It all started when Beyoncé liked it. That’s when many people came to know D.R.A.M. and his “Cha Cha” song.
It no doubt got heads excited about the Caribbean sound. Enter Drake’s “Hotline Bling.”
The song itself, of course, echoes D.R.A.M.’s “Cha Cha.” Both vocalists follow similar lines. The sample in “Hotline Bling” of Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together” hovers around the same chord progression that “Cha Cha” achieved by sampling Super Mario. Regarding their songs’ overlap, D.R.A.M. recently tweeted, “I feel like I got jacked for my record.”
Well in a recent Fader interview, Drake spoke about the connection between the songs though his comments haven’t been published until now. He seems to acknowledge that “Hotline Bling” was based on “Cha Cha” and describes the song as a modern-rap equivalent to a dancehall artist recording their own spin on a hot riddim.
“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.”
Ok….In another recent FADER interview with R. City, the hit-making brothers from the Virgin Islands also link “Cha Cha” to a Caribbean, or at least global, state of mind. “The world is opening so much and America is opening so much,” said Theron Thomas. “We’re in a place in this country where we’ve seen it all and heard it all. That’s why on urban radio black kids are like, I like to cha cha. Cause like, what is it? I’ve never heard anything like it… We’re getting flooded with information all the time, so the only things that can stand out are the things that stand out.”
So there you have it ….
Leave a Reply