7. Drake Did the Log On in “Hotline Bling,” The Year’s Most Meme-worthy Music Video

Drake inspired one of the year’s biggest memes this fall with his freestyle grandpa dancing in the video for โHotline Bling.โ When Drake starts to bubble with his โHotline Blingโ dance partner, Jamaican-Canadian choreographer Tanisha Scott, against Director Xโs minimalist backdrop, he was actually paying homage to some classic dancehall steps. As Scott joins Drake towards the end of the video, we see the pair doing the Log On dance created by Mr. Bogle and popularized by Elephant Man. In fact, it’s the same move that Scott, who has brought dancehall steps to a flowing list of music videos, and Director X did together over a decade earlier, in Sean Paul’s groundbreaking โGimme The Lightโ video, a clip Drake cited as inspiration for โHotline Bling.โ (In an interview with the Fader, Scott cited John Travolta and Uma Thurmanโs exchange in Pulp Fiction and โthe way we move in Torontoโ among the elements that inspired her take.
For more ways Drake has been influenced by dancehall, see LargeUp’s countdown of Drake’s โMost Dancehall Moments.โ โ Ola Mazzuca