ScHoolboy Q was expected to perform at the History club in Toronto — a venue Drake helped open back in 2021.
Getty Images for BET
TDE rapper Schoolboy Q believes the opening night of his “Blue Lips Weekend” tour — a 18-date trek in support of his sixth studio LP — in Toronto was purposefully canceled due to his allegiance to Kendrick Lamar in his public battle with Drake.
Schoolboy has been a part of TDE and Lamar’s camp for years, and naturally, he appeared in Lamar’s recent video for his widely popular Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.” Not only that, Schoolboy also appeared as a special guest for Lamar’s Juneteenth concert — dubbed “The Pop Out” and headlined by “Ken & Friends.”
The TDE rapper was scheduled to perform in Drake’s hometown in Toronto on July 18 with a sold-out concert at History, a 2553-capacity club that Drake helped design with global promoter Live Nation.
After the show was abruptly canceled, Schoolboy suggested the show was cancelled by Canadian Police who “don’t want nobody from TDE performing.” “They just canceled my show in Toronto,” he wrote on X on July 17. “Canadian police don’t want nobody from TDE performing.”
The Toronto Police Department denies the concert was canceled due to safety concerns. In a statement shared with Variety, a spokesperson for department said, “the decision to cancel this event was made by the venue, not by the Toronto Police Service.”
Representatives for Schoolboy, Drake and History in Toronto did not immediately return Variety‘s requests for comment.
Despite expressing a clear frustration over the situation, Schoolboy’s messaging carried a light-hearted tone as he poked fun at his role in the “Not Like Us” video. “Actually I get it,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Nvm tHis sHit [lowkey] Hilarious… Iono wHy dot [Lamar] put me in tHat fucking video.”
Schoolboy didn’t dwell on the topic for long, but concluded by revealing Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO of the indie label TDE, had met up with Lil Wayne at the YouTube Leaders & Legends Gala, and that OVO artist Partynextdoor had just performed in Los Angeles — the homebase for all TDE artists. “If we wanted to get y’all we would’ve just did it,” he wrote. “Now when somebody gets hurt, don’t cry.”