The Super Bowl is here — not the crew of Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, and Patrick Mahomes, but the rap Super Bowl consisting of the genre’s biggest heavyweights, Drake and J. Cole, as they kicked off their hotly anticipated It’s All A Blur – Big As The What? Tour Friday night (Feb. 2) at Tampa’s Amalia Arena.
Even though Drake and Cole don’t aspire to have gridiron dreams, they certainly electrified like NFL superstars with their signature hits ranging from their Hot 100 chart-topper “First Person Shooter” to their early collaboration “In the Morning.” The set design was a turf-style football field with a colossal statue of fallen fashion designer Virgil Abloh parked at the end zone.
The redux version of Drake’s It’s All A Blur Tour had extra bells and whistles versus the previous effort, including newer songs, most notably from Drake’s For All The Dogs albums and classic B-side records that he didn’t perform the last time. Drake also enlisted sports personality and ESPN First Take host Stephen A. Smith on commentary to kick off the show. Smith provided a colorful analysis of Drizzy and Cole as if they were perennial all-stars on the brink of falling off.
Fortunately, Drake and Cole proved why they’re immune to any possible slippage, as demonstrated by their Herculean performance, which consisted of over 40 songs.
Check out the setlist for Drake and Cole’s It’s All A Blur — Big As The What Tour, based on the opening night show at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.