Drake served a slice of ’90s nostalgia on one of the songs that made the songlist on his Certified Lover Boy album. Rapper “One Dance” sampled a cover of Christopher Cross’s hit song “Sailing” recorded by * NSYNC.
The boy band’s cover originally landed on their self-titled debut album in 1997, and the deep cut makes a modern-day reappearance on Drake’s “TSU”. Band member Chris Kirkpatrick opened up about the surprise credit in an interview with Variety. “It’s flattering when things like that happen and with us it doesn’t happen that often,” he admitted. “It makes you feel old, but also makes you say, ‘At least we affected the music today. “It’s cool that we had a little helping hand in the music landscape today.
The singer added that he didn’t know why Drake chose his version of the song over the original. “If I could guess why Drake is doing what he’s doing, I could be Drake,” he commented. “I guess he got an idea, followed it and it worked perfectly.” He revealed that he has yet to discuss the song with his other band mates.
Asked about the possibility of collaborating with the rapper, Kirkpatrick seemed ready and willing. “I would sit down and say, ‘Tell us what you want us to do and we’ll find a solution.'”
It should be noted that this is not the first * NSYNC sample to appear recently. Ariana Grande sampled “It Makes Me Ill” from their 2000 album No Strings Attached on “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored”. She took the song to No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019.
While Drake’s sample offers a welcome dose of nostalgia, it’s not without controversy as the song also credits disgraced hit-maker R. Kelly. A representative for the artist “Hotline Bling” declined to comment on Rolling Stone’s on-demand credit. However, Drake’s producer Noah “40” Shebib shared a glimpse of the decision.
“On a song called tsu at the start, there’s a sample of OG Ron c speaking,” he explained in the comments section of an Instagram post. “Behind that weak voice that you can’t even hear is a Kelly song playing in the background. It has no meaning, no words are present, Kelly’s voice is not even present, but if we wanted to use Ron c to speak, we had to allow it.
“It doesn’t suit me, just let me say that,” Shebib added. “And I’m not here to defend the lyrics of Drakes, but thought I would clarify that there is no real r Kelly present and it’s a bit misleading to call him a co-lyricist. . “
