15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Wireless Festival review: big talk from Drake after the most bruising time of his career
Each day was curated with its own genre brief, a nod to his wildly diverse catalogue and sprawling career. After Friday's sultry R&B lineup tailored to fans of Take Care-era vulnerability, night two (controversially billed as 'Drake & the Mandem') sharply shifted gears into hip-hop, with the best of UK rap front-loading the day. Fast-rising stars like Len, Chy Cartier, Fimiguerro and YT took to the Old Spice stage to give mosh-starting performances to crowds of sweaty teenagers (the majority shirtless, thanks to the scorching 30-degree weather). Nemzzz brought the energy early on the main stage, running through tracks like 'Spinnin' – which samples Drake's 'Fancy' – and the Lil-Yachty-assisted 'It's Us'. Later on, Lancey Foux, the pied piper of London's underground, lured the crowd into his high-octane world with a bolshy trap set filled with crowd pleasers like 'Outtamymind!' and 'Lancey or Lancey,' as well as deeper cuts like 'Cursed' and the unreleased 'Daytona.' And after a day dominated by the new-gen, BBK's set brought the nostalgia out in full force – a 20-year anniversary moment for the grime collective, catering to the older heads with a run of hood classics like 'That's Not Me' and 'Are You?'.
