Two years ago, a friend made the astute observation that Australia had blueballs for Drake. She had foreseen that when he did finally announce a tour Down Under, after waiting so long, many fans would be thrown into a paroxysm of desperation. Future Festival tickets sold excruciatingly fast, with scalpers raising the prices astronomically. Speculations about a potential sideshow ran amok, and much to the relief of frenzied fans, these rumours were proven true.
Rod Laver swarmed with Drake paraphernalia, tight pants/skirts and high, high heels. Up first was Canadian rapper P. Reign. Mainly covering existing rap songs without too much original material, the relatively sparse audience responded more to the beats as opposed to his stage presence. As the guy behind me pointed out: “Bro, I never heard of him and I’m a mad Drake fan.” Up next was Tity Boi, aka 2 Chainz. Towering at almost two metres tall, he slow-strutted onstage to a crowd that roared in response to his signature “Truueeeeee.” With his four-foot dreads tied in a low ponytail and accompanied with round-lens sunglasses, I instantly understood his comparisons to Jar Jar Binks. That aside, he provided a stellar performance. Incredibly energetic, his dancing was impressive (and sexy [despite aforementioned Jar Jar Binks resemblance]). Also, he’s one of those ‘ft.’ guys you just forget has a verse in damn near every recent hip hop song, so his setlist certainly aided the hype when he dished out tracks like Birthday Song and Fuckin’ Problems.
Slowly, the crowd began to thicken, and soon the entire arena was full, the atmosphere anxious for Drake. Deep bass pulsed and the audience stirred, anticipating his entrance. Walking on to Trophies, it was a grand opening. There were fireworks, crazy lights and Drake’s signature performance style. It borders on corny, but that’s not the right word. He overacts, and is dramatic to the point of it becoming insanely endearing. Not to mention, Drake loves his fans. He has some amazing improv skills and throughout the show would go off on random fan-based freestyles, rapping about different people he had spotted in the crowd. He made a point of acknowledging those who knew all the lyrics, of admiring posters some had made for him and empathetically thanking the audience for coming out as he understands the ordeal of “dipping into your pockets” for the tickets, while combatting crowds on the actual night. There were moments where I felt he gazed into the crowd and thought, “I did this. They are here because they love me. And I love them.” Go head wit’ yo bad self Drake.
His stage presence is off the radar. Commanding the crowd like a champ, this was one of the most amped audiences I’d ever seen. While he did have some stage gimmicks including the fireworks, lights, and the use of a suspension cable that floated him to the middle of the arena, there weren’t too many other things employed to aid his performance. For the most part, he relied on his ability to talk and joke with the crowd and to hypnotise them with his energy. Covering a decent chunk of his discography, his setlist ranged from his earlier work, right up to the mixtape he released just two weeks ago. Notably, he was able to maintain the energy between flitting through club hits like HYFR and Know Yourself, to slower tunes such as Loving The Crew and Successful.
BY TAMARA VOGL
Loved: 2 Chainz performance of I Luv Dem Strippers.
Hated: Not too much.
Drank: Not enough water.
