Last time we went to the O2 Arena Rihanna gave us a lap dance in front of 20,000 screaming fans, so we’ve high expectations for Canadian rapper Drake’s show there tonight.
If you’re not familiar with 25-year-old Aubrey Drake Graham’s oeuvre, you’ll surely recognise him as the man who accosts Rihanna in a newsagent’s when she pops in wearing hot pants to buy a pint of milk – she can’t remember her name (oh na na), he wants her to say his name, a beautiful relationship ensues.
While not as bombastic as Kanye or Jay-Z, we love Drake’s introspective lyrics which can veer from crippling self-doubt to joyful self-aggrandising in the space of one song. But he’s also not adverse to the occasional poppy rnb duet, which makes him all the more likeable in our book. His latest album Take Care features collaborations with the usual crowd (Lil’ Wayne, Andre 3000, Nicki Minaj) but reaches far and wide in its eclectic sampling. The track from which the new album gets its name is one of our faves; Take Care is a meta-musical remix of a remix of a Gil Scott Heron song, produced by Jamie XX and featuring Rihanna.
The New Yorker calls Drake post-hip-hop and post-fame, we call him a hip hop hottie you can dance to. And in the words of the superstar cerebral rapper himself, we’re getting our ‘hair done, nails done, everything did’ ready for tonight, and crossing our fingers for another lap dance.
