Drake Delivers An Amazing Show in His Second Hometown, Buffalo

It’s not often that Buffalo’s adopted son gets to hang out with more than 16,000 of his adopted neighbors and friends, but on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, Drake returned to Buffalo for the first time in nearly eight years to give the first of two performances in the 716.

If you were expecting a bland show, then this was not the place to be because Drizzy delivered a high-energy show full of hits at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo.

The show kicked off with a live marching band coming into the arena playing a medley using Trophies as its baseline. Once the marching band took its position on the B Stage, Drake started the inside of a locker-room scene. Running through Virginia Beach and Marvin's Room, the locker room opened up for the entire crowd to see Drake live in the flesh.

At that moment, he took a few seconds to acknowledge Buffalo and remind the 716 how much he loves it here. The packed crowd inside the KeyBank Center did not hesitate to return the love as Drizzy ran through a few more hits before transitioning to the main stage.

Once on Stage A, Drake began turning up the arena's power with a few more hits. From Headlines to The Motto, HYFR to Started from the Bottom, and Energy to Nonstop, the energy in the room was electric as Drake took Buffalo down a trip through his catalog.

The energy in the room was so good that Drake even put his microphone down as the crown sang God's Plan word for word. Building on the love, Champagne Papi directed different sections of the arena to sing parts of the song to other sections.

Once the crowd wrapped up God's Plan, Drake went into a quick talk about how he’s just a kid from Toronto who used to drive his mom's Chevy Malibu to Buffalo, and he really broke down how much doing this show in Buffalo means to him. Buffalo is where he has his memories from coming to the United States.

During this break, Drake focused on a woman who had a heartfelt sign. The sign talked about how she had just beat stage 4 cancer just in time for this concert. Moved by what he read on the lady's sign, he gave her $25,000. The unidentified lady broke into tears as the crowd in Buffalo cheered.

Without hesitation afterward, Drake quickly jumped right back into the music. Turning up the energy in the room even more, he dropped Child's Play, In My Feelings, and Nice for What quickly before going into Rich Baby Daddy and Search & Rescue and moving onto Stage C.

Once on Stage C, Drake took a moment and introduced Buffalo to his son Adonis and his mom Sandi, who received a standing ovation. Drizzy then took another moment to wish the entire city more life and to remind the people of Buffalo to celebrate how far we’ve all come in our lives.

You can either way up every day and be a piece of shit or wake up and be a decent person.
-Drake

Standing next to the DJ, Drake, and Adonis started playing classic songs that resonated with Buffalo. As tracks like Controlla, Find Your Love, Passionfruit, Work, One Dance, and Hotline Bling played, he moved into a cage that elevated him to the upper decks of the arena as the crowd cheerfully sang along.

At this moment, Drake began to wrap up his first act before handing this off nicely to his tourmate. Shortly after that, J. Cole entered the arena from a spot in the crowd and made his way to center stage.

In classic J.Cole fashion, he started his set by saying, “Let’s Go” before rapping Middle Child and Wet Dream.

Cole took a moment to shout out the people of Buffalo, acknowledge someone who was wearing his NBA Jersey, and give the nod to his day-one fans before going into A Tale of 2 Cities. Followed quickly by G.O.M.D., Power Trip, The London, A Lot, Love Yourz, and No Role Rolez.

This was when Drake returned to the stage and proceeded to give J. Cole his flowers as a lyricist in the music industry, calling Cole the greatest person ever to take a pen to a piece of paper.

With J.Cole still on stage, Drake talked about his very first rap performance, which occurred at Daemen College, this his when both of them transitioned into their songs together. From In the Morning to First Person Shooter, as the show's name asks: It’s Big As The What? It’s Big As The Super Bowl.

Buffalo gave J. Cole a standing ovation as he left the stage. Drake then moved into the show's last act with IDGAF, and You Broke My Heart. Before closing the show, Drizzy brought someone out on the stage while performing Slime Me Out. Once Drake wrapped up the song, the young man on the stage had a big bucket of slime dunked all over him.

As Drake closed the show, he reminded Buffalo to make sure we love each other and praised the Buffalo and the 716.

Buffalo’s adopted son really showed out for Western New York and Drake dropping more than 40 hits from his catalog, we sure got out money’s worth.

The best part is we get to do it all again on Wednesday.