Drake reaches peak levels of dork in “Hotline Bling” video

By Ryan, November 18, 2015

By Liz Reichart//A&E Editor

October has always been the month of Drake. It’s a miracle he hasn’t trademarked it yet. Not only is his birthday in October, but the name of his label? “October’s Very Own.” Back in July when the hip hop artist released the smash hit “Hotline Bling,” it only made sense that the answer to the question on everyone’s mind- “When is the music video going to drop?” would be in October. And when it did, it was the drop heard around the world.
The video itself has an unusual aesthetic: a set of hazy futuristic cubes use light and space to frame Drake and his companions in a striking glow. “Questionable” is the word that first comes to mind when I was first appreciated Drake’s dance moves. For an icon that typically exhibits bravado the likes of Kanye West in his music videos (see “Energy” or “Worst Behavior”), it almost feels like the dropping of pretense. We see this dorky, vulnerable man in a turtleneck, flailing his limbs in an attempt to either put out a fire or return a serve for match point. We can’t really be sure, but nothing has stopped the Internet from making a few million guesses. Probably the hottest legal activity on the Internet at this moment involves making a joke about Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video. From hundreds of thousands of Vines to GIFs of Drake playing Wii Sports or riding on a Star Trek ship, the world cannot seem to get over this seemingly laughable Canadian whose real name is Aubrey and who won’t take off that puffy jacket for even a minute.
“He’s a good dancer, man. We’re all used to music video dancers being people you need to pay professionally, but that’s legitimate, out-on-the-dance-floor, having fun, dancing right there,” Director X, who as you may guess from his name, directs music videos for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Ciara, and now Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” said. “No, it’s not Chris Brown or Michael Jackson. People need to dance again.,” Director X said. “I’m always good to promote dancing. Men have stopped dancing. I go to nightclubs and I see girls dancing and men not dancing. It’s a horrible thing.”
But for fans that are familiar with Drake’s unbridled enthusiasm to whatever he finds cool, this video hardly makes us blink. It was said best by the title of a “Jezebel” piece written upon the video’s release: “Drake is the Biggest Dork in Hip-Hop and he Knows It.” It’s evident that Drake created this on purpose,and is making a larger social statement about hip hop and his influence as an artist with his curious “Hotline Bling” compilation. Drake is subverting the idea that as a hip hop artist, he can only belong to one collective subculture- the idea that you can only belong to one culture is dying off altogether. Drake’s dorky influence has seeped into pop culture, something that probably wouldn’t have been possible 10 or 15 years ago because there wasn’t the audience for it. We can point and call Drake with his owl iconography corny all we want, but your resting hand will be doing that spastic flailing motion he is now synonymous with on all seven continents.