Drake – One Dance (Lyrics Review and Song Meaning)

When a song spends for weeks on number one spot in Billboard Hot 100 chart, it tells us something. By the looks of it, almost all the tracks from Drake’s last album ‘Views’ is on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Among them “One Dance” had bee quite dominant of the charts around the world. “One Dance” is the 12th track on the ‘Views’ album and features Wizkid and Kyla on different parts of the song.

Listen to “One Dance” by Drake Featuring Wizkid and Kyla

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Download “One Dance” Single on iTunes and Amazon

Download ‘Views’ Album on iTunes and Amazon

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Song Review and Meaning of “One Dance” by Drake

 Kyla gives the introduction to the song.

Baby I like your style

Surprisngly enough, this line has been taken from Kyla’s “Do You Mind” track released in 2008.

Drake comes in for the first verse of “One Dance”.

Grips on your waist
Front way, back way

Drake is grinding on his girl to the music, with his hands on his waist. ‘Front way, back way’ is when you switch your position during a dance–from facing front to the man to facing back to the man–allowing Drake to grind on her.

You know that I don’t play
Streets not safe
But I never run away
Even when I’m away

The singer is in it for the long haul. As much as he gets dirty with her on the dance floor, he expects to continue the dance of life with her ’till death do us part’.

Drake doesn’t want to leave her alone. The world is a cruel place. Drake has to travel a lot, but even so he is always with her.

Oti, oti, there’s never much love when we go OT
I pray to make it back in one piece
I pray, I pray

What does “oti” mean? Genius.com has an interesting view on the word “oti” used in “One Dance” by Drake. They say;

In Yoruba (one of the Nigerian languages that Wizkid speaks), there’s some great wordplay going on that English listeners will miss. See, “oti” means “no,” but “ọtí” (that’s oti with a short o and a rising i) means “liquor.”

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Well, in a more simpler sense, ‘OT’ stands for overtime-which means a person is usually working beyond normal hours. Drake says it’s a tough life balancing work (extended hours) and a relationship. The love ceases. Usually when he travels, he often prays to get back in one piece-because there’s literally a million ways you could die just right now, reading this review (I pray that don’t happen though!).

Hook of the song lives up to it’s expectations. I can’t get the hook out of my head.

That’s why I need a one dance
Got a Hennessy in my hand
One more time ‘fore I go
Higher powers taking a hold on me
I need a one dance
Got a Hennessy in my hand
One more time ‘fore I go
Higher powers taking a hold on me

Drake is requesting her lady friend another dance before he leaves for his OT work. He admits that he’s got a liquor bottle in his hand and the buzz is talking to him. ‘Higher powers’ mean that little voice that speaks to us when we are drunk. And that little voice is telling the singer to do things and he is obeying the voice (“taking a hold on me”). That can’t be a good thing.

Verse 2 follows after the bridge by Kyla.

Strength and guidance
All that I’m wishing for my friends

 Drake wishes strength and best wishes for his friends.

Nobody makes it from my ends
I had to bust up the silence

‘Ends’ here mean an area or hometown. In that context, Drake says there’s very little people who have succeeded from where he is-Toronto, maybe? He could just be meaning the music industry or the general world of success for that matter. When he made it to the international music arena, he broke the silence of the music game in his ends, and possibly woke up other talents with his noise.

You know you gotta stick by me
Soon as you see the text, reply me
I don’t wanna spend time fighting
We’ve got no time

Again, back to his love life, Drake says he wishes his better half would stick by him through all the rough patches. He doesn’t want to bother his conscience by having to wait for a reply for a text. Life is short, enjoy the little time you have, and enjoy the even less time you have with your loved ones.

The hook of “One Dance” repeats again.

Wizkid gets his own verse here;

Got a pretty girl and she love me long time
Wine it, wine it, very long time
Oh yeah, very long time
Back up, back up, back up and wine it
Back up, back up and wine it, girl
Back up, back up, back up and wine it
Oh yeah, very long time
Back, up, back up and wine it, girl

The singer and his lover has been loving good for a long time now. They enjoy their dancing-especially the Afro-Caribbean moves and beats-quite similar to music of “One Dance”.

‘Wine it’ is a sexy dance move popular in the Afro-Caribbean regions. It’s a sensual hip/butt movement in a circular motion. Look at the picture below.

‘Back up’ is yet another term used in dancing, where the woman faces her back to the man and draws in closer and closer to the man, touching his body.

Kyla and Wizkid combine their voices on the bridge of “One Dance” occurring next.

Tell me
I need to know, where do you wanna go?
Cause if you’re down, I’ll take it slow
Make you lose control
Where, where, where
Where, where, where, where
Oh yeah, very long time
Where, where, where
Back, up, back up and wine it, girl
Where, where, where, where
Cause if you’re down
Back up, back up and
Cause if you’re down
Back up, back up and
Cause if you’re down
Back up, back up and

First 6 lines are done by Kyla. She asks where is this relationship taking them? And if the guy feels not comfortable with her yet, she will back down and take things slow. And in the end when they do get together it will be fireworks. This annotation is done ignoring obvious sexual innuendo in these two lines.

The hook hits up one more time and “One Dance” comes to an end.

“One Dance” is a smooth track-much like most of Drake’s work. The lyrics are simple and up to the beat and the music is just fascinating. We do find the obvious Afro-beats mixed in to the track and it just works.

Before we leave you, we would like to present to you some amazing covers done by fans to “One Dance”. Some are acoustic covers and some are dance covers. Enjoy!

Conor Maynard does some amazing covers to almost all the hit singles.

Amazing voice on his cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0lTE3ecuVA

A cool dance cover.

 And an acoustic cover of “One Dance” to end it all.

Drop a comment below on your thoughts about this hit sensation. Do you move to this song?