Drake’s Pittsburgh Concert Was Amazing

by Chloe Crawford, Grade 10

Drake, the rapper and artist, performed in Pittsburgh on the weekend of February 16^th. The show I attended started at 7. Drake came onto the stage at 9:45. Although it was a long wait, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. After the show, I turned to my friend and said, “I would pay 400 more to see that again.”

Drake hosted two shows that weekend in PPG Paints Arena—one on Friday night and one on Saturday night. Seat tickets sold for about $300. I managed to get floor tickets for around $400, despite floor tickets usually selling for around $500,

Drake has been producing music constantly since the early 2000s. He has won hundreds of awards and set numerous records, and he continued to expand his fame this year by going on tour with J. Cole, another rap artist and singer.

Drake’s most recent album, For All the Dogs, featured J. Cole multiple times, so they were able to perform many songs together. They also performed throwback collaborations, such as “In the Morning”. Released in 2011, “In the Morning” was the first song J. Cole and Drake released together. A lot of Drake’s early fans attended the concert on Friday night, and the crowd was ecstatic when the song came on. Drake even brought a fan up onto the stage to sing the lyrics with him.

Drake interacted with the crowd throughout his performance. From the perspective of the barricade, I saw up close how Drake acted on stage. Everything felt natural, not forced. He also praised Pittsburgh and mentioned how he hadn’t performed here since 2017. He said he missed our fans, and that he was sure to come back more often now.

The show mixed visual displays of art with Drake’s performance, such as a statue of a man holding a paper airplane and a floating Spider-Man. This was a reference to a song on his new album, with the lyrics, “the Spider-Man meme is me looking at Drake.” During the show, J. Cole sang the part, and then pointed at the floating Spider-Man. This was a surprising part of the show, and many fans thought it was the best part. There were also other floating characters, such as a Travis Scott head that appeared during the song “Sicko Mode,” and a giant shark that appeared during the song “Controlla”.

Although Drake had vocals playing behind the majority of his songs, he also sang along to almost every lyric. He often pointed to the crowd, encouraging them to sing. There were even times that he would take off his headpiece to listen to the crowd sing and hype them up.

Overall, I would say the concert was definitely worth the high-priced tickets and long wait, especially if you know all of his songs.