On Friday afternoon, Justin Bieber lit up switchboards continent-wide when he prompted fans to dial in to hear his take on Drake's "Hotline Bling."
Justin's version of the song tells a slightly different story than the original. It finds the young pop star confronting a woman who has been keeping two different men on her speed dial: the first being the young pop star, and, according to the song's writer Poo Bear, the second is his "brother for life" Drake.
"We rewrote it to make it be more like him and Drake dating the same girl, and then him finding out and actually talking to the girl, like, 'I know you called him on his cell phone,'" Poo Bear told The FADER over the phone shortly after the song was released. "[We decided,] let's remix it so this girl knows she's not going to come between two friends. I thought it was really like a little baby soap opera."
The song came together quickly, he explained, after Bieber's manager Scooter Braun decided that Bieber should record a remix of Drake's song and release it via a hotline number. Poo Bear scratched out the song after getting the call from Justin last weekend. "I thought it was brilliant," he said. "I wrote it and then he flew me into Milan. We cut it on Monday and now it's Friday and it's out. I haven't even heard it yet."
