The release of Drake’s fourth album, Views From The 6 – aka Views – is apparently imminent. To hype it up, the Toronto rap superstar has dispensed with unpredictable marketing strategies à la Kanye West’s confusing (and ongoing) The Life Of Pablo rollout and done a classic one-two by releasing one for the heads and another for pop radio.
Whereas Summer Sixteen – his last official release – was the straight-fire single, full of showy turns of phrase and tough talk, his latest banger, Pop Style, is more ambivalent.
What’s new is that Jay-Z and Kanye West have reunited under The Throne banner, but otherwise Pop Style finds the 6 God in familiar lyrical territory, rapping over a restless beat about the spoils of fame, his hard work, his mom, his hangers on, his trust issues and a girl who has his number but doesn’t call. Meanwhile the line “I got so many chains they calling me Chaining Tatum (do they)?” takes us into dad joke territory.
After a brief segue by Jay-Z, Kanye arrives and rhymes Pablo with Tahoe, high road, Chicago and “fuck if I know,” references his reported $2 million home reno and then remembers the time he made out with Kim Kardashian on the back of a Kawasaki in the Bound 2 video.
Both MCs have delivered better, and any intended humour or irony feels muted by the production’s melancholy atmospherics. So the occasion of hearing two heavyweights (Jay-Z basically has a walk-on cameo) on one track doesn’t feel as momentous as it should. At best, two A-list rappers sharing airtime should inspire a lyrical knockout attempt – Kanye West vs. Kendrick Lamar on No More Parties In L.A. – but that doesn’t happen here.
More exciting is the summer pop anthem. At first brush, the thumping One Dance feels like an attempt to get ahead of the so-called tropical house trend by not only asserting the subgenre’s indebtedness to dancehall but also by reminding everyone that UK producers have been blending reggae and soca rhythms into house-y pop and R&B for years.
The song heavily samples Kyla and Crazy Cousinz’s 2008 club classic Do You Mind?, and is full of British and Nigerian lyrical references (Nigerian singer Wizkid also features). Rihanna’s Work, Justin Bieber’s Sorry and Meghan Trainor’s No have shown that dancehall and soca are viable pop sounds in 2016, but Drake goes further by incorporating UK funky so North Americans can know what R&B nerds and BBC Radio 1 listeners already know.
Who knows if One Dance will become a Hotline Bling-level cultural juggernaut, but I would crank it while driving along the Gardiner. And it’s definitely a more exciting development than Drake’s recent decision turn Nico’s These Days into a soundtrack for your next vanilla latte.
kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie
