FOR DRAKE'S SAKE

Licking the wounds from his feud with Kendrick Lamar, the rapper isn't afraid to wield the power of his address book when he needs it at Wireless Festival, writes Ellie Muir

- Ellie Muir

“I’ve got loads of friends,” Drake declares onstage at London’s Wireless Festival. It’s an interesting boast from the Toronto rapper after what has arguably been the worst 18 months of his career, during which he lost a months-long feud to Kendrick Lamar and went to war with his record label. His defeat was confirmed when Lamar walked away from this year’s Grammys with five awards for diss track “Not Like Us”. The whole ordeal culminated in Drake’s swift ejection from the hip-hop boys’ club, leaving us wondering: who’s still standing in his corner?

Plenty of people, if this show is anything to go by. Tonight at Finsbury Park - the first of three (!) headline sets for Drake - the rapper has arrived with a surprise guest list long enough to dispel rumours of loneliness. Dressed in military-style vest printed with the text “Stay Cocky”, he fires out guest cameos like bullets from an assault rifle: Lauryn Hill chief among them.