Review: Drake plays first night at the Wells Fargo Center with a surprise intro with Meek Mill, and a featured set with 21 Savage

Drake’s “It’s All a Blur” tour is so named to convey that the Canadian rapper and singer’s career has been a whirlwind, a series of head-spinning triumphs flying by too fast to allow for a moment’s contemplation.

Now, with the vastly successful entertainer born Aubrey Drake Graham — the top-selling digital artist of all time — back on the road after a five-year break, the idea is to take stock as a 36-year-old rapper with a decade-and-half of experience in the game.

At the Wells Fargo Center on Monday, in the first of two back-to-back sold-out Philadelphia shows (in which 21 Savage also performed and Lil Yachty was an unannounced opener), Drake found a dramatically Philly way to introduce themes of personal growth and evolution. He did it with Meek Mill by his side.

Responding to chants of “Au-brey! Au-brey!” Drake made his entrance to the square stage at the center of the arena floor like a prizefighter, moving through the crowd, fist-pumping and high-fiving along the way.

That’s how he has regularly started off his “It’s All A Blur” dates this summer. But this time he was accompanied by Mill, the street-tough Philadelphia rapper with whom he was famously locked in a bitter mid-2010s back-and-forth rap battle.

That beef has long since been squashed, but Drake — widely considered to have won his war of rhymes — was not about to miss the chance to make a public gesture of unity upon his return to the hometown of his former rival.

After beginning the show with “Look What You’ve Done” from his 2011 album Take Care, he addressed the crowd on the significance of the occasion.

“You see who I walked out here with, right?” he asked. “The last time I was here in this building — that man right there, he’s been representing this city since he started — we weren’t getting along at that time … And I’m gonna tell you the truth: “It means the most to me that I can come back to this city and show the growth as two men, that we can come here tonight and represent for [expletive] Philadelphia together. That’s what this is about!”

That connection with Mill led Drake to the posit that “this might be the most important show of the tour.”He revisited the thread of evolution over time and learning to love one another throughout the night.

At one point, he implored the mostly under 30, probably 60% female, racially diverse and ready-to-rap-or-sing-along-to-every-word crowd to turn and give a stranger a hug.

The long arc of Drake’s career, in which he’s mixed melodic, sensitive come-ons like those on his 2021 album Certified Lover Boy with harder boasts like “Over” and “Energy” was emphasized.

That began with the opening, in which the rapper pretended to read lyrics from a school composition book while sitting beside actor Brooklyn Cox, who wore a Phillies jersey and looked eerily like a teenage Drake.

The effect appeared to be achieved with AI technology altering Cox’s features on video screens, creating a not-quite-human effect.

The two-hour show was electrifying in stretches. Compared to other megastar spectacles of the summer — namely, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s across the street at the Linc — “It’s All A Blur” was a minimalist production.

Drake was alone on a bare stage for most of the show, with no band or dancers. The hits kept on coming — he performed at least part of more than 40 songs. He acted as his own tireless hype man, urging fans to make some noise not for him, but for themselves.

On “Childs Play” a sperm balloon hovered overhead. For “Sicko Mode” and “Way 2 Sexy,” it was a barely dressed inflatable woman. It was silly, though no sillier than the Rolling Stones’ long tradition of blowup doll stage props.

The show was oddly structured and anticlimactic, though not without a casual, not-overly-choreographed charm.

First Lil Yachty — who’s due back in September for Made in America — played a short set on stage, and another in the DJ booth.

After an hour-plus that showcased verbal dexterity and variety of supple flows, Drake moved over to the DJ booth and kept rapping with the seductive “Controlla” from 2016′s Views.

Turning the venue into a club with DJ Drake at the helm was intriguing. But he didn’t stick with it for long, instead heading back to the stage for a few more songs, before exiting to make way for 21 Savage.

The London-born, Atlanta-based rapper’s compact 11-song set was diverting. But at that point — nearly 11 p.m. — the audience was hungry for more Drake, not a solo show from his special guest. Drake showed back up in white, for a somewhat rushed five songs with 21 Savage, pulling from their 2022 album, Her Loss.

During that collaborative set, a towering multistory figure loomed large beside the stage. The hologram was a representation of Virgil Abloh, the fashion designer, Louis Vuitton creative director, and close friend of Drake’s, who died in 2021.

Drake closed with a heartfelt tribute to Abloh in his encore, circling back to his earlier Meek-inspired message about “putting your ego to the side” and stressing “it’s always possible for things to end in love.”

And He also announced he’d no longer close his show nightly with “Legend” as he had on every date of the tour. Instead, inspired by the Philly crowd — and maybe Taylor Swift’s nightly two song surprise set? — he’s going to play something different every night.

So on Monday, the show about growth and maturity ended with “Teenage Fever,” a song said to be about his Drake’s teen crush on Jennifer Lopez. And Fans headed to Tuesday night’s second Philly show — and all further “It’s All A Blur” dates — will need to wait till the end to hear their surprise song.