“Hotline Bling” and Hotline Memes

Ravi Rathee
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

It was the year 2015. Drake was already a well-established rapper, singer, and actor but this was before his major breakthrough with the 2016 album, Views. This was before his hit single “One Dance” would take over the charts and break records the summer of 2016. In this song, Drake discusses his on and off relationship with a girl from Toronto. As stated “You used to call me on my cellphone. Late night when you need my love”. This song peaked at the number 2 spot on the Billboard charts and went platinum seven times. Drake also received two Grammy awards for the “Best Rap/Sung Performance” and “Best Rap Song” from this single alone. When the song initially released in August 2015 it was hardly popular; however, on October 26th, 2015 the official music video was released. Within hours the video gained millions of views and became insanely popular. With Drake’s uncanny dance moves, cool lighting sequences, and infectious beat; the song was all over social media. People were copying Drake’s dance moves and making memes out of the music video. My personal favorite meme is the one of Drake dancing but having a racket in his hand and him hitting tennis balls. Even now in 2018, you can still see new memes from this music video on Instagram or Twitter. Drakes success on this single has to be owed to the music video. The song was out for months before the music video was released and hardly gained any traction on the Billboard charts. The video now in 2018 has 1.4 billion views. Director X, the director of the music video, even stated in an interview with Genius, “I was not expecting the madness”. The madness he refers to is the social media storm that was caused by this music video. I honestly believe that now in order for a song or music video to become commercially successful it needs to resonate with a large audience. The best way this can be achieved is through social media and memes. In this day in age, memes are remembered, enjoyed, and embraced by anyone with a cellphone.

Sources:

https://genius.com/Drake-hotline-bling-lyrics

Ravi Rathee

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