Rapper entertains thousands of fans in Colonial Life Arena
Drake took his time making it onto the stage of Colonial Life Arena Tuesday.
The show paused for a long set change after opening acts A$AP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar performed, but after one previously announced concert in his “Club Paradise” tour was canceled, the minutes-long break was nothing.
The thousands of fans who came dressed for a night of clubbing and who constituted a less-than-capacity crowd, seemed content enough to dance along to hits for the interim.
Once Tyga’s “Rack City,” playing for the second time, and the arena’s light cut out, the crowd exploded in piercing screams and raised their cellphone cameras for the rapper’s entrance.
So went the show, which featured a core-shaking bass, a selection drawing mostly from his 2011 album “Take Care” and a few rare pauses filled once more with excited screams.
Likewise, it was difficult to understate the hype preceding the concert, as conversations Tuesday often gravitated to Drake and rumors of his whereabouts flew.
But when he did make an afternoon visit in town — to Dreher High School — it garnered enough interest to propel the school’s name into Twitter’s nationwide trending topics.
That hype translated into a party atmosphere — and Drake knew it.
“Who’s drinking with me tonight?” he asked early on in introducing “Shot for Me.” “For anybody who hasn’t had their first drink you, I think I’ve got the perfect song for you.”
That song, like others, featured a part of what was a wide and perhaps strange range of video accompaniments over a number of small square screens.
For “Shot for Me,” it was a number of women taking shots, wincing after each. On “Forever,” it was a half-toned video of a boxing match punctuated with the song’s lyrics in white and red.
But even when the production was simpler and there wasn’t backing video — like on “Take Care,” itself a slower number — Drake didn’t let the energy slip.
He jumped his way back and forth between the ends of the stage with an increased intensity, eventually finishing the song lying on his back awash in blue lights.
Even when things did seemingly slow down midway through his performance, the rapper called out to individual members of his audience, who alternately yelled for attention or took a breather.
But one fan who opted to sit for a few moments of respite got the recognition others clamored for.
“This is not a lecture from your professor or some s---,” Drake said. “This is a Drake show; show some love.”
He gave that audience member a break, though, with “Look What You’ve Done,” a slower, quieter song that followed his shout-outs.
Throughout it, a mix tellingly heavy on the yellow dots of lighters and relatively light on those of cellphones emerged throughout the arena, as concertgoers waved their arms back and forth.
Those slower moments were few and far between, though, as Drake kept the party going, the music loud and his fans wrapped around his finger.
As he closed with “Headlines,” a top single from “Take Care,” did what he’d done throughout his performance, stopping to let audience members fill in his lyrics.
Finishing his verse with his back to the audience and arms outstretched above him, he rapped, “That’s just something they know,” seemingly in reference to his lyrics.
And he was right, as his thousands of fans took over.
“They know, they know, they know.”