Fresh off landing his first No. 1 album with the recent release of Soulfly, Rod Wave delivered an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert on a tiny gazebo stage, bringing some of his biggest tracks and a partial cover a classic Drake song.
Rod opened his set by singing the hook of “Over My Dead My Body,” which kicks off Drake’s classic 2011 album Take Care, before transitioning to his own song “OMDB.” Cleverly, both tracks share the same initials, which might be why Wave decided to do a mashup. The live instrumentation paired amazingly with the crooner's deep melodies, making for a memorable performance.
When talking about how much Soulfly means to him during the set, Wave described how he put a lot into the record and feels it’s his best work. “Personally, I feel like I hit my creative peak,” he said. “I put a lot into this. A lot of thought, a lot of effort, a lot of pain.”
Later on his setlist, Wave delivered a moving rendition of his chart-topping “Rags2Riches.” The song, featuring Lil Baby, saw heavy success on TikTok after its release in early August, catapulting it up.
Being one of the crown jewels on the deluxe version of his last project, Pray 4 Love, Rod Wave talked to Complex about putting the original version of the album together.
“There are a lot of different messages [on Pray 4 Love],” Wave said. “The single ‘Pray 4 Love’ was a summary for the album, but there are a lot of different messages about the way to deal with relationships from dealing with your homeboys to dealing with your pain. This is life that we all go through. So you could get a bunch of different messages—not just one—from the whole album.”
Watch Rod Wave’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert performance up top.
