Drake follows dancehall trend with Hotline Bling
Published:Thursday | October 22, 2015 | 12:00 AMCurtis Campbell
Canadian rapper Drake has peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single Hotline Bling. He recently told Billboard.com that his ultimate dream is to rise to the No.1 spot for the first time in his illustrious career.
The artiste, who is also born in October, said that achieving that feat this month would have been the ultimate birthday gift.
Those statements were made last week when the song first entered the No.2 spot. However, another week has passed and despite releasing a viral music video, Drake's Hotline Bling still sits beneath fellow Canadian artiste The Weeknd, who holds down the No.1 spot with The Hills.
Adding to Drake's disappoint-ment, up-and-coming recording artiste D.R.A.M also accused the rapper of borrowing elements of his song Cha Cha, which was released on a similar rhythm.
Drake later responded to D.R.A.M's claims, saying that his use of the rhythm was similar to the practice of Jamaican dancehall artistes to deliver their lyrics on the same rhythm.
SUNNIER BEAT
Drake, who is no stranger to Jamaican music, told The Fader, "You know, like in Jamaica, you'll have a riddim and it's like, everyone has to do a song on that," Drake said. Imagine that in rap, or imagine that in R&B. Imagine if we got one beat and every single person - me, this guy, this guy, all these guys - had to do a song on that one beat. So sometimes I'll pick a beat that's a bit, like, sunnier - I guess is the word you used - than usual, and I just try my hand at it. And that's kind of what Hotline Bling was. And I loved it. It's cool. I've been excited by that sort of creative process," he said.
Hotline Bling has been on the chart for 11 weeks.
Still on the topic of Jamaican music, OMI's Cheerleader has fallen to No.14 this week. Meanwhile, Tarrus Riley and Major Lazer's Powerful continues its slow progression up the chart, moving up one place to No.83 this week.
The Game's Documentary 2 album holds the No.2 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, while Selena Gomez holds the No.1 spot with Revival.
The reggae Billboard chart did not see many changes this week, except for the return of the Easy Skanking In Boston '78 album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, which currently sits at No.10, after falling outside the top 10 for the last two weeks.