Drake’s “Hotline Bling” Tops MTV’s Best Songs of 2015
You used to call me on my cell phone / Late night when you need my love / Call me on my cell phone / Late night when you need my love…
On December 8th, MTV released their list of the best songs for the year 2015. Beating Adele’s “Hello” was Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” This is what MTV had to say about their top choice:
Even the most ardent Drake fans may have initially missed “Hotline Bling”: When he released it in late July during an OVO Sound Radio episode, it was overshadowed by the premiere of his much-anticipated first Meek Mill dis, “Charged Up.”
But any public oversight was erased before long. Despite some criticism of the track for its interpolation of D.R.A.M.’s “Cha Cha,” it soon crept onto radio nearly every hour, all the way to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and through your ear canal and up into your brain, where it found a permanent home. With no rapping on the track, the hit combined the essential elements of Pop Star Drake for their most streamlined delivery to date: Relatable, innovatively penned verses about a relationship; an easily digestible chorus, comprised of numerous bite-sized, repeatable moments; and an array of melodious Drake flows.
As Aubrey’s highest-charting song since his 2009 breakout, “Best I Ever Had,” “Hotline Bling” could have staked a claim at or near the top of this list on its own. But with the accompanying music video, which dropped in October, the song took on a new life and cultural meaning. Ever the Internet savant, Drake created a visual that — as I have to assume he knew and planned — was ripe for meme-ing. Suddenly, Twitter, Vine, Instagram and text message inboxes were overrun with “Hotline Bling”-inspired clips, not to mention the timely Halloween costumes it inspired.
As Drake taught us, that can only mean one thing: “Hotline Bling” is the song of the year.