Drake does it again with his simple and sexy new music video for his hot hit single “Hotline Bling.” The 6 God dropped the video, directed by the well known Director X (the director formerly known as Little X), Monday night at 6 p.m. PT exclusively via Apple Music. This visual accompaniment comes at the perfect time as the track inches its way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song has blown up to new proportions, with hot remixes done by neo-soul queen Erykah Badu, Keyshia Cole, Sam Smith and up-and-coming superstar Kehlani. This video is the perfect strategic move to revitalize a song that's going on nearly three months old. The visuals are colorful yet subtle and the total opposite to the video for “Energy,” which had a whole lot of shock factor.
The video opens with a crew of lovely, curvaceous telephone operators answering phones at a call center before cutting to Drake, as sensitive and suave as ever, dancing by himself in a neon yellow box. He’s joined at some moments by his beautiful co-stars, but a lot of the video’s focus is on the rapper/singer randomly two-stepping in various outfits. The scenes and Drake's interpretive dance fit the lyrical flow of the “Hotline Bling.” The shots of Drake alone emphasize the loneliness he feels in the track while the slowly changing and pulsing mix of pastel colors match its mellow mood. Some of Drake's dance moves are borderline comical, but the opening and closing scenes are clever spins on the song's title while the use of color is engaging and enticing. Also, props to Drake for keeping it sexy, but not too sexy as the cast of curvy girls do their thang without having to be scantily clad or all twerking. At the end of the day, the music video for “Hotline Bling” epitomizes what Drake does best, which is being Drake -- sensitivity, awkwardness and all.
