Tag: Drake

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Musique

Drake goes rogue

It’s not over for Drake. The Canadian rap sensation decided to launch a summer music festival and invite his friends to perform. He will now wrap up his Away From Home tour on home turf at the OVO Festival in Toronto.

OVO stands for Drake’s entertainment company, October’s Very Own. The Lil Wayne protégé wants this debut festival to be the first of many. He released a statement to announce the news. "I truly believe this is entertainment at a level that the city has never seen before." The rapper went on to add: "I’m hoping that it is a safe and magical night and that OVO Festival becomes tradition every year."

Drake will perform a headlining set at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on August 1 and other artists on the ticket include Francis & the Lights, Young Jeezy and Bun B. More acts will be announced.

The day-long event will coincide with the 43rd annual Caribana Toronto Festival, a two-week celebration of Caribbean culture. Fans can pick up tickets at Ticketmaster.

 

Categories
Palmarès/Charts

This Week’s Music Charts

Here are the top five country songs on Bob Kingsley’s Country Top 40:

1. THE HOUSE THAT BUILT ME – MIRANDA LAMBERT
2. CRAZY TOWN – JASON ALDEAN
3. WATER – BRAD PAISLEY
4. RAIN IS A GOOD THING – LUKE BRYAN
5. SHE WON’T BE LONELY LONG – CLAY WALKER

The top five songs on Calgary’s Best Rock, CJAY 92 FM, are:

1. BETWEEN THE LINES – STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
2. THE GOOD LIFE – THREE DAYS GRACE
3. BY THE SWORD – SLASH featuring ANDREW STOCKDALE
4. MOUNTAIN MAN – CRASH KINGS
5. YOUR DECISION – ALICE IN CHAINS

The top six songs on Virgin Radio’s Six@Six on 99.9 FM in Toronto are:

1. CALIFORNIA GURLS – KATY PERRY featuring SNOOP DOGG
2. OMG – USHER
3. YOUR LOVE IS MY DRUG – KE$HA
4. BREAK YOUR HEART – TAIO CRUZ
5. FIND YOUR LOVE – DRAKE
6. ALEJANDRO – LADY GAGA

Categories
Musique

Drake drops everything for mom

Drake’s first album, Thank Me Later, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. He has been touring the U.S. promoting his debut release and was supposed to kick off the European leg of his tour today  (July 2) in Norway.

Family comes first and the rapper released a statement announcing his tour is on hold. He wrote: "Despite my best hopes, it is apparent that my mother will need surgery earlier than anticipated. In light of this news, I have made the difficult decision to cancel my European tour in order to support her during her recovery, just as she supported me through the years."

Drake went on to add: "I cannot thank my European fans enough and look forward to performing abroad soon. I ask everyone to please respect my family’s privacy during this time."  

There is no word on what is specifically going on with his mom. The Canadian leg of his tour starts July 16 and is still on for now.

 

Categories
Musique

Drake enters the charts at #1

There was a lot of anticipation leading up to the release of Drake’s album Thank Me Later. The question remained whether his debut effort would live up to the hype. It is now safe to conclude that the answer is a resounding yes.

This Lil Wayne protégé blew the rest of the competition out of the water, including veteran artists Tom Petty and fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan. Thank Me Later sold an impressive 462,989 copies. That totals more than the combined sales of the four other albums in the top five on the Billboard charts.

Granted, it isn’t the million copies Lil Wayne hoped Drizzy would sell but it is more than enough for Thank Me Later to enter the charts at number one. It also earns the distinction of being the highest selling debut album this year.

Drake has every right to be happy with the result. However, it is certainly understandable if he took a moment to ponder ‘what if’. Thank Me Later was leaked online two weeks before its planned May 15 release. We will never know how many copies Drake would have sold if that unauthorized release had not occurred.

Drake had his own "Bieber fever" moment while promoting Thank Me Later in NYC. The NYPD was forced to shut down his free outdoor performance at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan last Tuesday night (June 15) when some of the 10,000 fans on hand started to get violent.

The Canadian rapper issued a statement saying: "I am humbled by the crowd that showed up in support of my performance and the release of Thank Me Later. I love performing for my fans but unfortunately the show was cancelled by the NYPD due to overcrowding, leaving me without the chance to give my fans a real show. I’m thankful for the support that the fans have been giving me….I thank you now."

Categories
Musique

Justin Bieber, Hedley and Drake, kings of the MMVAs

Unknown just a year ago, Justin Bieber is now an international star. The Stratford, Ontario native won three awards last night (June 20) at the Much Music Video Awards held by the music television network in downtown Toronto.

Bieber came out the winner in three of the most popular categories, Best International Video by a Canadian for the song One Time, Video of the Year for Baby and Artist of the Year. Three nominations, three awards, not a bad night for Bieber.

While accepting his first award, the young singer said, "Coming from a small town in Canada – repping (representing) Stratford, Ontario – I just wanna say, this means the world to me. It’s my first award, and to have it in Canada is just amazing. I want to say thank you to all my fans who got me in this position."

The group Hedley also had a good night, picking up three awards. They won Video of the Year and Postproduction of the Year for Perfect as well as Pop Video of the Year for Cha-Ching.

Newcomer Drake was nominated in seven categories and walked away with two wins. He received awards for Cinematography and Hip Hop Video of the Year for the song Successful.

Categories
Musique

New music from both sides of the border

One of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year is finally out today. Canadian rapper Drake releases his first complete album, Thank Me Later. He recorded it with a host of collaborators under the supervision of his mentor, Lil Wayne, before that rapper went to prison on weapons charges.

Still on this side of the border, internationally acclaimed songstress Sarah McLachlan releases her seventh studio album today, Laws of Illusion. The Lilith Fair tour which McLachlan founded in 1997 also releases a compilation album today, Lilith 2010. Lilith Fair hits the road again in 2010 after a more than 10-year break. Some of the artists taking part this year include Ke$ha, Rihanna, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Sara Bareilles.

Rock ‘n roll is well represented this week with the release of a 12th album by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Petty has recorded other albums with the Traveling Wilburys and solo work like Mojo but this is the first album with his band since The Last DJ came out in 2002.

The curtain finally falls on the British band Oasis. Its compilation album came out yesterday. Time Flies… 1994-2009 includes hits from throughout the band’s career.

And here’s something for diehard fans of the 1980s: U.S. group Devo launches Something for Everybody, their first album in 20 years. The group got back together in 1996 and keeps performing the songs that brought them success back in the day.

Categories
Musique

Drake and Lil Wayne album in the future

Drake is already talking about new projects just a few days before the release of his debut album. Thank Me Later drops June 15. One exciting project on the radar is an album with Lil Wayne. That one has to wait a bit until Wayne finishes his prison sentence in winter 2011.

Drake visited Lil Wayne in prison last week and the two talked about their album project. While Drake’s new album is out next Tuesday, Lil Wayne’s latest album was pushed back and back until it was finally released on February 2 of this year.

In an interview with MTV News, Drake talked about his visit with Lil Wayne. He said: "I went up to Rikers, and me and Wayne agreed that there will be a Lil Wayne/ Drake album," There’s some things I’m excited for in my life — I’m excited to go perform certain places — but [this project] will probably be one of the most exciting things in my life, because we make music on a different level. It’s just so fun, so comfortable. A whole album? To think about all the things we can do, especially if we’re gonna do 15 songs. Me and him don’t like to do 12, 13 [songs]. We want to do 15, 16. Yeah, Lil Wayne and Drake album."

Drake ended that interview by saying he hoped with all his heart that he would continue to work with Lil Wayne for the rest of his career. That is how much he respects the multi-tattooed rap artist.

Categories
Musique

Drake previews his new album for journalists

There’s less than two weeks to go before the release of his debut album and Canadian rapper Drake is already a fast rising star in the hip hop world.

Some of the biggest names in the industry helped out on his first album, including Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Timbaland. He performed Thank Me Later for a room of handpicked journalists and media outlets. Journalists from Billboard, BET, XXL, Entertainment Weekly, VIBE, Us Weekly and the New York Times, among others, were on hand.

The album drops on June 15 after months of preparation with the help of Lil Wayne. The rapper took Drake under his wing and is now spending a year in prison.

Other big names showed up at the listening party, including Chris Brown, Bow Wow and Jay Sean. Drake performed every song off the album and explained the story and motivation behind the making of each track.

Drake was a popular character on the Canadian television series Degrassi: The Next Generation when he went by his real name, Aubrey Graham. He appeared in 138 episodes from 2001-2009 until he left to concentrate on his rap career. 

He launched a mini-album called So Far Gone in 2009 that featured the track Best I Ever Had which made the industry sit up and notice.

Drake’s entire new album was leaked online last week. Since then thousands of illegal downloads have been recorded each day.

 

Categories
Musique

Two other Drake songs burn up the Internet

In the space of a few days, two more songs from Thank Me Later have made their way online. Drake’s debut album is supposed to drop June 15. These songs join Find Your Love and Over which are already online, increasing to four the number of Drake songs now available. This is despite the fact that there are still three weeks to go before the album is released.

The two new tracks are Fireworks and Light Up. Though he collaborates with none other than Jay-Z on Light Up, it is the song Fireworks getting the most buzz.

Drake talked to MTV News about the song in April. He said, "The song itself is the first song on the album; I think it’s the biggest indicator of what the album is gonna be like. That’s why I picked that song to go first, and that’s why I wrote the first verse like that. It’s really where I am in my life right now. I know they’re looking forward to the album, so I want them to get a feel of how the story starts off."

Fireworks covers a lot of issues in his newfound life, including a rumoured relationship with Rihanna and his relationship with his father. Singer Alicia Keys lends her voice to the refrain on this new Drake song.

Categories
Musique

Drake releases Thank Me Later track list

One of the most highly anticipated album releases of the summer, Thank Me Later, is dropping June 15.

The Canadian rapper’s first album will contain 14 songs, including duets with Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, TI, Swizz Beatz, Nicki Minaj, The Dream, Young Jeezy and, of course, Lil Wayne, Drake’s mentor who recognized his talent and took him under his wing.

A few of the 14 songs have already surfaced online, Miss Me (with Lil Wayne) and Shut It Down (with The Dream). Miss Me will be the third official single from the album Thank Me Later after Over and Find Your Love.

Here’s the complete track list from Drake’s upcoming album Thank Me Later:

1.     Fireworks (avec Alicia Keys)
2.     Karaoke
3.     The Resistance
4.     Over
5.     Show Me a Good Time
6.     Up All Night (with Nicki Minaj)
7.     Fancy (with T.I. and Swizz Beatz)
8.     Shut It Down (with The Dream)
9.     Unforgettable (with Young Jeezy)
10.   Light Up (with Jay-Z)
11.   Miss Me (with Lil Wayne)
12.   Cece’s Interlude
13.   Find Your Love
14.   Thank Me Now