Drake delivered a powerful shoutout to the UK rap scene — and waded into a current controversy — during his set at the Wireless Festival.
In the middle of his Saturday night performance at the annual festival, while introducing Skepta, the 6 God spoke to the crowd and told them what he thought about London and American rappers.
“No disrespect to America, but nobody in the world can out‑rap London rappers,” said Drake.
Drizzy’s statement was inspired by a post on X from Skepta earlier this month, which began a rash of talk about the merits of U.S. and U.K. rappers.
“I wanna clash an American rapper anyway, finally get this US/UK rap debate sorted,” Skepta wrote.
You can see Complex’s Jordan Rose take on Skepta’s message, as well as the rapper’s follow-up posts, here.
Drizzy is headlining all three nights of the Wireless Festival. For night two, in addition to Skepta, he brought out Dave, Central Cee, 21 Savage, Sexyy Red, Yeat, Latto, and Vanessa Carlton.
For his third and final night at Wireless Fest, Drake is expected to bring out Afrobeats and dancehall artists such as Burna Boy and Vybz Kartel. Fans who attended night one saw Drake bring out Giveon, Bryson Tiller, Mario, and Bobby Valentino.
The biggest surprise came when Drizzy brought out Lauryn Hill to perform “Nice for What,” which samples Hill’s classic 1998 single “Ex-Factor.”
Drake’s time in London comes after he released his new single, “What Did I Miss?” which is set to appear on his upcoming ninth album Iceman.
This new chapter in his career finds Drake stepping into the streaming world. He got things started with his Iceman Episode 1 livestream. More recently, he invited select streamers to attend the Wireless Festival.
During Iceman Episode 1, Drake previewed several songs that are expected to show up on his new album.
