Pop Style

Album: Views (2016)
Charted: 33 16
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Songfacts®:

  • This trap-inflected banger was one of two Drake singles released on April 5, 2016, alongside "One Dance." The song title is a Jamaican term meaning "ballin'" or "showing off." The phrase was famously used on reggae duo Althea and Donna's 1978 UK #1 hit "Uptown Top Ranking." ("Nah pop no style, a strictly roots.")
  • Drake enlists Kanye West and Jay-Z under their The Throne moniker here to deliver rhymes about money, women, popular culture and their critics. Yeezy and Hova's 2011 collaborative project was titled Watch The Throne but this was the first time the superstars have actually performed under the name "The Throne."
  • Some have speculated that the collaboration may be in response to Drake throwing down the gauntlet to the famous pair on the If You're Reading This It's Too Late bonus track, "6PM in New York," when he spat: "You rappin' like the throne should be the three of y'all."
  • Drake delivers the first verse and then passes the baton to Jay-Z who spits just two lines before West's contribution. Yeezy's verse stirred up an old controversy, as he references his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift's speech at the 2009 VMAs, which started the (ahem) bad blood between them. ("I'mma let you finish but…I just I just I just wanna rock your body.")
  • The version on Views is different. It features only Drake with a new verse, removing Kanye West's and Jay Z's contributions. Asked by Zane Lowe why he cut The Throne's rhymes, Drake replied: "I just ended up going with my version of the song... Jay didn't really do a verse. I was just trying to get 'Ye on it first. Jay kinda just did my first few lines for me and that's how we flexed it... It didn't play out how I wanted it to go. Sometimes [Jay Z and I] just fall on opposite sides of the spectrum. It's always mutual respect but sometimes it has to be from afar."

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