1) In 2-3 sentences, describe a couple details from Drake’s video that stand out to you (the background, the outfits, the lighting, the dancing, the facial expressions, etc.)
2) Find a quotation from Caraminica’s article that connects to what you wrote in #1. In 1-2 sentences, write about the connection between the details you noticed in the video and the passage you’ve found in Caraminica’s article. EX: This aspect of Drake’s video can be connected to Jon Caraminica’s analysis of it: ________ (explain the connection)
3) Now make a connection back to what you wrote about memes earlier. Â How does Drake’s video and/or Caraminica’s text about it relate to what you said about meme’s earlier?
EX: Earlier I mentioned how memes ______(re-state something you said about the topic earlier). This connects to ________(something you’ve noticed in Drake’s video or Caraminica’s text)____.
2. Read Jace Clayton’s text called “on rap and white noise” (handed out in class and available online).
1) “Hotline Bling” the music video by Drake was a massive success gaining more than a billion views.Thanks to the social media that made it so huge.The dance moves by Drake was mainly the most shared meme. People took those dance moves and turned them into pictures with hilarious captions or turned them into short videos or GIF for entertainment.So for that reason the dance moves stood out to me.
2) The article on Drake by Caraminica talked about how his song turned into a meme. On the 3rd page of the article she stated”We were looking at playbacks and he was like ‘this is totally going to be meme” which was said by Drake. Drake knew all of this would happen. People turned that song into a meme which also made this song go viral.
3) Both Drakes music video and Caraminica’s text relates to what i said about meme.Earlier i mentioned how memes can make a person popular and how they can make their work go viral.Which exactly what happened.Not long after the music video was released, people took Drakes dance moves and turned them into pictures, videos or GIF s which were shared from one person to another for non genetic means.People found them funny and because of memes a lot of people watched the music video which helped it gain more than a billion views.
1) In 2015, Drake released ”Hotline Bling.” it became a success winning numerous awards for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Song at the 2016 American Music Awards. It also received two wins at the 2017 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance. what stood the most out would be minimalist set design Director X used that was inspired by American artist James Turrell and how drake dancing made up for the emptiness in the room. without drake Comedic Dance move it would’ve been boring, but watching drake dance you can see he isn’t the best dancer but him having fun is very enjoyable to watch and people made a meme from his dance.Â
2) In the New York Times article “Drake: Rapper, Actor, Meme” By Jon Caramanica On the last page of the article Caramanica states” Hotline Bling” isn’t the first time Drake has become clip art for social media.” In other words, anything drake does will eventually become an internet sensation and people will make a joke out of his dance or lyrics he says. after all, an artist needs to keep their image in the spotlight. people creating a meme about what drake does in his music video will only give him more popularity and that is what makes “Hotline Bling” viral.
3) I mentioned how people creating memes will make the artists gain popularity, which is what happened with “Hotline Bling”.drake fan took a clip of Drakes dance moves from the music video and made it into GIF and meme, and were posted on popular social media sites like facebook, twitter, and Tumblr. people who don’t normally listen to drake would find the “hotline bling” meme funny.
1) In the Hotline Bling video Drake, was in what seemed to be a white box, with a dancer. He was wearing an all black outfit along with the dancer, the lighting was white but dim. Drake had choreographed routine in which they showed towards the end of the music video.
2) In the Hotline Bling video ” which mostly surrounds Drake with Blank space.Theres also the nature of dancing itself…” In the Caraminica’s article she describes how Drake is mostly sourronded by some white cube in which he shows off his dance moves with a dancer.
3) Drakes video and Caraminica’s article can connect with what I believe about memes because I feel like its something relatable with different aspects.
In the music video “Hotline Bling” that was released by Drake,currently sits at 1.5 billion views on YouTube. The music video was popularized by memes and being considered one of the best rap songs.A couple of things that stood out to me the most was whenever the beat/melody changed the lighting in the background would change to a different color.He also wore all black in order to stand out a lot more whenever certain colors changed.Consistently changing his hand and body movement to match this music was also really well done,such as towards the end of the video where he was pretending to brush the air downwards to match the beat (This became the tennis swinging meme).
In the New York Times article “Drake: Rapper, Actor, Meme” By Jon Caramanica in the 5th paragraph in the article Caramanica states “They’re small moves that he repeats-in essence,he’s making a GIF of himself, anticipating what will inevitable happen to him online”.Basically what Jon is saying here is that the movements that Drake does in the video can easily be turned into a meme ,good memes at that.This also referred back to the hand gestures I mentioned.
Drakes music video relates back to what I was saying as to how everyone loves a good laugh and memes are a perfect source for that.So with mostly everyone’s favorite song becoming a meme it was then became even more popularized and talked about.Even if no one heard of the song if they were to look at the memes and the video they would find it funny.
The video itself had a plain background but the use of bold colors caught my attention. What does Hotline Bling and memes have in common? As stated by one of my classmates the video facilitated memes. Aspects like his off beat and ridiculous dancing as well as his facial expressions were easy targets for people to make memes. It gave birth to some of the most iconic memes we know today. In stanza four Caramanica stated ” No celebrity understands the mechanism of internet obsession better than Drake.” This ties in with what was said earlier about doing it to facilitate memes. Its an easy way to stay relevant and make more money.
1) In Drakes video titled hotline bling was a huge success. The term hotline bling is referred to as his phone being in a constantly active. In his video what’s noticed is the many colors and the dances he was doing was dances that didn’t seem choreographed. It’s seemed like in the video the dancing was very natural.
2) In the 5th paragraph he states “They’re small moves that he repeats-in essence,he’s making a GIF of himself, anticipating what will inevitable happen to him online.” This supports my idea because drake wasn’t trying to stand out in my opinion. What he wanted to stand out was his adaptability to the music that was playing in the background. I think the dance just came naturally to drake and it want choreographed. The author is basically saying that Drake wasn’t trying to stand out, but it just so happened to be his dance turned into a meme.
3) Drakes video relates to what I said earlier because most memes come naturally and it’s up to people like comedians or people with humor to make what is natural a meme. Memes are just things that happen naturally and they might appear funny but what makes it funny is the expression expressed along with the wording in the picture. In Drakes hotline bling video the meme was Natural and someone with humor made his dance into a meme.
In the Drake’s video the dancers was wearing an all black outfit. Lighting was white but not too bright.  The way everybody was dancing in it didn’t seem choreographed. It was very natural.
In the Hotline Bling video “The Hotline Bling video is also the moment when Drake fully becomes a meme.” The reason he become meme because they way he danced in the song. Also people turned that song into a meme which also made the song viral.Â
Memes are found on someone naturally and they might appear funny. Also making someone meme can be a way to sort through complex feelings of fandom.Â
In the beginning there were several women in what seems like a cubicle like rooms, talking on the phone but the rest of the video is just Drake dancing very, “passionately,” in other cubes in various colors. Also what I thought was interesting was that the women on the phone were in a cubicle, like mentioned earlier, in a job like setting. But Drake was singing about a person who used to call him, and it’d be interesting to think there is a connection.
Drake is self-aware. “…a photo of [Drake] on the set of DJ Khaled’s ‘No New Friends video, which caught him mid-pose wearing a throwback Damani Dada athletic outfit, became a web sensation… what did Drake do when he found out about those shirts? He ordered some. What did he do with the video of him dancing to Aventura? He posted it to his own Instagram account… You don’t meme Drake; Drake memes Drake” (pg 57). In essence Drake’s self-awareness allows him to take his brand to another level, he doesn’t take himself too seriously and when a moment arrives where he is the joke he embraces it.
Memes are usually in a format. For example memes can be reused and written under different captions or different scenarios. The video Drake made made a great meme format due to his “passionate dancing.” Maybe the exact frame wasn’t intended to be a meme, but ultimately it made for a great meme.
1)Drake’s music video, “Hotline Bling” was a massive success. I personally thought it was a good song and the MV was produced nicely. Not only is the music video marketed in a way for viewers like myself to enjoy but, to also take something away from it, like how the fact that Drake is absolutely not a great dancer. Haven watched it a few couple times I’ve noticed much more than Drakes non existent dancing abilities. I’ve noticed how the producers added lighting effects( different colors) at the background while drake was dancing, I might be wrong but I guess that was to probably to distract the viewers from Drakes horrible dance moves. All jokes aside, Drake was probably just having fun and dancing however he felt like. Thanks to that though, he became a whole meme and the internet went extremely wild with that one.
2) In his article, “Drake: Rapper, Actor, Meme”  Jon Caramanica proclaims “They’re small moves that he repeats-in essence,he’s making a GIF of himself, anticipating what will inevitable happen to him online”. This quote from this intriguing article in which, Caramanica does a good in analyzing Drake, connects to what I basically observed in the music video. Drake becoming a dancing meme GIF was probably one of the funniest things I’ve seen back when it first came about. As mentioned previously, the Internet always remains undefeated as they extremely went in on Drake but, in a jokingly manner of course.
1. Some details that stand out to me from the Drakes video would be the lights and even his clothing, he is wearing modern clothing yet it still doesnt stand out too much and he doesnt come out looking too flashy. This video is different from all other videos he has done, hes alone in this video and theres not too much going on. The choice of colors are interesting and they stand out a lot
3. What I wrote about memes connects to Drake is that memes go viral, and so does Drakes music video. The reason for them going viral is it usually gives the viewers topics that are relatable and that interesting to the crowd. Giving the viewers what they want attract them into wanting more