Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Grand National Tour finally hit Toronto this week, making for some hilarious back-and-forth between fans of the TDE alum and the city’s hometown hero, Drake.
This marks the first time Kendrick has performed in Toronto since his highly-publicized beef with Drake last year, which means all eyes were on the L.A. native and his performance.
According to reports from The Spec, Kendrick didn’t focus on the feud during his performance, putting on a show like any other during his stadium tour. But even without special treatment for Toronto, Lamar still performed his record-breaking Drake diss, “Not Like Us,” which was met with chants of “one more time” from the crowd.
The Compton rapper reportedly received a two-minute standing ovation along with pleas for another round of “Not Like Us,” and though he didn’t oblige, it sure sent a message to the rapper the song is aimed at.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA are making their way across North America and Europe with their Grand National Tour this summer, most recently stopping in Toronto at a massive stadium that Drake has never played on tour. While the LA native already took home too many wins to keep track of in their beef—including multiple Grammy wins and a Super Bowl performance—selling out the biggest stadium in Drake’s city is another one.
In other (embarrassing) news, an OVO takeover was anticipated at Lamar’s tour stop in Toronto in support of Drake, but things didn’t exactly go as planned. The pro-Drake protest outside of Rogers Centre was quickly dispersed by Toronto police, according to Hot New Hip Hop, with fans taking to social media to claim they were forced to leave after authorities received concerning calls.
In a statement shared on social media, the organizers of the OVO takeover wrote the following:
“Unfortunately, we have to cancel the OVO Takeover,” the statement began. “We genuinely just wanted to bring people together, have some fun, and create good vibes for the city. But unfortunately, some people decided to report us, falsely claiming we were planning to “start trouble” or cause chaos. Because of those reports, police were already on high alert and were quick to shut down anything that even looked like a crowd forming—including us.”
The statement went on to explain that the protest wasn’t expected to draw large numbers, originally starting as a joke that quickly transformed into something more.
