For the first time in ten years Drake decided to take a trip to Oklahoma and perform two shows for his “It’s All a Blur Tour: Big as the What?” Along with him, Drake brought one of my other favorite artists, J Cole. As soon as I saw these two were going on tour and were going to be at the Paycom Center I knew I had to go. These are two generational artists who I listen to everyday and a show like this only happens once in a lifetime. This would be my second time seeing Drake in concert, as I saw him in 2018 when he came to Dallas, Texas for the “Aubrey and the Three Amigos” tour, a tour he did with the Migos. With Drake being my favorite artist ever I was so excited to see him again.
I went to the night one show on Monday, Mar. 18, and the first thing my friend and I did was get in line for merch in the arena. The lines were insanely long but I expected that so that’s why we got there early. They had some pretty good choices and I had looked up what the options were before the show, so I already knew what I wanted and was able to order it with ease. I got three items and spent a little more money than I wanted to but in my eyes it was worth it.
When we got to our seats, DJ Zack Bia got us going with songs he played just to play. They ranged from Drake and J Cole songs to Kendrick Lamar and Chief Keef Songs. Really anything to get the crowd hype and excited for the show. He did a very good job with this, and it got me even more ready for the set to begin.
As I waited for the opening artist, I was expecting Sexyy Red because that’s who Drake had listed as the artist coming with them to Oklahoma. To my surprise when the lights dimmed Lil Durk walked out with Oklahoma City Thunder’s very own Chet Holmgren. This was a very pleasant surprise to me because Lil Durk is an artist I enjoy very much and is big enough to headline his own event. He got on stage and performed a lot of his hit songs like “AHHH HA,” “Hellcats and Trackhawks,” “Every chance I get,” and “Back in Blood” just to name a few. He then walked off the stage to “King Vons Crazy Story.”
Then they did a bit of an ESPN parody with Steven A. Smith and comedian Ben Da Donnn where they gave a sports analyst about Drake and how he needed to show up big tonight. After that, a marching band and cheerleaders came out and played a marching band version of Drake’s song “Trophies.”
Then the lights cut, and the big screen cut to another OKC Thunder player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I knew he would bring him out because they are both from Toronto and with them being in OKC it was a given he would be there.
“Virginia Beach” starts playing and Drake comes out and daps up Shai. They were in a makeshift locker room right next to the main stage. Drake then kicks one of the walls down and greets us, apologizing for leaving Oklahoma City for so long. He then started to perform some old songs such as “Marvins Room,” “Teenage Fever,” “Feel no ways” (one of my all-time favorite Drake songs) and “Jungle.”
After that he walked to the main stage through a line of cheerleaders. When he got to the main stage he continued with more classic songs, and everyone was loving it. I would say most of the 40 songs he did were his old ones, which were great.
There was a part of the show where Drake started to read some of the signs in the crowd. He read one about a mom and her daughter being there and the daughter wanted to go to medical school, so he paid for her school. Another fan had a sign about being a big Drake fan so he gave them $10,000 and tickets to any Drake show they wanted to come to, and lastly one fan had a sign about their house being flooded so he said he would pay for their house to be fixed and then gave them $20,000.
After that Drake did some more songs, mainly remixes to some of his summer songs like “Controlla,” “One Dance,” and “Hotline Bling.”
After the big screen cut to Ben Da Donn in the crowd where he started talking about Oklahoma women, and then he said he was getting breaking news that J Cole had arrived. After he said that J Cole walked down through the crowd and made his way to the stage and the entire stadium was electric, everyone was cheering.
J Cole started his set with “Middle Child” and continued it with other great songs like “Wet Dreamz,” “Love Yourz,” “Power Trip,” and “No Role Modelz.” He then did freestyle for us which was great. The only thing that disappointed me a little was he didn’t perform “Work Out” but that’s okay he still put on a phenomenal set.
After that Drake joined him on stage and performed a very old song, one of their firsts that not a lot of people knew, “In the Morning,” they did great with that. Next, they sang the song that sparked the tour – “First person shooter.”
Unfortunately, these were the only songs they played together. Even though they don’t have many songs together I was really hoping they would do “Jodeci Freestyle,” which is my favorite Drake song, but I understand why they didn’t play it because it’s not well known at all and was unreleased until a few years ago.
J Cole left after those two songs and Drake did four more songs that were all newer then left to the B stage where he did a mock post-game interview which was just an encore where he did two more songs – “Amen” and “Slime You Out.”
As he played “Slime You Out,” he picked a random fan from the crowd to dump slime on. After that he gave a speech to us where he talked to us about wanting better for ourselves and “upping our standards” then the show was over.
This definitely beats Travis Scott as the best concert I’ve ever been to and would highly recommend that if anyone got the chance to see either of these artists live to go. One of my other friends who got to go described the show as “an out of body experience” and I think it’s a perfect way to describe the show.
Austin Jackson is a first-year history education major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
