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Drake · S5 E6
Would You Like a Tour?
59 dates, sold-out arenas, and the moment Drake becomes a legitimate stadium act
October 2013. Drake walks onstage for the first night of the Would You Like a Tour? and 15,000 strangers scream back every word of "Tuscan Leather," a six-minute album opener that was never a single.
Nicki Minaj, Anaconda (2014). By mid-2014, Drake is so omnipresent in pop culture that he shows up in the most-watched music video of the year, sitting in a chair while Nicki Minaj controls the room. One billion views and counting.
Anaconda, Nicki Minaj (2014)
Polow da Don and Da Internz sample Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and Nicki turns it into something entirely her own, layering rapid-fire verses over a beat that shifts gears three times. The song went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and the video broke the VEVO record for most views in 24 hours. Drake's cameo is the most talked-about scene, but the track belongs to Nicki: three distinct sections, each with a different flow. Listen for the moments where the beat drops out completely and Nicki raps almost a cappella, proving she doesn't need the production to carry her.
66 Nights
The Would You Like a Tour? tour ran from October 2013 through April 2014: 66 dates across North America, nearly every one sold out. Drake performed 30-plus songs per night, mixing NWTS deep cuts with Take Care favorites and So Far Gone nostalgia. It was the first time he headlined arenas at this scale, and the crowds never let him forget they'd been waiting.
“I'm living like I'm out here on my last adventure.”
— Drake, "Furthest Thing," 2013
The Opening Acts
Drake didn't just sell tickets. He built a lineup that read like a prediction of the next five years of hip-hop and R&B. Future opened before he became the biggest rapper on Earth. PartyNextDoor opened at 20 years old, barely a year into his OVO Sound deal.
TAP TO REVEAL: How much did the Would You Like a Tour? tour gross?
Scotiabank Arena (Air Canada Centre), Toronto
Drake's hometown arena. The Toronto stop of the Would You Like a Tour? was the homecoming show, a sold-out night where the kid from Weston Road played to 20,000 people in the city that raised him.
Would You Like a Tour?: The Numbers
Which future superstar opened for Drake on the Would You Like a Tour?
Trophies, Young Money / Drake
The unofficial anthem of the tour. "Trophies" was never on an album, just a loosie that Drake dropped in early 2014 while the tour was still rolling. The hook is pure arena energy: simple, repetitive, and designed to make 15,000 people yell at the ceiling. It captures the feeling of the Would You Like a Tour? era better than any album track could.
Trophies, Drake (2014)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "Bring that money home, daddy waiting for it." Drake at his most triumphant, written for a stage he was still learning to fill.
The Stadium Act
The Would You Like a Tour? settled a question that the album sales alone couldn't answer. Drake wasn't just a recording artist with streaming numbers and radio play. He was a live performer who could hold a room of 20,000 people for two hours, and that room would sing every word back.
Drake fills arenas, dominates the charts, and controls every conversation in hip-hop. But a name is about to surface that will follow him for the rest of his career. Next: Quentin Miller, reference tracks, and the ghostwriting question.
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