Drake's first Milwaukee concert, at Fiserv Forum, is one for the history books

Drake's first-ever Milwaukee concert Friday at Fiserv Forum was predestined to be a big event.

In the end, it felt historic.

That sounds hyperbolic, but the singer and rapper's massive impact in hip-hop cannot be overstated. Aside from having each of his studio albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and making nearly 70 appearances in the top 10 of the Hot 100 singles chart, Drake changed hip-hop as we know it with his vulnerable, brokenhearted storytelling and bold evolution of sound and melodic flow. He's inspired countless artists, and more yet to come.

Beyond this scratch-the-surface assessment, Drake is in rarefied air, perhaps shared only with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé: He has amassed an enormous catalogue of enduring hits, and yet, 13 years after releasing his first album, continues to dominate the zeitgeist with new ones.

Take an artist with that kind of career and relevance and place them in a packed arena in a city that they've never played before.

That's history right there. And with an explosive crowd and an overjoyed star both soaking in the significance, Drake's first Milwaukee show was a hell of a night.

The production rose to the occasion.

Friday’s concert had been scheduled for Thursday but was delayed a day “due to the size of the production and in order to bring the entire production and the best version of the show to Milwaukee.”

As you walked into the arena, the setup seemed pretty sparse — a square stage in the center of the floor with a standard lighting rig above.

But Drake's "It's All a Blur Tour" boasts some huge set pieces.

As Drake performed on that stage, which doubled as a high-tech LED screen with some platforms lifting up from the surface, a parade of elaborate suspended figures floated around and above him: a ghostly bride with a red rose and 10-foot-long train for "Jaded"; a UFO with green tractor beam for "Started From the Bottom"; a 15-foot-tall Ghostface replica from the "Scream" movies during "Knife Play."

And during the tongue-in-cheek "Child's Play," a massive sperm swam over the stage, its tail wagging, like an unused conversation piece from Kendall Roy's ridiculous birthday party on "Succession."

And towering on one side of the arena for most of the night was a 50-foot statue of pioneering fashion designer Virgil Abloh, former artistic director for Louis Vuitton (and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate) who died of cancer in 2021. The statue was holding a paper airplane in his right hand throughout the concert, which in a lovely touch, flew from his grip and over the crowd near the night's end.

But the tour also boasted two features that were jaw-dropping. The show began with an actor sitting on a couch, his face on the stage's big screens resembling a teenage Drake, an incredible display of deepfake and de-aging technology, his movements seamlessly flowing in real time as, in an inspired moment, the real Drake sat by his side and read from a journal, rapping lines from the opening number. (The wide-eyed teenage Drake showed up again later to watch some "Family Matters" — before changing the channel and settling for "Degrassi: The Next Generation," which starred a young Drake.)

And when "Calling My Name" and "Massive" showed up in the setlist, four laser-firing robots sprung to life, synchronized to sway and bounce to the beats, and struck poses with carefully positioned mirrors, to create intricate displays that surrounded the stage.

Complementing the massive production was an equally sprawling setlist. On stage for an hour and 45 minutes, Drake touched on a whopping 44 songs. This frequently amounted to snippets, with a few — "Wait For U" and an underutilized "One Dance" — not given the space to really elevate the crowd.

But what made the final cut was, for the most part, smartly selected and arranged, generating huge reactions despite their fleeting appearances — whether Drake was in his feelings, rapping as he read from a journal next to his teenage self, for family-honoring set opener "Look What You've Done," or spitting with the speed and force of a machine gun, with red fireworks falling over him in perfect sync, for "Energy."

And as a whole, the 44 songs made for an overwhelming retrospective that illustrated the depth and breadth of Drake's world-changing body of work — while striking omissions (including "Hotline Bling" and "Hold On, We're Going Home") indicated through absence how much more he's accomplished.

Given his catalog, the staggering production, the goodwill of an ecstatic crowd finally seeing Drake in Milwaukee for the first time, he easily could have coasted and the night still would have been a success.

But Drake gave this show his all, transforming his superstar status into a supernova.

Relying on backing vocals or crowd singalongs for just a couple of tracks, Drake went from crooning with bittersweet pathos for "Marvins Room" to dropping verses with fiery swagger for "HYFR." He was a grand conductor, splitting the arena to rap the climax-approaching verses for "God's Plan," before everyone gleefully joined together to sing, "I only love my bed and my mama I'm sorry."

He made incredible one-on-one connections throughout the night, passionately rapping the final lines to one fan for the show's climactic "Rich Flex," and serenading fans (and security guards) from the DJ station in the back for several songs, including "Controlla," "Too Good" and "Fountains." And making his entrance by walking through the crowd was an admired gesture.

But what seemed to endear these fans more than anything was the local love.

Unlike Post Malone, who finally played Milwaukee for the first time last year but never acknowledged it, Drake did — over and over and over again. He talked about flying out to Toronto to pick clothes just for this show. He expressed dismay that he'd never been to the city before. He suggested he might come back to the city when he releases his next album soon. He stressed that of all the cities on the tour, Milwaukee was the one he would not miss (a nod, perhaps, to a canceled Memphis date that was supposed to happen this weekend).

Was he just feeding the fans lines? To some extent, sure — don't hold your breath for a Drake album release party in Milwaukee. But this crowd was eating it up, and Drake's elation to finally play this city for the first time certainly seemed sincere.

And in another thoughtful gesture that suggested the energy was custom-made for Milwaukee, Drake near the night's end busted out a crowd favorite, "Connect," that he hasn't played live since 2015. Not content to end the night there, on the fly he called out to his DJ to play another one, "Teenage Fever," performed for just the third time since 2017, because, as Drake told him, "they deserve this."

"I'm definitely coming back to do some shows," Drake promised. This first Milwaukee show was definitely worth the wait — and his fans, and yours truly, can't wait to see him in town again.

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21 Savage joined Drake on stage, plays own set

In a classy move, instead of letting the night's special guest 21 Savage open the show, Drake essentially opened for him, performing for 80 minutes before letting Savage command the stage for his own 20-minute set.

The crowd was so worked up from Drake's barrage of hits and astounding crowd work that Savage benefited from white-hot energy in the room that led to humongous screams and singalongs for "Red Opps," "A Lot," "Who Want Smoke??" and nine other tracks. And just as the momentum started to dip toward the tail end of his set-closer "Bank Account," Drake got back on stage; the two rappers worked different sides of the stage and fed off each other's energy for five tracks, including "On BS" and "Spin Bout U" from their blockbuster 2022 joint album "Her Loss." Savage's set placement certainly benefited from Drake, but he made the case he might be ready to headline his own arena tour soon.

3 takeaways from Drake's Milwaukee debut concert

• When Drake joined 21 Savage on stage, he asked Savage if this was his first time in Milwaukee, to which Savage said he thought so. Not the case: Savage played the Rave in 2017.

• When Drake made it to the DJ station, his camera crew spotted and filmed a fan who had a front-row seat right behind him, who looked like he had been partying too hard, and was resting his head on a railing. But after "Controlla," the people around him managed to get the guy to snap out of it and lift his head — and he was shocked to see Drake standing inches in front of him, giving him enough energy to get back on his feet and resume partying.

• Milwaukee also got a little bit of Self-Help Philosopher Drake Friday. The rapper encouraged people in the crowd to say something nice to a stranger, and nearly everyone in the crowd fulfilled his request. "That little 10 seconds you just took to treat somebody else kindly instead of just keeping it to yourself adds to your life, I promise you," Drake said. "The key to staying alive in this short life is you’ve got to be a good person." But even when preaching the value of karma, Drake did manage to sneak in a little diss of his longtime nemesis, Kanye West. "Sometimes in your life, take 10 seconds out of your day to tell one person … 'My man, you look good, even though you've got those Yeezys on.'"

Drake's Fiserv Forum setlist

1. "Look What You've Done"

2. "Marvin's Room"

3. "Say Something"

4. "Shot for Me"

5. "Can I"

6. "Feel No Ways"

7. "Jaded"

8. "Jungle"

9. "Over"

10. "Headlines"

11. "The Motto"

12. "HYFR"

13. "Started From The Bottom"

14. "Energy"

15. "Know Yourself"

16. "Nonstop"

17. "Sicko Mode"

18. "Way 2 Sexy"

19. "Back Outside Boyz"

20. "Jumbotron (Expletive) Poppin"

21. "Laugh Now Cry Later"

22. "God's Plan"

23. "Childs Play"

24. "Wait For U"

25. "In My Feelings"

26. "Nice For What"

27. "Controlla"

28. "Too Good"

29. "Find Your Love"

30. "Fountains"

31. "Work"

32. "Passionfruit"

33. "One Dance"

34. "Calling My Name"

35. "Massive"

36. "Sticky"

37. "Search & Rescue"

38. "Knife Talk"

39. "On BS"

40. "Spin Bout U"

41. "Jimmy Cooks"

42. "Rich Flex"

43. "Connect"

44. "Teenage Fever"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Drake's first Milwaukee concert, at Fiserv Forum, is epic and historic