Lauryn Hill was one of six artists Drake tapped to share the stage with him on the first of his three nights headlining London’s Wireless Festival this weekend.
The OVO rapper set an R&B theme for night one of the concert series, which saw him pass the mic to singers such as Mario, Bobby Valentino, Bryson Tiller, and Giveon to churn out their crowd-pleasing singles. Label signee PARTYNEXTDOOR also got in on the action, with the duo performing a range of tracks from “Come and See Me” to “Moth Balls,” “Somebody Love You” and “Spider-Man Superman” together.
The surprise highlight of the night was Drake bringing out Lauryn Hill, whose performance of “Ex-Factor” transitioned into Drake rapping his 2018 hit single “Nice For What,” which samples the single from Hill’s 1998 Grammy Award-winning album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, for his finale.
Videos from the festival show a lively, engaged crowd, with one fan remarking that witnessing the mashup was “One of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen live,” adding, “This was an absolutely insane moment to see live in the flesh.” Social media personality BenDaDonnn can also be heard visibly shocked by Hill’s presence in a video streamed Live from Adin Ross’s Kick stream.
The reaction is a change from Hill’s showing at Essence Festival last weekend, where she was reported to have performed in front of a near-empty stadium at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans as a result of logistical issues which pushed the singer’s set time back to roughly 3 a.m. Essence assumed responsibility for the technical issues that led to the delay, writing in a post on Instagram, “She arrived on schedule, stepped on that stage, and delivered the kind of performance only a legend can. The delay? Not hers. We will take that.”
Drake, fresh off of the release of his latest single “What Did I miss?,” which addresses his 2024 beef with Kendrick Lamar and other fellow rappers, will take to the Wireless Stage again Saturday and Sunday nights for the 20th anniversary of the festival whose stage has been graced by the likes of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Bruno Mars over the years. This marks Drake’s fourth time performing at the festival, having appeared previously in 2012, 2015 and 2021.