During his first of two tour dates in Atlanta, Drake had nothing but praise for the ATL, giving props to the Southern metropolis, the artists it hailed, and everything the city has done for Rap music.
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Taking to the stage at State Farm Arena, alongside local-based star 21 Savage, Drizzy rhetorically asked the crowd: “Where would any of us be without Atlanta?”
“All the love that you show, all the musicians that you birth, all the contributions that you give,” Drake continued, “this is hands down the most important place in rap music, you should be very proud of yourselves.”
“All the artists that I’ve done the greatest work with, all the artists that I love, all the artists that inspire me — the majority of them come from right here in Atlanta,” he added.
One of those Atlanta artists included Takeoff, one-third of Migos, with whom Drake often collaborated, and he took a moment to fondly pay tribute to his late friend, who was killed nearly one year ago.
"The first time I came to Atlanta, was I hopped on the remix to the song called 'Versace,'" Drake recalled as he lapped around his stage. While the crowd instantly began to cheer, expecting Drizzy to break out into the classic banger, he instead shared a heartfelt shoutout to his late friend. "I just wanted to say while I'm in here, rest in peace to my brother Takeoff. One of my first brothers out here in Atlanta.”
Currently in the final stages of his North American It’s All A Blur Tour, next up Drake plans to drop his much-anticipated album, For All The Dogs, the first single of which, “Slime You Out” featuring SZA, has already been released. After initially setting a September 22 release date for the upcoming project, he has since postponed the release by two weeks to October 6.