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Concert reviews Music

Tory Lanez at the Drake Underground

TORY LANEZ at the Drake Underground, Sunday, October 19. Rating: NNN


Toronto native Tory Lanez is an R&B-loving, hook-singing 22-year-old emcee whose sound is indebted to OVO. In the current climate, those qualities point to success, and judging by Sunday’s energetic, polished performance, Lanez is headed for it.

For instance, Henny In Hand, from his latest Lost Cause mixtape, is a falsetto-crooned slow jam. Yet he managed to have the crowd jumping up and down with their ones in the air, all while delivering a theatric, decently sung rendition. Pretty cool.

But from his unsuccessful crowd-surf on the third song to the onstage videographer blinding anyone looking in the rapper’s direction to the way he kept referring to a 10 pm curfew, things often got a little weird. (NOW found out later that the Drake does not, and has never, had a curfew for shows. So, we don’t know what Lanez was talking about.)

“Before I get back to my set…” was something Lanez said often, and long between-song crowd participation games and stories ate up lots of his show.

After his mic cut out just after 10, Lanez was pissed, but carried on after grabbing a functioning one, and ploughed forward for another couple of songs. His just-over-an-hour set seemed a little short though, for such a hyped homecoming with no opener.

But, he did manage to successfully crowd-surf and was in control of the audience, who enthusiastically rapped and sang along to standout tunes Friends and The Godfather.

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