ABOUT DJ KHALED'S 'STAYING ALIVE'...

 Earlier this month, DJ Khaled shared his latest single, STAYING ALIVE, which interpolates Bee Gees classic with the same name.

 An interpolation is a recreation of a song in a different record: The artist reproduces the melody of the interpolated piece. This must not be confused with the sample, that consists on putting in a new song a snippet of a different record. The point is that, in the sample, you reuse part of another song in a new track, while, in the interpolation, you reproduce or replicate the interpolated song.

Both techniques are very usual on hip-hop and rap, where rappers need melodies to their tracks and they get them this way. One of the most famous is 2PAC's sample of the hit by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, The Way It is in the social Changes.

Getting now to DJ Khaled, the producer and DJ has interpolated Bee Gees 'Staying Alive' on his new single with Drake and Lil Baby, after his chart- success with Latto's Big Energy, which samples Tom Tom Club's Genius Of Love and Mariah Carey's Fantasy. 

From sample to sample, DJ Khaled brings back the Bee Gees disco classic and unmistakable Saturday Night Fever anthem. The original Stayin Alive talked about the hard life in New York in the 70s, which matches the social genesis of the genre and showed that the Bee Gees were worried about the social issues that were happening in the country. Everything was delivered in a well-polished songwrting and iconic bass riff. Moreover, the song has been used by doctors to make CPR (Cardiopulmonar Resuscitation). In contrast, there's any of that in the DJ Khaled track: Starting from the interpolation, Barry Gibb's iconic falsetto is recreated by Drake's heavily-autotuned voice that completely devalues the Bee Gees track. To continue, the trap track talks about how Drake and Lil Baby have overpassed the bad wishes of their enemies and have reached the top (of wealth and luxury, and professionally) and their experiences with women, that -apparently- use them for money or clout. To talk about this topic, the rappers objectify them to the point of talking about them like if they were playing soccer and you send the ball to one of your team:

'Baby gon' hit it and send her to me, yeahOr I'ma hit it and send her to Baby'.

'Drizzy hit her and then he send her to me'.

Maybe, people are getting used to listen to this kind of sexist lyrics on hip-hop, reggaeton or trap, but the fact of using them in a track where you interpolate a Bee Gees classic makes the impossible wish of making a new memorable track from the interpolation completely evident. If there was an attemp of paying tribute to the original piece, the result is a poor homage. In spite of everything, the track is on number 5 this week on Billboard HOT 100 and that's has made possible that Drake can be crowned as the artist with more top 5 singles on the chart, surpassing The Beatles. 




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