Five Burning Questions: DJ Khaled, Drake & Lil Baby’s ‘Staying Alive’ Debuts in Hot 100’s Top Five
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The biggest Billboard Hot 100 hitmakers of their day, the Bee Gees landed perhaps their signature chart-topper in 1978 with the Saturday Night Fever-soundtracking strutter “Stayin’ Alive.” Nearly 45 years later, the song returns to the charts via three of the most regular chart presences of their own time: lead artist DJ Khaled, with feature appearances from Drake and Lil Baby.
Of course, the star trio’s “Staying Alive” is not really a cover of the Bee Gees’ disco classic, but rather a moody trap jam — linked to the ’70s smash only by its title and Drake’s “ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin’ alive” interpolation on the chorus. Nevertheless, it’s already doing a pretty good job of imitating the original’s chart success, debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week (dated Aug. 20), as the lead single from Khaled’s upcoming God Did LP.
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Does the song go beyond its interpolation? And is 2022 pop becoming saturated with these kinds of callback hits? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
1. “Stayin’ Alive” is the week’s highest debut, and the fourth top 10 hit shared by Drake with both DJ Khaled and Lil Baby — although the first with all three. Is the song’s big launch mostly a testament to the combined star power and track record of the three artists, or do you think it’ll prove to be a hit in its own right?
Rania Aniftos: A little bit of both! Say what you want about DJ Khaled, but he knows how to make a hit. Same goes for both Drake and Lil Baby. Combine all three together, and you get a song that not only will draw listeners in due to the A-list lineup, but also have them listening on repeat due to the complementing flows. I can see “Staying Alive” being a standout summer track for rap fans and staying in the Hot 100 top 10 for the next few weeks, for sure.
Katie Bain: This one is definitely novel and interesting in the way it recontextualizes the peppy original into more of a Xanax jam, but in terms of staying power and memorability, I think its impact lies with it bringing three massive stars together. It’s definitely got a hazy, end of summer vibe, but I don’t know if it’s going to land on any of these three artists’ inevitable greatest hits albums.
Josh Glicksman: “Staying Alive” may very well stick around as the dog days of summer toil away, but the combined star power of Drake, Lil Baby and DJ Khaled was never not going to lead to a top 10 debut on the Hot 100. The three of them have enough top 10 hits over the course of their respective careers to fill the better part of an entire chart — of course, Drake does the heavy lifting there, but the point remains. The grass is green, the sky is blue and the DJ Khaled single with Drake and Lil Baby is an instant chart success. It’s good to have a few constants in life.
Jason Lipshutz: At this point, any new song that includes Drake and Lil Baby as artists is a strong bet for a top 10 debut on the Hot 100, and DJ Khaled has had a long track record of sending at least one single from each new album into the upper reaches of the chart. So, yes, the debut of “Staying Alive” can largely be chalked up to the pedigrees attached, and while it sounds like a lesser work from all three major players involved, I also wouldn’t be shocked if the concept of Drake warbling a Bee Gees hook is enough to make this one an enduring hit.
Andrew Unterberger: It does enough to get the requisite R&B radio and club play its artists demand. If it lasts much longer than the summer I’d be a little surprised, but I suppose not particularly shocked.
2. The song is the lead single from Khaled’s upcoming God Did album — is it an interesting or meaningful update of his sound or M.O. to you? Or does it tell you anything new about where Drake and/or Lil Baby are in their careers?
Rania Aniftos: It’s a more low-key sound for Khaled, which I do find interesting. I really would have to see what his next few singles sound like to decide if he released “Staying Alive” as the lead single as a representation of a new, more chill path for the producer or mostly because of the Drake feature due to the success of 2020’s “Greece” and “Popstar.”
Katie Bain: A pillar of the Khaled brand is flexing in as big of ways as possible, and I think that’s what’s going on here. It’s a flex to borrow from the Bee Gees, and it’s an even bigger flex to recruit Drake and Lil Baby for help doing so. Having both of them on the track also signifies that they’re both deep into the “if it’s fun, do it” stages of their careers, being both more or less untouchable at this point.
Josh Glicksman: I don’t know that it sonically reinvents the wheel in any significant way, but then again, why would it need to? DJ Khaled has been following the formula of bringing hip-hop’s biggest stars together on tracks for well over a decade now, and people continue to come back to the well. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more apt example of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” As far as Drake and Lil Baby, it just signals that they’re still as big as ever — not that it was really up for debate.
Jason Lipshutz: “Staying Alive” doesn’t reveal much about its triumvirate of superstars except that… Drake sounds a little weathered on the track. After finally unveiling his Certified Lover Boy opus last year, following it up with the surprise album Honestly, Nevermind in June, and hopping on tracks by artists like Future and Jack Harlow over the past few months, Drake has had a nonstop 12 months, and his half-speed approach to “Staying Alive” suggests that he needs a breather. No shame in that game, especially for the most prolific artist in the history of the Hot 100!
Andrew Unterberger: It’s definitely a little muted for a Khaled single — but not really for a Drake/Lil Baby teamup, since this is the near-exact after-hours mode that the two found themselves in for prior teamups “Wants and Needs” and “Girls Want Girls.” One of these days we’ll have to find out what those two actually sound like propped up by a four-on-the-floor dance beat.
3. “Stayin’ Alive” obviously borrows heavily from the title and chorus to the Bee Gees’ late-’70s disco classic of the same name. Does the song elevate its references, or is it mostly just a familiar hook for the song to lean on?
Rania Aniftos: For me, the latter. I was actually hoping for a song that was a bit more groovy, and was disappointed when the main reference to the Bee Gees song was Drake’s “I-I-I-I’m staying alive” in the hook. Maybe I’m just loving the disco reincarnation in music lately, but this collaboration ended up feeling like the same old Drake and Lil Baby – which obviously works great for them anyway.
Katie Bain: I think it recontextualizes the message. Whereas the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” is full of energy and also a little bit silly, in the context of this song Drake and Lil Baby are not just mega-mellow, but in a position of defiance, saying that while the lady they’re singing about “wanted me to lie, wanted me to cry, wanted me to die,” they are, instead, staying alive. It’s a clever way to use a seemingly non-sequitur sample that isn’t in opposition to the Drake/Baby/Khaled brands.
Josh Glicksman: I’ll go with the latter here. Outside of the obvious nod in the chorus, there’s no real reason why you’d associate the two songs together. I’m sure that the Bee Gees’ smash will receive a subsequent boost in one form or another, but I’d be pretty surprised if people are going to feel the need to discuss DJ Khaled’s “Staying Alive” in the same conversation as the original a decade removed from this release. Had Drake tried to get his vocals up into that Barry Gibb register, we’d be having a different conversation entirely, though.
Jason Lipshutz: The rework of the Bee Gees chorus is actually my favorite part of “Staying Alive,” since it re-contextualizes the hook instead of reanimating it for a new generation. Drake takes the motivational disco rally cry, “Ah, ah, ah, I’m staying alive,” and turns it into a weary admission, his voice dragging with exhaustion as he sets up the line with, “Try me a hundred times / Wanted me to lie, wanted me to cry, wanted me to die.” Taking something iconic and angling it differently is how a lot of great pop gets made, so kudos to Drake and co. for presenting something so well-known in the opposite direction.
Andrew Unterberger: Eh. It’s an effective hook, but not a particularly inspired one. You could say it’s a grittier interpretation of the original, but the Bee Gees’ song was already tougher and more streetwise than you might remember — like the movie it comes from, which is brutally bleak pretty much anytime it strays from the dancefloor.
4. Big samples and interpolations are never totally absent from popular music, but it does seem like they’re more prevalent in 2022 than they maybe have been in some other years of recent past. Do you think they’re making pop more fun, or is the practice getting a little stale?
Rania Aniftos: Again, I’ve always been a big disco fan so I’m loving this. It’s fun to me! I see nothing wrong with a little disco moment after two years of lockdown and political and social turmoil. We’re all due for some good times and a reminder of a simpler past. Additionally, the throwback interpolations have introduced a whole new generation to some of history’s best music. It’s a creative way to bridge the past and the present.
Katie Bain: I think “fun” is the operative word. It’s definitely extremely fun to hear Mariah on the “Big Energy” remix and “Vogue” on the Madonna/Beyoncé “Queens Remix,” but I don’t think these samples/interpolations necessarily score points for artistry or innovation. I hesitate to use the word “stale” given that I very much enjoy the aforementioned songs, but ultimately they, like “Staying Alive,” feel like more of a novelty/one-off rather than a significant progression in terms of any given artist’s catalog.
Josh Glicksman: We’re certainly teetering on it becoming stale all too quickly. There’s a fine line between using a classic hit as a wink — or to push a song to the next level — and it being a rather obvious ploy to play on nostalgia. The gauge I generally try to use with big samples and interpolations is, “Can this new song make the old one any better?” Or at the very least, can it bring a fresh, creative spin to it? If the answer is no to both (or honestly, to either) of those questions, perhaps best to pursue a different sample or interpolation.
Jason Lipshutz: I’ve never been a “sick of all those samples!” shakes-fist-at-interpolation-cloud kind of guy; if a sample or interpolation works, I’m going to enjoy it, regardless of how cluttered or sparse a pop era is with similar flips. The past two years or so have certainly included a bunch of interpolations nabbing songwriting credits — for fear of a “Blurred Lines”-esque sound-alike lawsuit — but the prominence of those interpolations within their respective new songs have varied enough that I haven’t perceived that dominant of a trend. In short, I encourage these samples and interpolation to continue — with caution, of course.
Andrew Unterberger: Man. I love samples and interpolations more than just about anyone, but I’m feeling a little exhausted this year — particularly as the larger conversation around them gets less and less accurate and more and more poisonous. Maybe pop can just take like a month or two off from this kind of interplay and we can reassess then?
5. With Beyoncé borrowing from Donna Summer last week and now Khaled & Co. taking from the Bee Gees this week, who’s another contemporary hitmaker you’d like to see drawing from the disco era?
Rania Aniftos: Doja Cat x ABBA — or going a little past disco, Lizzo x Whitney Houston. Let’s go!
Katie Bain: Rihanna has done dance via her Calvin Harris classics, but she could surely make magic with a disco production, and I welcome it.
Josh Glicksman: Dua Lipa. Anyone who doesn’t want to hear several follow-up records to Future Nostalgia is no friend of mine.
Jason Lipshutz: I have been saying it for years, and I’ll keep saying it: Adele. Disco. Album. I need it. The world needs it. Let’s hope it happens on 35, or sooner.
Andrew Unterberger: Sam Smith. I believe.
