Stage Pass

Young Money Records latest star, Drake, arrived in Indianapolis in stunning fashion Friday night with a performance that left the crowd mesmerized. Drake has drastically improved his on stage presence and truly has hit his prime two months into his first tour since signing his highly anticipated record deal with Young Money/Motown Universal Records, after a fierce bidding war between record companies.

The Toronto native showed that he could really mix it up combining rock, hip-hop, and R&B to a set that featuring hard hits on the drums, a jazzy lead guitar, and the big man on the bass, and of course, two Mac Book Pros pushing previously recorded tracks. He immediately grabbed the attention of the audience with the first song of the set which had a very hard-core rock feel to it.

The entire set really flowed as he mixed up the tracks from hard core rap to a softer R&B feel, and was full of many surprises as the night moved on. A few songs into the set he called out his “little brother” to the stage and what appeared to be “Little Red Riding Hood”, to everyone’s surprise, Justin Bieber popped out of an undersized red hoodie to pay his respects to his fellow Canadian star. The crowd at this point was wondering why Bieber would simply just appear in Indianapolis for a Drake concert and he suddenly ran off the stage and disappeared into the night. To be continued…

The set moved on as Drake remixed the song “Unthinkable” featuring Alicia Keys, only to have the chorus replaced by an electric guitar which gave the song a unique feel since Alicia Keys couldn’t be there for the performance. The band really gave Drake’s latest album a nice touch, thus providing Drake with the edge needed to really pull off a great live performance. He took full advantage of his resources as the crowd was entirely involved throughout this unforgettable set.

As the concert was approaching an end, “Little Red Riding Hood” could be seen sneaking around the back of the stage and began to approach the drum set, jamming to the beat. What is really going on here the crowd silently thought to itself? Just as soon as the wheels started spinning in our heads, Justin Bieber grabbed the drum sticks and started kicking ass on the drums, and I mean really kicking ass! I guess we will be seeing more of the little guy in the future cause this kid definitely has talent. Soon after his jam session ended the crowd walked out and seemed very pleased.

No money wasted here, this was truly a great set and performance by Drake, including the surprise ending with Justin Bieber on the drums. Going into the concert I had low expectations, and was proven wrong. Drake is only going to get better as his tour and career advances, so Hustle out and get your tickets to the next Drake concert because it might just be the best concert you have ever attended.

5 out 5 stars

Bill Hustle