13] In it, Mahone plays the office heart-throb, who is pursuing the sexy new girl. It includes a cast of fellow workers, who goof around and dance with Mahone throughout the video, with The Office style interviews to camera inter-cut throughout.