Drake pelted with bras at Detroit show, announces new collaboration with Nicki Minaj

DETROIT − Has Drake found his happy place?

On Saturday, the 36-year-old superstar operated like an artist very much at ease with his spot in the world.

While the notion of Drake as the flagbearer for sad, sensitive celebrity has always been overblown − he’s got upbeat charisma and can be a hoot on social media − there was a new, mature sense of calm and contentment onstage at Little Caesars Arena. Drake referenced his pandemic downtime several times and noted it had given him time to reflect.

“I’ve just been really appreciative lately,” he told the crowd at his first Detroit concert in nearly five years.

In the first of two sold-out shows at the venue, Drake’s era-defining pop-rap got a vigorous workout on a big square stage that doubled as a sophisticated video display.

Drake’s just-launched It’s All a Blur tour squeezes a stadium-sized production into the cozier confines of North American arenas, and Saturday’s two-hour spectacle, staged in the round for 20,000-plus, featured at various points a flying saucer, a floating Peter Pan and Transformer-style, laser-wielding robots. The arena also sported a massive blowup statue commemorating late menswear designer and Drake friend Virgil Abloh.

And fans contributed to the spectacle, hurling an assortment of bras onto the stage in what may become one of this tour’s rituals. Thursday in Chicago, one night after being struck in the arm by a tossed cellphone, Drake had advised concertgoers, “Bras only, please.” Detroit fans Saturday upped the ante with a whole host of them − including one inscribed with somebody’s Instagram handle − prompting Drake to joke, “I feel like I’m cleanup duty,” as he gathered them up.

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Saturday also brought a bit of news as Drake revealed his forthcoming album will include a song with Nicki Minaj (“I’ve got a lot of love for her,” he said to a roar from the crowd). That album, titled “For All the Dogs,” is “about to be a classic,” vowed Drake, who said he’s mixing the record now with longtime producer 40.

Detroit is the tour’s second stop, and there were no discernible glitches in a sleek, precisely calibrated production that still made room for personal touches, including an entrance through the crowd.

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A teen lookalike sat on an onstage couch to start the show (many mistook him for a hologram), handing the real Drake a journal of lyrics as the rapper-singer reached back for 2012’s “Look What You’ve Done,” part of an opening stretch focused on his older work in a salvo of hit hooks.

Drake was well into his set before he got to any material from his post-quarantine trilogy of albums, but it was just a quick taste before he was promptly back to “God’s Plan” and “Childs Play.”

With his offhanded singsong delivery, spare instrumentation and arsenal of songs that manage to be simultaneously downcast and extravagant, Drake has wielded an outsized influence on the sound of mainstream hip-hop and even R&B the past decade. While his latest music seems to have found him at a creative crossroads, unsure how and where to push his boundaries, Saturday’s show nevertheless made the new tour feel like a career victory lap of sorts.

“In My Feelings” and “Nice for What” came soaked in nostalgic ‘90s graphics before Drake headed offstage for a 10-minute club segment with his DJ, and it wasn’t long until tour partner 21 Savage was out for his own 20-minute set. The Atlanta rapper rolled through career staples before linking up with Drake for a run through several songs from their joint 2022 album, “Her Loss,” energetically bouncing verses off each other.

“Boy, do I have some stories about Detroit,” Drake said early in Saturday’s set. The Toronto native recounted that he used to visit the city often, picking up his Memphis-based dad at Detroit’s Greyhound station.

He also recalled one of his “first shows ever,” playing Detroit with Wale and Big Sean, along with the day he got invited to a local studio, where he wound up hanging with Lil Wayne, Eminem and Kid Rock.

“Detroit’s a big part of where I’m from,” said Drake, who later toasted the city with a shot of liquor: “One of the realest places on earth − if you can’t get no love in Detroit, you may as well quit.”

Drake is still in his feelings, to borrow a line. But as he heads toward his 40s, he has survived the potshots and embraced the memes amid his status as the biggest streaming artist ever.

“It’s always just been me and you,” he told fans during a monologue late Saturday. “And that’s why no matter what they say, the jokes they make ... I could never do it without you.”

Even at two hours and dozens of songs, many of them truncated, the set didn’t include everything fans might have wanted − most notably 2015’s “Hotline Bling,” Drake’s biggest hit.

But there was, um, showmanship. When the concert moved into the 11 p.m. hour with a few songs still to go, Drake alerted the audience he was breaking curfew. “They keep talking to me in my ears, trying to get me to end the show,” he said defiantly, noting he’d pay the $10,000-per-minute penalty out of his own pocket.

There actually is no curfew at Little Caesars Arena, but, hey − what’s a little feel-good embellishment among 20,000 of your closest admirers?

Drake and 21 Savage will return to the venue Sunday night.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Drake reveals Nicki Minaj song, gets pelted with bras in Detroit