It’s ironic that Drake’s It’s All A Blur Tour with 21 Savage holds that title because Drake has been putting his “eagle eyes” to work during each show, catching bras and comforting fans based upon what their signs say. In August, Drake encouraged someone whose girlfriend cheated. In September, he gave a fan $50,000 after seeing a sign reading, “Drake I spent my furniture money on your two shows” (as per Billboard).
But what happened on Friday night (October 6), the day of his For All The Dogs release, may be the most touching of all his gestures thus far. He got emotional when promising to support someone recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease attacking the central nervous system, and offered to pay college tuition for seven fans.
In a video captured by someone in attendance at Scotiabank Arena (or “October’s Very Own Arena“) in Toronto, the first of Drake’s back-to-back hometown shows, Drake pauses to recognize a fan’s sign. “This one’s important to me,” he says in the video (circulated by Complex). “Her sign says, ‘I just found out I have MS. Will you help make my night?'”
He continued, “You know, my brother [Noah] 40 [Shebib] is one of the strongest people on Earth, and he fights through a lot of things. So, what I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna connect you with 40, first of all. Maybe y’all can have a conversation. And second of all, I’m gonna pay whatever it takes to get you the best help in the world. I promise you that. You got my word. And you can come back tomorrow night!”
Shebib, Drake’s longtime engineer and producer, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 22 years old — something Pusha T insensitively mocked in his 2018 diss track, “The Story Of Adidon.” He opened up about it in a 2020 Rolling Stone profile by Charles Holmes, who relayed “40 says that much of what allows him to move through the world — his eyes, ears, nose, fingers, toes — could stop working at any time.”
Chills 🥲
Drake encountered a fan with MS and offered to connect her with 40 and pay her medical bills. pic.twitter.com/LTNZ7NCl37
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) October 7, 2023
Drake paying off 7 people’s college tuition 🤑 pic.twitter.com/qHzgkMzlXc
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) October 7, 2023
Health is also a priority for Drake these days. Around the release of For All The Dogs, he shared via his Table For One show on SiriusXM’s Sound 42 that he plans to take a break from music “for a little bit” because “I’ve been having the craziest problems, for years, with my stomach.”
“I need to focus on my health, and I need to get right, and I’m gonna do that,” he said, adding, “I have a lot of other things that I would love to focus on, so I’m going to lock the door on the studio for a little bit. I don’t know what ‘a little bit’ is. Maybe a year or something. Maybe a little bit longer.”
At the very least, fans can expect to see him back at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night (October 7). The It’s All A Blur Tour also has five postponed tour dates yet to be rescheduled.