Before music, acting was Drake’s obsession, and he was pretty successful at it, too. In recent years, he’s been laser-focused on his music, yet he still successfully implemented aspects from his favourite film into the video for ‘Hotline Bling’.
The multiple Grammy Award-winning track is just one of Drake’s megahits, and the dance moves that he flexed in the video became engrained in the wider culture. No expense was spared on the iconic ‘Hotline Bling’ visuals, with Apple financing the project in exchange for Drizzy exclusively airing it first on their platform, and it has since become a meme for the ages.
Drake linked up with frequent collaborator and fellow Toronto native Tanisha Scott for the visuals. As well as helping choreograph his live shows, she’s also helped him with the videos for tracks like ‘In My Feelings’, ‘I’m So Upset’, and ‘Work’.
Scott speaks fondly of Drake and claims that he’s the easiest artist to work with out of everyone she’s come across. Talking to Billboard specifically about how they created ‘Hotline Bling’, she said, “He’s an entertainer. He’s not one-dimensional. That video, he basically choreographed himself. People think I choreographed it, I didn’t, that’s him. The part where we’re dancing together, that was him.
“His favourite movie is Pulp Fiction with John Travolta, and that little part that we’re doing, that was John Travolta and Uma Thurman. He was literally telling me, ‘Tanisha, jump on me,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ Then he said, ‘Look at me, Tanisha. Now fall on the floor and get down real flat.’ And that’s when he put his head on me. He already knew what he wanted.”
The influence of John Travolta and Uma Thurman on ‘Hotline Bling’ would be lost to the untrained eye. However, Drizzy tried to replicate the crazed energy that the couple expresses in Pulp Fiction and create something equally unbridled.
The video was a landmark one for Drake, as it was the first time that he’d danced on camera. Furthermore, to see a man express himself through dance is seldom seen in the hip-hop world, and it broke down barriers.
Scott remembered, “Right before we went on, everyone came around the set to watch us. I hadn’t been in a music video in a long time. Drake was like, ‘If this is my first video where I’m dancing, I want my moment with you.’ We just freestyled. It was just a follow-the-leader moment.”
Watch Scott and Drizzy carry out their best Pulp Fiction impression in the visuals for ‘Hotline Bling’ below.
