Taking to the SNL stage as host and special musical guest on the night, Drake pretty much managed to cement himself as the show’s next Justin Timberlake with a performance that showed Degrassi: The Next Generation actually taught him some decent acting skills and that his sense of humour is easily up there with the almighty JT himself.
Expectations were high ever since the announcement came that the rapper would be joining the SNL crew for a one-off show, and Drake certainly hit the ground running with his first sketch, which featured a joke about his hometown of Toronto and its mayor’s recent drug scandal: “The city of Toronto,” Drake began, “where the rappers are polite and the mayor smokes crack.”
His half-black and half-Jewish heritage wasn’t sacred either, as the sketch then segued into a flashback of his bar mitzvah and the real vest he wore in the home movie excerpts made famous by his HYFR music video, as he spat the rhyme: “I celebrate Chanukah and date a Rihannakah”. Drake also added a sincere apology for coming up with the world’s most annoying phrase, “YOLO”.
Other highlights were his hilarious hip hop jokes and takes on Jay-Z, A-Rod, William Katt and Lil Wayne as Steve Urkel from Family Matters, while he also performed a couple of musical numbers throughout the show, including Started From The Bottom and new track Trophies.
Alongside some very funny sketches from new SNL member Zamata (who is set to be the show’s first black female performer in quite a while), comedienne Kate McKinnon was also a stand-out as she impersonated Canada’s other export, Justin Bieber, and his egging scandal which she explained as “a Canadian tradition”.
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