Over the weekend, Drake's brought his It's All A Blur tour to his hometown of Toronto for two nights.
On night one, after doing his staircase walk with Leafs legend Tie Domi, he brought out Lil Baby on short notice. This was after letting the crowd know 21 Savage couldn't get in the country, despite recently getting his green card.
On night two, he finally was able to get 21 on foreign soil with his first Canadian performance. J. Cole was also there to perform "First Person Shooter" from new album For All The Dogs, which had dropped the day before to great fanfare.
It was a perfect storm of timing to create an epic two-day event in Toronto. The Scotiabank Arena temporarily rebranded as October's Very Own Arena for the occasion, and even public transport in the city renamed a few stops in Drizzy's honour.
To be in Toronto that weekend was a pretty special thing. It also felt very much like a culmination: nearly the end of a long North American tour, the end of Savage's tumultuous immigration status issues, the release of the previous delayed, much hyped album, and the conclusion of a quick run of albums in the 2020s starting with Certified Lover Boy. So as much as It's All A Blur was about being in the moment, as the name suggested it was very much a retrospective of Drake's life and career to that point.
And like the video of Drake's old show Degrassi, which played on the stage during a particularly nostalgic costume switch, a lot of Drake's output the last decade is starting to become sepia toned. This tour celebrated his past accomplishments, with nearly 50 songs a night in condensed form, but it seems like Drake is also heading somewhere new. Where, exactly, is another question.
For starters, health issues may sideline him for the foreseeable future. "I need to focus on my health, first and foremost. And I’ll talk about that soon enough. Nothing crazy, but I want people to be healthy in life and I’ve been having the craziest problems for years with my stomach," he said SiriusXM show Table for One.
At the moment, he's been doing anything but slowing down since the Toronto shows. He unveiled the installation of a 21 Savage doorbell in his home and has been beefing with Joe Budden. There's a chance time away from professional pursuits could result in more time spent online, and for Drake, idle hands could prove to be the devil's plaything. He even posted screenshots from HotNewHipHop from a decade ago, so he might use his downtime to settle some long held scores.
While his music and social media presence have been somewhat marred by his various barbs, Drake has been nothing but generous with his fanbase. On night one of his Toronto show alone, he pledged to: to pay 7 peoples' OSAP, set up someone with MS with a meeting with Noah "40" Shebib and pay her treatments, a $10,000 shopping spree for one person at Yorkdale Mall, and to help a friend who helps the community retire (even though she probably won't). And on night two, he surprised a fan with a G-Wagon.
If he's taking a break, could he devote more time to charitable causes? He seemed geniunely rankled by the state of affairs during his Toronto show, repeatedly imploring the crowd to be kinder to each other and to ditch the "stinkfaces" in day-to-day life. What better way to lead, then by example? "We live in one of the best places in the world," he told the crowd on night one. "There's no reason to be angry."
Could he spending more time in Toronto? That seemed likely based on what he was saying during the local shows. He said the entire tour for the "day ones" was constructed around bringing it to Toronto, and night one featured a cavalcade of locals, including OVO label pals Smiley, Roy Woods, and Majid Jordan. He's shown up more on their projects of late, as well as the video for longtime pal TVGucci's "Bora Bora," so there's reason to believe he'll be taking a sojourn from his own music career to be more involved with his OVO crew. He could decide to be more hands-on going forward as he looks to cement his legacy in other ways.
He also said on night one of the show that he had more plans for his Toronto venue, History. That could take on many forms. When in town, he's been known to guest when friends are performing, like Lil Wayne and Lil Yachty. He could find himself becoming more a patron of the arts than a performer. He might also do more to create a party atmosphere around the venue, whether it's more nights with his OVO colleagues, or just bringing in more artists he likes. With the Apollo show earlier this year and the massive production that was It's All A Blur, it's clear Drake puts a lot of thought into his shows, so perhaps History could become a place where every show feels like a special event.
It's hard to say where the 6 God will go from here, but it seems clear that the status quo isn't an option. He's completed a memorable run of albums and performances, and now it's time to take a step back. But knowing Drake, he won't relinquish the limelight for long, if at all. He's still Drake, after all, and he'll undoubtedly find new ways to satisfy his creative impulses.
