The new Drake release “Pop Style” — slated for his (supposedly) imminent album Views From the 6 — features Kanye and Jay Z rapping like Sinatra’s Rat Pack used to, though in a very different style, of course. It’s lonesome men who see the world as their oyster, but who have to contend with all those who don’t understand them. So they’re isolated and seek each other out to tell their troubles to. No wonder that Jay Z and Kanye together are billed as “The Throne” — that’s where they sit, just like Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis did, in Vegas penthouses or their equivalent around the world. Their stories now are mostly about how they got there and how it feels so far off the ground.
So when they tell their tales in “Pop Style” of their lonesome but glamorous roads, it’s got the gleam and hard edge of earned accomplishment — just like it did whenever the guy from Hoboken started to sing. “You know I always handle that one My Way,” The Throne raps in “Pop Style”, echoing Sinatra’s own signature lyric.
