I was able to attend the first two annual, “OVO Fest,” shows but missed it last year. I had to come out this year and see if Drake could possibly top his first show that had Jay Z and Eminem come out. Of course you have seen the video clips from this year but here are my pics from the show. I don’t usually write that much but when I do the, “Nigel D. Presents,” posts I want to make you feel you were there. Enjoy the slideshow.
Drake Brings Out Eminem At His First Annual OVO Fest (Calls Him The Greatest Of All Time)
Jay-Z Performs “Run This Town” At Drake’s 1st Annual OVO Fest
Drake x Lil Wayne x Rick Ross Perform “I’m On One” At Ovo Fest 2011
It was a beautiful day in the city of Toronto August 5th. Got to Molson Canadian Amphitheatre early to avoid traffic. The line to buy Drake’s special OVO x Blue Jays hat was crazy. I wasn’t down to drop $75 for it or stand on that line. Toronto has some beautiful women by the way.
Since I was early I walked around the venue to see the vibe of the audience. These are the lawn seats for the show. Basically the cheapest seats you can get, first come, first serve on grass. The view really isn’t that bad and I assume it must get crazy over here during the show. Overall a very mixed crowd with a lot of people wearing OVO apparel.
Lawn section was packed early!
The spot was starting to full up, I started to make my way to my seat. Managed to get a good seat on ticketmaster.
Molson Amphitheater seats approximately over 10,000 people.
While chilling in one of the lounge areas I noticed J. Cole on a balcony. Not a surprise to me, I already knew he was coming out. Drake and J Cole always show each other love with Drake coming out for J Cole’s, “A Dollar & A Dream,” tour.
Almost show time…
Drake started off the show with, “Headlines,” and wasted no time bringing out the first surprise guest, The Weeknd. I haven’t seen these two perform together since the second OVO Fest two years ago. Hopefully these two will be dropping new music together soon. With both artists being from Toronto this was a special moment for the city.
The next guest to hit the stage was G.O.O.D. Music’s, Big Sean. He came out performing, “Clique.”
Big Sean kept the energy high, performing his verse from, “Mercy.”
Of course Drake and Big Sean had to perform their new track, “All Me.” Even though the song just came out the audience knew most of the lyrics, especially Big Sean’s beginning line.
View of the crowd turning up. I bought a good seat but managed to hustle my way to the second row. While getting good seats for shows like this are near impossible on ticketmaster, once you are there you usually you find a lot of empty seats in the front.
Drake brought out French Montana to perform, “Ain’t Worried Bout Nothin,” & “Pop That.” “Pop That,” is one of those tracks that will always get a crowd hype.
Drake performed with elaborate setup with a band, various lights and pyrotechnics.
While Wale was an opener, Drake brought him back out to perform “Bad.”
After performing, “I Get Lonely,” he brought out the inspiration for the track, “TLC.” I had no idea TLC was coming out.
I had flashbacks of the 90’s watching TLC perform, “No Scrubs.”
Lil Mama came out to rap Left Eye’s verse for the final song.
Drake got a hug from everybody expect Chilli, once he mentioned it on the mic she came back out to give him one.
The Born Sinner J Cole came out to perform a few tracks. J. Cole got things started with, “Nobody’s Perfect.”
J. Cole then performed, “Forbidden Fruit,” off of, “Born Sinner.”
While I knew J. Cole was there I had no idea Miguel was also in the building to perform, “Power Trip.”
Drake tells Miguel to perform a song before he makes his exit. The ladies went crazy for, “Adorn.”
As you can see the crowd was enjoying the show so far.
Drake talked about his first rap concert at Molson and said he wants to give the audience that same feeling he had. Then the lights went dark…
Turns out the show Drake was talking about was a Bad Boy concert and Diddy comes out.
Diddy came out his classic verse on, “Victory.”
And of course Diddy was dancing on stage.
In one of the most unexpected moments of the night Diddy brought out Mase for, “Feels So Good,” & “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems.”
Diddy shut down the stage with his, “Same Damn Time,” remix verse.
Harlem’s A$AP Rocky hit the stage for, “F***in Problems.”
Drake asked A$AP Rocky for one more song and he said why not.
A$AP Rocky then performed, “Wild For The Night.”
So the night before I was partying with DJ Drama at a Toronto club. A well connected guy told me the show will be crazy and said Diddy and Kanye West were coming out. While I believed the Diddy party, I thought the Kanye part came from him being drunk. I can’t ever recall Drake and Kanye West sharing the stage anywhere. But then the beat to, “New Slaves,” came on the rest is history.
Drake and Kanye West went on to praise each other which made me wonder why they never dropped a track together.
Drake then brought out who he calls the best rapper alive, Lil Wayne.
Drake ended the rumors of him possibly leaving Young Money, saying he is riding with Young Money and Lil Wayne forever.
Drake ended this epic night with what he called Toronto’s anthem, “Started From The Bottom.” I doubted Drake could out do his first OVO show but he managed to do it. While for the first OVO Fest I knew Jay Z and Eminem were coming out, this show had a lot of people shocked. It featured New legends and old, rap and R&B, it was a complete package. Salute to Drake for putting on for his city and organizing a classic Hip Hop concert. Concerts are a lot of money these days, people want to see show that they will never forget.
