Backstreet Boys Joke To Drake: We Came Up With ‘Hotline Bling’ First

Can you hear them now? Backstreet’s back – and they’re
giving Drake a “call.” 

The Backstreet Boys have teased Drake over his smash hit “Hotline
Bling,” currently the No. 2 song on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Claiming they came up with the lyrical theme first, the boy
band cited their 2001 single “The Call” as possible inspiration for
Drizzy’s newest track.  

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“Not to cause any beef @Drake,” the group Tweeted
on Friday, “but before there was Hotline Bling… there was The Call.” 

The guys kept the statement lighthearted with a winking
emoji, and later added to the riff with a Tweet parodying the “Hotline
Bling” cover art.

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Backstreet’s good-natured jab isn’t the first time Drake’s
been, well, called out for “Hotline Bling’s” similarity to other
songs. In a recent interview with Fader, the Toronto MC addressed comparisons
between his latest jam and rapper D.R.A.M.’s “Cha Cha.”

“You
know, like in Jamaica, you’ll have a riddim and it’s like, everyone has to do a
song on that. Imagine that in rap, or imagine that in R&B. Imagine if we
got one beat and every single person—me, this guy, this guy, all these guys—had
to do a song on that one beat,” he explained. “So sometimes I’ll pick
a beat that’s a bit, like, sunnier … I just try my hand at it. And that’s kind
of what ‘Hotline Bling’ was.”

All chatter aside, Drake and his predecessors may have
dialed in a bit too early. “Hotline Bling” is now facing tough
competition from a new phone-related jam.

Adele’s “Hello” debuted on Friday and claimed the
No. 1 spot on iTunes – in 85 countries – within hours of its release.

— Erin Biglow