YMCMB’s Drizzy Drake touched down in London for his second show in a row at the o2 arena in Greenwich last night, where he performed to around 18,000 people…
Supporting the emo-rapper was Labrinth. The Hackney-born artist delivered a smooth, futuristic set to compliment his debut album, ‘Electronic Earth’.
Looking suave and supported by great visuals, the singer was received well as he performed his hits ‘Let The Sunshine’ and ‘Last Time’, the latter certainly being the best song of his set, with the Quincy inspired sounds sounding indulgently rich. However, it was when the super producer performed his smash hit ‘Earthquake’ that the crowd went really nuts for the 22-year-old, thus kicking in our adrenaline for the headliner himself.
As Drake hit the stage dressed simply in black, kicking off the show with ‘Lord Knows’, which may seem as a surprising choice of introduction given that he seldom records heavy hip hop sounds.
Drake has kick-started a transition in rap, introducing a more emotive, humble approach to rhyming that has actually been embraced by hip hop. What was evident from the show is that the Toronto artist is midway through a transition of his own.
Taking a Jekyll and Hyde approach on stage, the 25-year-old frequently switched up the contrast from the emotional, love obsessed, brooding character to the arrogant persona that we have been seeing more frequently since his status rose so phenomenally.
Whilst performing ‘Take Care’, he danced around the stage as if he couldn’t believe he was actually living his dream. However, soon after, he stood emotionless in the middle of the stage, hands open and taking in the applause like an alcoholic does wine.
Being the emotionally open character he is, he makes no apologies for the way fame has affected him, in fact it only went in his favour, giving him an edge of realness that sometimes lacks in popular music today.
This allowed him to effortlessly blend tracks from ‘Best I Ever Had’, ‘Practise’, ‘Shot 4 Me’ to more rugged sounds like ‘Stay Schemin’ and ‘I’m Goin’ In’.
Highlights were ‘The Motto’, ‘Take Care’ and ‘Crew Love’, notably being some of the fans favourites.
Drizzy took (perhaps a bit too much) time shouting out audience members, including the ones “in the glasses who can’t see a mother f***ing thang!” The set in itself seemed rather rushed, pushed by Drake’s own adrenaline perhaps. The Young Money artist has not had years of experience connecting to such as large audience, which showed as he didn’t keep the audience captivated consistently throughout the show.
The show seemed to end quicker than I would have liked, but I assumed that this was because time flies when you’re having fun. But was I in Club Paradise? Very nearly.
After his final London show, Drizzy went down to West London’s club ‘The Low’, where he relaxed and partied with his buddies, including Rihanna.
