For Torontonians attending Drake’s History venue on Friday night, OVO — for October’s Very Own, the superstar’s enduring Canada-based brand — may as well have stood for Our Very Own.
Drake could even be called the “The” in history for what he called it. “All Canadian North Stars,” a mind-blowing assembly of homegrown hip-hop and R&B artists who, as he wrote in his Instagram announcement of the lineup, “paved the way for all of us.”
Many of these artists started hip-hop in Canada before it was known as TheSix or the T-dot. It was not mentioned but it was easy to see that the night was being taped, perhaps for a documentary.
Drake has singlehandedly helped the careers of more than 100 Canadian producers, beatmakers and songwriters by using them on his albums (according to a count by music publisher Michael McCarty citing the performing rights organization SOCAN) — the majority from the Greater Toronto Area/Southern Ontario, in fact — and the All Canadian North Stars show was Drizzy’s chance to give flowers to many of the artists who helped him along the way.
The three-and-a-half hour concert, which wrapped after 2 a.m., was the kick-off to Drake’s annual OVO weekend, which typically coincides with the end of the month-long Toronto Caribbean Carnival. This year, he’s calling it October World Weekend: Road To OVO Fest Tour, as he plans to take his long-running OVO Fest international in 2023 for the 10th anniversary.
Announced earlier in the week, Friday’s bill featured rapper Choclair; R&B artist and Drake’s “first girlfriend” Keshia Chanté; R&B singer Glenn Lewis; R&B group In Essence (and Dru solo); Canada’s “Queen of R&B” powerhouse Jully Black; Canada’s hip hop ambassador Kardinal Offishall (a.k.a. Kardi); singer/rapper k-os; “the Godfather of Canadian Hip Hop” Maestro Fresh Wes; Vancouver rap group Rascalz; Drake’s mentor Saukrates; R&B-pop singer Shawn Desman; and the only American act, rappers Frank-N-Dank (with major associations to Toronto).
That lineup in and of itself is a who’s who, but it’s the who else that knocked it out of the park, the mystery “+ special guests”It was printed on the show poster that they were brought out to perform mini-sets throughout night by Grammy-winning pop star Nelly Furtado. “Canada’s First Lady of Hip-Hop” Michie Mee; R&B singer Melanie Durrant; and rappers Solitair (with Kardi), Ro Dolla, Jelleestone, and Infinite. Kid Kut and Agile hosted the show, DJing the show before each act and keeping it moving between them.
“This is bigger to me than any American act, any show, I could ever see,”Drake spoke at the top of the evening during a five minute speech, in which he named-checked peoples and places that are integral to Toronto hip hop. Drake spoke out several times throughout the show. “This is one of the best nights I’ve ever had in my life.”
“This is the reason the city is the way it is, all these individuals here tonight,”Drake continued. “For real. I’m very grateful and I’m very thankful because if I was somewhere else, I might’ve been doing something completely different, but because of each and every one of these individuals that performed tonight, I am where I am.”
These are just some of the many accomplishments that these artists have made.
Maestro Fresh-Wes was the first Canadian hip hop artist to have a gold single, 1989’s “Let Your Backbone Slide” and first Black artist to receive a platinum album (1989’s Symphony In Effect). Kardi is also a judge “Canada’s Got Talent” and, until recently, was an executive at Universal Music Canada; and Rascalz went down in history when they refused to accept the best rap Juno Award in 1998 because it wasn’t televised, but got CARAS to reassess and invite them to perform “Northern Touch”The single was remixed by The Circle (Rascalz Kardi Checkmate Thrust and Choclair) for the broadcast in the year following. “The Northern Touch All Stars”The Junos took two minutes off the Junos and I did an impromptu version. But, I made sure that I mentioned Canadian rappers. “still struggle for exposure at home,”Despite the fact that it is No. Despite the No.
Tickets for All Canadian North Stars were just $20 (USD $15), a wonderful give-back for such an epic lineup, considering the inflated cost for the Young Money Reunion, which spiked into the thousands due to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing.
The new 35,000 square foot space is also available for rent. ft. 2,553-capacity History — which opened last November in partnership with Live Nation — has permanent metal detectors at the door, security was extremely tight (perhaps due to the previous night’s incident at Dua Lipa’s Scotiabank Arena concert at which someone set off fireworks into the crowd); not even reasonable-sized bags were allowed in and security even inspected this journalist’s pen.
However, inside the show was a big lovefest.
While there were some grumblings about those missing from the lineup — Ghetto Concept, Dream Warriors, Snow, and others — it’s unclear if that was an oversight or just unavailability given the short notice. Along with Drake, the show was co-curated by Starting From Scratch and Charlie B, renown deejays.
During his speech, or as Maestro called it Drake’s “Shakespeare soliloquy,”He had explained. “This is probably one of if not the most important event that we’ve ever done for OVO Weekend, October World Weekend,”You can also reminisce about the sights you have seen. Jay-Z at Caribana when he was 17 years old and Toronto’s very own Kardinal OffishallHe was escorted off-stage. “For me, that was really a moment that unlocked something in my mind. It made me realize that all this is possible.”
During his set, Kardi said about Drake when they first met: “The only thing that was on his heart and his mind was that he wanted to become the greatest in the world. Everybody has the opportunity to become No. 1, but when they have work ethic and they have drive, when they have passion, when they have a team and they make some good fucking music, that’s how you become the best in the world.”
And it wasn’t just Drake thanking everyone. Other artists also gave flowers. Jully Black says: “This night is about collaboration and celebration, not competition.”
One of the highlights was Drake’s singing “I’m Like A Bird”Nelly Furtado singing her songs “changed my life so much;” watching his bro hugs with Saukrates and Rascalz’ red-1 and sidestage/onstage fandom and grooving; Drake calling k’os “one of my biggest influences in my life”Perform “Headlines”spur of the occasion; and the grand finale “Northern Touch,” featuring a good 50 people hanging onstage and the night’s performers joining in on the song that Drizzy called “our real national anthem.”
Drake’s marquee OVO concert is Monday (Aug. 1) at Budweiser Stage, a Young Money reunion with Drake, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. Hopefully, in keeping with OVO Fest tradition, they’ll be numerous surprise guests and some of the “North Stars.” Even better if Friday’s concert inspires an OVO lineup to introduce the world to the pioneers who didn’t have the infrastructure and power of the Internet back then to make them household names beyond Canada.
“I’m excited to share this weekend with you,”Drake said it at the end. “I will see you on Monday for the Young Money reunion. I hope you’ll be there. I haven’t seen my family for a long while so I will try to give you the best performance I can. For now, and tonight, this is, as I said, one the most important moments in my whole life. We are grateful that you shared it with us.
“I hope we can do this again one day. I wish we could do this every night to be honest. … But thank you for everything that you gave me, all the love, all the memories, all the times that it wasn’t shit and we were all just trying to figure it out, grind it. Music is not easy; don’t ever get it twisted; it is not an easy life. So to have these great records, to have these great voices, to have these people still come on stage and shut shit down, right now, we should truly be grateful because a lot of places in the world do not have this.”