The Mirror’s Hannah Ballantyne spend the day at Wireless festival with Liquid IV, but it got her thinking about conflict resolution and if there were better ways of dealing with things than public feuds.
I was kindly invited along to Wireless music festival for the day by Liquid I.V. It’s a festival I’d heard of but never been on my radar to be honest because in all honesty it’s not really the genre of music that I would normally listen to.
I’ve decided recently that this summer I am going to say yes more and have all of the new London experiences. I moved here less than two years ago and still have a long list of things to get through. A new music festival was very high on that list.
I have always loved going to music festivals – whether I know the music or not! I just love the atmosphere and taking it all in. It’s always good fun and people are always in a good mood, which I can always get on board with.
So that leads me to Finsbury Park on a very hot Saturday afternoon thinking about the fact I was going to be spending my evening watching Canadian rapper Drake play his second night at the festival.
Let’s be real here, it’s hard to think of Drake and not think about the controversy and feud he currently has with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. Who could forget the disses…
To be frank, it consumed a lot of my thoughts in the days leading up to the show. I couldn’t really decide how I felt about it all. I used to be a big Drake fan back in the day. I once went to Toronto and listened to him most of the time that I was there. He also used to be the soundtrack to many of my pre-games before nights out. So I was a bit conflicted.
There was a big part of me that was super excited to hear some of the songs I used to know and love, but as with these sort of things, you want to be on the right side of things.
‘There’s no way he’ll address the beef’
When Drake took to the stage, the set up and the production was truly like nothing I have ever seen before in my life. It’s hard to describe just how large it was and how many lights could be seen. I was taken aback by it, it was truly insane!
He started with some newer songs that I will be the first to admit, I did not know. He then moved into a megamix that did include some of his bangers that I did know, which was good.
At one point the crowd errupted in a chant. You could hear ‘f*** Kendrick’ faintly in the background. I looked at my friend as no more than one hour beforehand I was sat in the chill zone with a drink saying ‘there’s no way he’ll address the beef – he’ll not want to draw attention to it, surely’. Oh how wrong I was.
As soon as the chant started he took a shot of something or other then started into a very long speech about how he started from the bottom and worked hard to get to where he was, then all of a sudden he came out with “three different sets, three different vibes, name another artist that can do that. Bring them up here. We can clash right now. Anybody”.
It was a very, very obvious dig at Kendrick Lamar. Drake wanted to show he had some power over him. There was absolutely no hiding how he felt about the situation at all. The crowd lapped it up, I was indifferent
What I will say is that he did know how to put on a good show and he brought out some very big names to help him with this. The likes of Central Cee and Skepta both came up and played a few songs with him.
However, the absolute highlight of my night was Vanessa Carlton coming on stage to sing her iconic 2000’s hit A Thousand Miles. It was a moment that was certainly not on my bingo card but one that I truly appreciated. It took me back to my teenage years, dancing around my bedroom and listening to that song on my very first iPod.
‘I don’t see the need for two adult men to be fighting’
Despite just hearing one of the songs that shaped my teenage years, I couldn’t help but be stuck on the feud and Drake’s obvious reaction to it.
In my opinion, I just don’t really see the need for two grown adult men to be fighting so publicly. I get it, there’s been drama there on both parties and some very intense things have been said, but come on!? I refuse to believe this can’t be handled slightly differently.
I also understand that the drama clearly sells records for both artists. I just truly think that in this day and age two grown men shouldn’t be throwing their toys out of the pram so much and fighting on such a public stage.
It doesn’t set a great example and I really think it’s time for these sort of things to stop. What’s the need? What does this truly achieve?
All I know is that surely there’s got to be a better way to resolve things than this.