OVO Fest Day 2 Recap: Drake, J.Cole, G-Unit, Trey Songz, Usher, PARTYNEXTDOOR, YG, Majid,Lauryn Hill + More

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Epic is an understatement 

Monday night (August 4th) Drake closed out  his annual show, OVO Fest at The Molson Center in Toronto, ON.  The concert which is in it’s 5th year was a two day event, with hip hop legends Outkast headlining Sunday’s show.  Bringing arguably the greatest group in the history of rap music to the festival the night before was sure to put a little pressure on one Aubrey Drake Graham, but simply put the man rose to the occasion.

Besides an earlier set by the beautiful Jhene’ Aiko, the show itself played like one big showcase of Drake’s career so far, with people who have crossed his path and collaborated with, as well as some who helped inspire him to become the artist/person that he is today.  With the standard he set last year bringing out Kanye West & numerous others it seemed hard to fathom the surprises guests could live up to the hype.  They did; Lauryn Hill, J.Cole, Trey Songz, Usher, PARTYNEXTDOOR, YG, Majid Jordan, OB OBrien, Tinashe, DJ Khaled, 50 Cent & Lloyd Banks  each popped up and performed to the crowds delight.

From a fan point of view  it was quite the spectacle.  The production value of the show was not that of a typical “festival” stage, instead something far more elaborate and on par with the standard Drake set from recent tours, especially last years ‘Would You Like A Tour’.  Take a look at the pictures in the photo gallery above.What made this years performance so special was the concise linear narrative drake put together for the audience. He first surprisingly popped up at the end of Lauryn Hills fast paced set, transitioning from hills “doo wop (that thing)” to into his 2014 record “draft day” a song which samples “doo wop”. This would not be the last time a ridiculously  cool drake/rap nerd moment occurred. After admonishing Hill for all that she’s accomplished and what she meant to aubrey himself (a constant theme of the night ) it was Drizzy time. “We made it” rang out from the speakers, and yea it rang out , CRAZY like.  As soon as the song finshed it was time for our narrator to properly set the tone of the night.Drake genuinely & passionately explained that much like OVO fest has grown in the past 5 years, so has he. Last year may have been about big surprise guests and moments, but this years show was truly that , a show, a “Cirque Du SoDrake” as Noisey’s Slava P dubbed it.

After bringing out his mother for an awkward but really endearing moment it was “time to go”

Drake made it clear this was not the typical show and that he would be doing records that he hopes the fans want but that he know he doesn’t usually get to perform.

First up was “Unstoppable”, Drakes high energy So Far Gone track based off the Lykie Lie song of the same name. One strange note is how easily and how amazing it would have been for Drake to bring out Bun B (who came out the night before during Outkast’s set) to perform their track “uptown” from SFG.

The next OVmOment came when Drake brought out a man he described as the first mainstream artist to embrace him, Trey Songz. At this point the cool but subtle ambient lightning drake had been crooning in front of changed to an in your face giant red screen wall that set an incredible backdrop for the two to perform their defining track “successful”. Trey stayed to perform “Nana” , the crowd ate it up.

The show continued and Drake didn’t miss a beat. Every time he stopped to talk to the crowd you could feel the anticipation build with wonderment. Who was coming next? We had our answer soon, his “light skin twin brother “J.Cole hit the stage to perform “Can’t get enough” & “Power trip”. Afterward the two shared a moment on stage, like usual singing the others praises. Most interesting was Drake going out of his way to clarify that “Kendrick Lamar is one of the kings in this game” going on to say that sometimes things are often made out of nothing “that’s one of the hardest n—-s alive. He should be standing right [here].”

Over the course of the night Drake brought out numerous guests including YG for their smash song “Who do you love”. I joked to a friend that his verse cost him $100k, he better rap his heart out on it.He did.
Drake spoke of the time he got a bit carried away leaving Toronto and living in Miami for a minute saying one guy made sure his life down there was crazy; DJ Khaled came out to super hype man Drake for their monster collabos “I’m on one” & “No New Friends”. Khaled’s timing of when to insert the same ad-libs heard on record was truly remarkable

The only unfortunate part of Drake having established such a reputation for brining out surprise guests at OVO Fest is that when he performed a song and didn’t bring out the featured artist (ie The Weeknd on “Crew Love” Nicki Minaj on “Up all night” or Lil Wayne on a number of tracks) you couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit disappointed. But hey there’s always next year.

What big names he missed , Drake definitely tried to make up for by having the transitions in between and within songs at a level rarely if ever seen at a concert.
He brought out Tinashe to perform her single “2 On” which then transitioned into his and OVO mascot and hometown favorite OB Obrien’s “2 on/Thotful” freestyle. To our knowledge this was Obriens first Toronto performance and only his second overall aside from Houston Appreciation Week, all that said he did fairly well. The very existence and non wakness of the red bearded resident comedian of OVO in itself is a testament to Drake’s Midas touch.

There were three different times when the Drake show became someone else’s show. The first time was in many ways the moment a good deal- especially those from Toronto- had been waiting for- The OVO Fest debut of PARTYNEXTDOOR. With fiesta’s newest project PARTYNEXTDOOR 2 having just dropped less than a week prior (7/29) the stage was set. His intro couldn’t have been better with Drake turning his “Days In The East” track into Party’s song “West district” that was inspired by it.

It should be stated that during this portion the stage was adorned with a red backdrop and a large number “6” as seen in our photos. Also seen during this segment was an image of Rihanna and the numbers “666”. Subtle right.

Anyway back to party. It was definitely a site to see, a real coming of age moment. PND rocked out for a hot minute performing “Persian rugs” “Break From Toronto” and the soon to be smash “FWU” – the crowd singing along to the incredibly infectious chorus was special. He closed out the party with his Drake collaboration “Recognize”. Drake, pride obviously showing, congratulated his progeny and ushered him out as “The prince of OVO & the future of this city ”