One year later, the massive differences between these two big name artists is still on my mind.
There’s no question that Drake was one of the most sought out performers for Coachella 2015. As a headliner, all eyes were on this Toronto-bred, who was closing out the entire festival for the year and the crowd was buzzing. Who would he bring out? Would there be fireworks? Beyoncé? Confetti? Frank Ocean? Our expectations were high on Sunday night- putting out the last bit of energy we had before our inevitable collapse post weekend. Speaking of the week(e)nd, let’s take a second to talk about Saturday night.
After a long second day, a portion of the crowd that somehow was still moving, went over to Axwell Ingrosso to do a little more jumping- while the majority of us sauntered over to The Weeknd. I was excited about this show -- a chill ending to the night, I could get there a little late and sit on the grass and make some friends and just hang- right? WRONG. As I was getting into the groove of my grass-sitting and friend-making, we hear the band start to play "Heartless." “Hm that’s odd” we all think -- but just assume we’re tripping or imagining things- until we hear “laaa la la wait till i get my money right.” We hear people say “OMG ITS KANYE!!” and yell “What is going on??” Well, we heard right -- "Can’t Tell Me Nothing" was in fact playing, and Kanye West had taken the stage.
Woah.
He played a quick set, with a new few tracks after getting the crowd hyped with ‘Black Skinhead’, and well, with the fact that Kanye F*cking West was on stage. Kanye knows that he’s a big deal- he believes he is a God. And that night so did I.
We walked out on Saturday in a daze. Trying to comprehend the fact that Kanye had just changed our lives and that anything would be hard to top that- but hell, we were at Coachella! Who KNOWS what was in store for tomorrow!?
We awoke Day 3: ready. Final day. Make it count. YOLO. All that jazz. We saw a slew of amazing shows, did our share of jumping in Sahara, had some cool down seshes under the funky tents and when nightfall came around, we made our way through the Drake crowd. We had a nice 45 minutes before Drake was scheduled to come on, which, being post-Florence and the Machine you would think would be pretty chill. Incorrect. The crowd was second most rowdy only to that at Flosstradamus. Fights were breaking out, people were dehydrated and we just wanted Drizzy (and a drizzle). We were not pleased when he came out a good 15 minutes late. Coachella performers have to stay pretty punctual because of how many performers there are, but being the last artist on the main stage, he could do whatever he wanted... apparently.
Once he did come on- we were psyched. We ran through the 6, we started from the bottom and then... THEN WE SAW NIKKI MINAJ. Drake confessed his love and made a quick remark about Yung Money. We were hyped. A few songs into the set and she was already out. What could be next? What would they perform? We saw her turn and walk off stage. Going to get Beyoncé? Nope. Actually, we never saw her again. Weird huh?
Got weirder. I looked down for a second and Drake was in a tree- Jungle, yeah I know but Drake.... Wtf. He performed some greats and some I didn’t know too well but his performance truly was superb. After one song, he walked off stage in the same manner as Nikki: leaving us all on the edge of our imaginary seats. Once again we wondered who he was going to get and what they would perform, and once again we were brutally disappointed. Fans stayed for 20 minutes waiting for him to come back, only to realize that their beloved Drizzy was not coming back on stage and that their weekend had, indeed, ended.
We got our fireworks at the end and got to experience Drake’s beautiful voice. but as a crowd, we walked out confused more than anything. Why bring out Nikki and not have her do anything? Why did he leave so abruptly? Why was Drake in a tree?
We were tired and dehydrated and disappointed. The weekend was amazing but walking out of Day 2 was so much more satisfying than Day 3. Kanye had the upper hand, being the surprise guest, but he delivered like you wouldn’t believe. Drake had high expectations to match and he did not even try to compare. He gave up. He is a great artist and he did not even try.
Drake, if you are reading this- we’re disappointed, we want answers, and we are still waiting for you to come back on stage and finish your set. And for the love of Kanye, bring a guest.
