Drake announced a new album on Friday during a massive show in his hometown of Toronto. The rapper played a full set of R&B songs instead of his usual hip-hop, and hinted that his next release will be coming in autumn. Naturally, commenters had a lot to say in relation to Drake’s recent beef with Kendrick Lamar.
Drake’s set was all R&B songs according a report by Billboard, and he ended it by announcing an upcoming collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. He said: “On behalf of me and Party, we’ve been working on something for y’all. So, you get the summer over with, you do what you need to do. I know all you girls are outside. When it gets a little chilly, PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be waiting right there for you.”
PartyNextDoor was actually the headliner at Friday night’s show, not Drake. They played on the Budweiser Stage in Toronto as a part of the Sorry I’m Outside Tour. PartyNextDoor closed out the night himself, telling the crowd: “I’m here tonight as a thank you to each and every one of you for all your years of unwavering support.”
Of course, there were a lot of easy references to the viral rap beef here. For one thing, Drake’s choice to stick to R&B reminded many commenters online of Lamar’s lyric “I like Drake with the melodies, I don’t like Drake when he act tough.” For another, his use of the slang generalization “outside” called to mind several lines in Lamar’s viral song “Not Like Us,” which has been described as the “song of the summer” by many people. It seems like no accident that Drake invited fans to rejoin him when the summer is over.
Among the deep cuts and cover songs in Drake’s set list was the first ever live performance of “Wah Gwan Delilah” – a psuedo-cover of Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah” sung entirely in Jamaican patois. When it was released online back in June, some listeners didn’t even believe it was Drake’s voice, suggesting it may have been created with AI. Here, Drake took ownership of the track and the crowd seemed to go with it.
Drake doesn’t seem intent on taking any more shots at Lamar after their exchange of angry diss tracks earlier this year, and many people reed that as a victory for Lamar. The rapper has not shied away from capitalizing on “Not Like Us,” but he hasn’t released any new diss tracks or other insults either. Lamar is reportedly working on a new album as well, but there is no release date for either that or Drake and PartyNextDoor’s collaboration.