21 Savage brought out Drake during the Morehouse-Spelman homecoming concert in Atlanta on Wednesday night (October 19).
The Savage Mode rapper surprised fans by welcoming Drizzy to the stage as a special guest to perform their No. 1 single “Jimmy Cooks” for the first time. The performance took place at the Forbes Arena, where Drizzy also performed “Nonstop.”
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Sponsored by Pandora, the show served as a joint homecoming concert for affiliate HBCU schools Morehouse and Spelman. While on stage, Drake took a moment to credit 21 Savage as the the one for making his appearance happen.
“Along with OVO, I really live this 4L shit,” he said. “By the way, I didn’t get invited to this show. Nobody from Morehouse asked me to perform. My brother brought me here, so make some noise for 21 Savage.”
21 Savage opened up about his relationship with Drake in 2018, revealing he was the only person who got him a gift for his birthday and credited him for giving new artists a spotlight.
“Drake brought me [a red Ferrari 488] for my birthday to ride around L.A,” he told GQ at the time. “He the only one that got me something for my birthday that year. Hell yeah, don’t nobody else get me shit but Drake. Drake just a genuine-ass good-hearted person.
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“He did a lot of shit he didn’t have to do. He do a lot of shit for up-and-coming rappers, period. I don’t think he get his respect for that. Every fuckin’ year, he pull a new artist up. Ain’t no other artist on his level do that shit.”
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Despite his love for Drake, 21 Savage believes he’s not quite Hip Hop’s top dog down in Atlanta, as he explained on Akademiks’ Off the Record podcast last year. Instead, hometown hero Future reigns supreme in the ATL, according to 21.
“N-ggas don’t be listening to Drake like that where [I’m from],” he said. “When you ain’t no rapper, all them statistics don’t mean shit. A regular street n-gga don’t give a fuck about how many times you went No. 1 [or] how many white people listen to your shit, ’cause they don’t even think that far.
“The farthest they think is the club: who’s selling this club out? That’s who they think is the biggest n-ggas. In Atlanta, it’s a lot of n-ggas who you really can’t tell them Future ain’t bigger than Drake.”
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21 later clarified his comments on Twitter, writing: “Na I said some people that come from where I come from do..because when I was younger I was disconnected from mainstream music I didn’t know what Spotify was until I was a rapper…all we knew was mixtapes.”
Following the release of “Jimmy Cooks,” 21 Savage compared himself and Drake to legendary NBA duo Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. The pair have previously collaborated on other songs such as “Knife Talk,” “Sneakin'” and “Mr. Right Now.”
