Drake released “Hotline Bling” during his Beats 1 OVO Sound radio show following July; since that time, the song has turned into a phenomenon. It instantly eclipsed the rapper’s Meek Mill diss track “Charged Up” (which arrived the same day), despite all of the hoopla around the Drake-Meek beef. “Hotline Bling” recently climbed to Number Three about the Billboard Hot 100, that makes it Drake’s second-biggest pop hit currently. The track is surely an outlier from the rapper’s catalog, a bizarre blend of an existing soul sample — Timmy Thomas’s “Why Can’t We Live Together,” the primary Seventies hits to employ a drum machine — a delicate Latin pulse and also the frenetic drums which may have a stranglehold on modern pop. But Drake’s lyrics are of the piece together with his past work, equal parts jealousy, bitterness and self-indulgence.

In today’s pop world, the measure of any song’s impact is when many tributes it inspires — vines, dance routines, covers, memes — and “Hotline Bling” is often a runaway success with this standard, too. The track has spawned numerous alternate renditions and remixes (including Seth Everman’s wacky Nintendo-fied take). Interestingly, the majority of the new versions attended from women. More interpretations will definitely roll in, but Rolling Stone rated seven below with a five-star scale. Check sheet music.

Producers BC Kingdom and Jonny dispense with Drake’s treacly organ sample in favor of any minimal compilation of steel-drum-like blobs. These complement Mila J’s vocals — husky if they are low, breathy if they are high — to offer the song surprise sensuality. This version sounds a lot more a come-on than a representation of angst: a notable transformation.