Drake made a random pop-out on Saturday night at Club Nostalgia, where he gave fans an impromptu karaoke performance and shared that Jamaican artist Sizzla Kalonji was one of his first musical inspirations.
The Canadian rapper was out with Fat Joe and others when he took over a karaoke session. During the sessions, he revealed that there were two Sizzla songs he waited for the DJ to play in the club.
“I just to stand outside of club 26 and I used to hand out flyers until I could go inside we had to get rid of the flyers- me, Meech, Jordan we had to throw our flyers in the garbage just to get rid of some flyers so we could go inside,” he said.
“I used to wait for two songs,” Drake continued as he broke out into singing Sizzla’s song “Hush” featuring Kim Davis, released 16 years ago. “That’s a big tune! I used to wait every night to hear that song.”
The rapper also revealed the second Sizzla song he waited on – “Dry Cry.” The rapper and the crowd also broke out into song as the beat dropped for the song.
From all indications, Drake had a great night out as he showed off his great lyrical knowledge of music stretching back to the pre-1990s to early 2000s. He, along with fellow rappers Fat Joe and T-Rex, also posed for photos inside the club. There are reports that T-Rex hosted the party, and Drake and Fat Joe showed off, no doubt, with Drizzy showing off his Canadian hospitality.
He and T-Rex also had a mini battle as Drake sang Usher’s “U Don’t Have To Call”, maybe a little too passionately and causing the crowd to also join in.
On social media, many fans reveled at seeing Drake in his element.”Shout out to the nostalgia party! Seeing @fatjoe perform and Drake as an emcee was unreal,” one fan commented.
Drake has had a storied love affair with dancehall music and Jamaican culture, which started from his early days growing up in Toronto, which has a strong Jamaican immigrant community that influences the city’s musical culture.
The OVO rapper famously traveled to Jamaica in 2010 in the early days of his rap career to shoot the music video for his Take Care hit “Find Your Love” with dancehall artist Mavado and model Maliah Michel, who was rumored to be dating Drake around that time, starred in the video. Michel plays Drizzy’s love interest and is a gang-affiliated woman connected to Mavado in the gritty streets of Kingston.
Over the years since then, Drake became close friends with Mavado before their falling out in the mid-2010s. He then became close friends with Popcaan, whom he signed to OVO Records in 2018. The Toronto rapper also has several dancehall-influenced hit songs in his catalog, including “One Dance,” “Controlla,” and “Work” with Rihanna, which are three of his biggest hits to date.
Drake has yet to collaborate with Sizzla Kalonji, but perhaps the connection can be made after this.
