Drake Blog

            I attended the Drake concert in November at the BJC. I was very impressed by Drake’s performance and although one may argue that the concert was not a form of “art”, I beg to differ. Art is something you can draw inspiration from and appeals to the emotions.  Drake writes his own lyrics and they are very emotional. During the concert, he pointed out this fact by saying that people ask him why he writes the lyrics he does, and tell him that he’s too emotional. Drake’s response verified that people’s opinions could not change him, and he is going to continue to write the way that he does. In his song, “Hurt”, he says “So hard to breathe this air that we call love, Aint nothing worse than the hurt we receive from love”. This certainly appeals to the emotions. A broken heart is a terrible feeling, and Drake is pointing this out, this strong, depressed, awful feeling, in his lyrics. Many people can relate to this, and therefore can connect to the artist. As you look deeper into the lyrics of “Hurt”, Drake adds “

“So many lonely sleepless nights,

     Im going through hell to convince you love me,

    But never her approval no matter how I try,

    The way you talk to me but still I say I love you,

    I’m ashamed you can see it in my eyes,

  Momma always told me to respect the woman,

  But what am I to do when her parents do not try,

             So many tears I cried,

  But all for nothing I’m afraid to say…”

            By listening carefully to Drake’s lyrics you can see how intense they are and how they can make you feel sad or depressed very easily. The poor man is suffering from a broken heart and expresses his feelings in this song. By expressing his feelings, that is a form of art.

            The concert had very beautiful lighting and the backgrounds and stage appearance was impressive. As Drake performed, certain lyrics or images would flash behind him on a backdrop. The technology itself is art. For someone to coordinate all of that to display or light up as Drake is singing those exact words is amazing. A lot of time, practice, and patience clearly went into it. The use of strobe lights and intensifying them when something exciting was happening looked amazing from the crowd. Looking up at the stage and seeing all of this crazy lighting and special effects going on was insane, and I remember looking at the stage and thinking how cool it was.

            Drake isn’t stuck up and he really went the extra mile and tried to connect with the Penn State family during a bad time, the time of the Sandusky situation and riots. Drake still came and performed for the students despite the chaos, and put on an amazing show. He wore a Penn State cut off and took about thirty minutes where he just talked to the crowd. He shared compliments, thoughts, and made everyone laugh with his awesome sense of humor. His easy going attitude and sense of humor made the students smile, laugh, and happy during such a difficult time for the university.

            I really enjoyed the Drake concert and think that is great that he expresses his emotions in lyrics and is able to go up on stage and sing them with pride. He really makes an effort to connect, and explained the lyrics and why he wrote some of the songs that he did. He didn’t just go up on stage and “rap” about pointless things that don’t even make sense, which is a common stereotype of rappers. His performance was a unique form of art that I am very thankful that I was able to watch.