In songs of his like “Nonstop” (2018), “Jumpman” (2015) and “Under Ground Kings” (2011), Drake shouted out the city of Memphis, where his father Dennis Graham was born and raised. Now, as a long-standing pillar for mainstream hip-hop, Drake was officially given the key to Memphis by its city council on Monday (June 26).
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Holding the ceremony at Memphis City Council District 4, councilwoman Jana Swearangen-Washington was the one to officially hand over the key to Drake in a small, black gift bag, which can be seen in a video posted to Swearangen-Washington’s Instagram.
“It’s an honor to celebrate Drake’s support of Memphis and Memphians in the heart of my district!” the councilwoman wrote in the caption of her post. “We appreciate his music and his generous spirit! We truly soar in District 4!”
The news of Drake’s achievement came just two days after he postponed his tour stop in Memphis, which was originally slated for Thursday (June 29) and will now instead be held on Aug. 6. Memphis’ show was expected to be the opening date of Drake and 21 Savage’s It’s All a Blur Tour, consisting of 54 shows in North America and lasting until October.
With the rescheduling for Thursday’s show, the tour will now instead begin on Saturday (July 1) in Columbus, Ohio. One reason for the mysterious cancelation could be that Drake is planning to release his new album For All The Dogs before he hits the road. Drake announced the LP surprisingly this past weekend in tandem with the release of his new poetry book TITLES RUIN EVERYTHING A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS. While For All The Dogs has yet to be given a release date, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking if he gave it an impromptu release at some point this week, considering he put out his 2022 album Honestly, Nevermind in a similar fashion.
Aside from album and tour talk, though, Memphis is now the second city to give Drake their key, as his hometown Toronto did so in 2016. The day he was honored with Toronto’s key, he claimed that it was the best day of his life.
“This is one of the greatest moments of my life, if not the greatest,” he said at the time. “We have something extremely special in this place. I will never stop loving this city. I will never stop representing this city.”
Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage
