Stroke The Ego

"Stroke The Ego" is a single by porno-pop singer Lucas Brandt. It is the second single taken from Lucas' debut album "World War Sex", released on April 30th, 2012. The single is Lucas' lowest peaking hit to date, although it is not his least selling, which remains his debut single. It is Lucas' third consecutive top 10 hit and third consecutive silver hit.

Background
"Stroke The Ego" was written by Lucas, and is the sixth track on Lucas' album "World War Sex". It is seen as the strongest song on the album, and follows in the same sexual vein as Lucas' previous material; the song is about a handjob, with the 'ego' of the song referring to Lucas' genitalia in a somewhat predictable metaphor. Lucas worked with American producer The Scumfrog on the song, making it a murky and dark tech-house song with a steady build to climax, fitting with the lyrics of the song which detail Lucas' 'ego' being stroked to completion.

Reception
Critics hated the song, to go along with their general hatred of Lucas; however it was grudgingly admitted that the song was the strongest cut from Lucas' album and the most obvious single choice after Lucas' Tango Challenge duet with Afrika Rose. The public was more welcoming of the song, especially coming off the back of Lucas' surprise top 2 debut with his album. Many saw the single as having a definite shot at top 3 but Lucas' sex-driven antics got in the way, and it became Lucas' lowest charting single. Radio was hesitant to play the song due to its excessively sexual tone compared to "Down My Throat", which was a large airplay hit for Lucas; however the song was a fixture in the lower portion of the chart to achieve a moderate spin total. The song's digital performance was also hampered by its relatively weak chart performance.

Music Video
The video for ‘Stroke The Ego’ begins with a floor-level shot of a man dropping his clothes; all we see are his feet and calves as he walks into the shower. The music starts as the camera pans up to show Lucas standing alone under the spray with strategically placed towels blocking the view, and with the sound of the shower being heard just over the song. Lucas ‘sings’ along to the song while ignoring the camera. Meanwhile, an unidentified man enters the shower room and knocks Lucas out with a dart. Lucas is seen coming to in some kind of dungeon; he has dark tights on and is suspended in mid-air by a set of shackles, one for each limb.

Lucas continues to ‘sing’ the song as the man who knocked him out shows up. We never see his face as he walks up to Lucas. They stare each other down, then mystery man slides down onto his knees, grabbing Lucas’ tights and pulling them down (the camera angle is just so that the man is covering Lucas’ bits). Lucas sneers sexily down at the man and ‘sings’ to him as the man presumably strokes Lucas’ ego. Lucas seems to be getting really into it, until the man stops and leaves. We still don’t see his face, but Lucas looks incredibly annoyed and bursts out of his restraints and looks angry as he follows the man out.

It seems following Mystery Man might not have been the best move (or maybe it was) because Lucas finds himself restrained again, this time lying on his back on a table and wearing green shorts. Still not seeing Mystery Man’s face, we see the man climb on top of Lucas and remove the shorts. With the camera angles and positions still blocking Lucas’ bits, we see Lucas reacting to more ego-stroking as he continues to ‘sing’ the song. The song ends as Lucas seems to have a massive orgasm (we only see above the waist though) then the camera swings round to reveal Mystery Man was another Lucas (yes he was stroking his own ego the whole time...)

Chart Performance
"Stroke The Ego" charted at #7, a position lower than Lucas' previous singles, with an opening sales week of 54,761 - Lucas' lowest opening and peak position to date, even after many predicted it would be a top 3 hit. Digital sales were hampered by the single's inability to chart well, and radio has also been resistant to the song, having peaked lowly on the airplay chart. Despite this, the song is Lucas' third consecutive silver hit and third top 10 hit. It spent five weeks on the chart and still managed to outsell Lucas' debut.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 145,419
 * Week 1: #7 - 54,761
 * Week 2: #10 - 42,766
 * Week 3: #12 - 25,403
 * Week 4: #21 - 14,990
 * Week 5: #32 - 7,499