When the chips are down and it really counts, will Drake actually take care of you? During a Monday night show at New York’s Apollo Theater, he faced a test of his word when a fan fell from a balcony into the orchestra section midway through the rapper’s set.
In video footage obtained by Entertainment Tonight, Drake is seen halting his performance to check in on a fan who fell from a lower mezzanine balcony to the first floor of the Apollo during the show. The incident occurred about 90 minutes into the series, shortly after Drake welcomed his frequent collaborator 21 Savage to the stage.
“Just gotta make sure somebody’s okay,” Drake says, looking out into the crowd alongside 21 as the house lights. Luckily, both the individual who fell and the audience members they fell into were unharmed— the concert stopped for roughly fifteen minutes before continuing.
In a statement released following the incident, a spokesperson for the Apollo Theater noted that Drake, the Apollo and concert sponsor SiriusXM “halted the show immediately,” and all “standard protocols were taken” to protect audience members. In conclusion, the statement confirmed that The Apollo continues to investigate the situation.
The tumble and Drake’s subsequent response bring to mind a similar—and much more ill-handled—occurrence from a 2017 Travis Scott show, when fan Kyle Green became paralyzed after falling from a second-floor balcony at New York City’s Terminal 5.
Despite the irreversible physical damage it caused Green, the incident (not even the only balcony dive of the night) quickly took over a space in the lore of Scott’s balls-to-the-wall live shows. Scott even cited the incident in the Astroworld track “Stargazing”: And it ain’t a mosh pit if ain’t no injuries/ I got ‘em stage divin’ out the nosebleeds). The nonchalant verse made an eerie precursor to the horror of Scott’s 2021 Astroworld festival, where ten people died from compressive asphyxiation following a crowd crush.
Although ultimately no one was severely harmed during Drake’s performance, his concerned response seems to signify a renewed caution among big-name artists regarding the crowd environment at their shows. Astroworld demonstrated just how quickly rage culture can beget disaster; hopefully, the enormity of its wake means the scenario won’t arise again.