Drake Gathers GOATs of Canadian Hip-Hop, Duets With Nelly Furtado in Historic OVO Concert
variety.comKaren Bliss 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.You could even say Drake made history with what he dubbed the “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.”Some of the artists launched hip-hop in Canada long before the city was called TheSix or even the T-dot.
And while it was never mentioned, it was hard not to notice the night was being filmed, possibly 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.
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