Drake’s New Tracks Show The Rapper Staking His Claim To Kanye And Jay Z’s Hip-Hop Throne

On ‘6PM In New York’, Drake‘s bonus track to his surprise, platinum-selling 2015 mixtape ‘If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’, the Toronto rapper – often prone to pondering his own legacy – throws down the gauntlet and spells out his utmost intent. “You rappin’ like the throne should be the three of y’all,” he boasts, making a markedly self-aware reference to Kanye West and Jay-Z‘s collaborative album ‘Watch The Throne’. Drizzy’s aim to top hip-hop’s long-ruling party of two has not dampened over the last twelve months, either, with recent single ‘Summer Sixteen’ seeing Drake brag about having a “bigger pool than Kanye”.

Unlike Kendrick Lamar with his infamous ‘Control’ verse, Drake sometimes opts to keep his rivals close, with both West and Hov (billed as The Throne) appearing on one of two new tracks unveiled today, with this triple-threat effort titled ‘Pop Style’.

The song is a slowburner meant to whet appetites for ‘Views’, with the star’s lyrics largely focusing on his recent beefs (“I can’t trust no fuckin’ body / They still out to get me cause they never got me”), hitmaking ability (“You’ve still got my number, girl you need to call me” making a nod to ‘Hotline Bling’) and head-shakingly Drake-esque one-liners (“Got so many chains they call me Chaining Tatum“).

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West and Jay Z are largely on autopilot. In fact, only two lines from Jay Z make the final cut. Perhaps it shows how keen Drake is to curry favour with his idols that he’s settled for such below-par cameos, or maybe it illustrates just how close to their heels Drake is that he virtually outshines them on ‘Pop Style’.

Listen to ‘Pop Style’ via iTunes.

Even though the guests on ‘Pop Style’ will undoubtedly attract all the headlines, Drake’s ‘One Dance’, a Wizkid-featuring number that continues Drizzy’s recent nod to the UK underground and Caribbean. After befriending Skepta, rubbing shoulders with Section Boyz and getting a Boy Better Know tattoo, Drake has now paid homage to classic UK funky by sampling the Crazy Cousinz remix of Kyla’s ‘Do You Mind’. ‘One Dance’ is a dancehall-indebted dancefloor-filler, the size of which we’ve not heard since ‘Hotline Bling’. Expect to hear it everywhere shortly.

Listen to ‘One Dance’ via iTunes.

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