What It's Like to Attend a Private Party by the Certified Lover Boy
Drake has been dangling the drop of a new studio album all year, now the time has finally come. One of those hints couldn't be missed during his huge celebration at Sofi Stadium back in May for being awarded Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. CLB, standing for Certified Lover Boy, was printed in gigantic graphic letters on the 50-yard-line of the football field. What was it like attending the party where Drake teased his upcoming project? Friend, I’m here to tell you.
First of all, Drake’s exclusive event was held in the world’s most expensive venue.
Who rents out an entire football stadium to throw a gathering for a relatively small invite list of guests? And then, not any ol’ football stadium, but the most costly ever constructed.
Drake, I suppose.
“SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is the most expensive stadium ever built."
As I mentioned when talking about LA’s first football game to welcome fans, Sofi Stadium holds the number one spot on a report ranking the 30 most expensive sports venues. At a whopping 5.5 billion U.S. dollars to construct, Sofi Stadium costs triple as much as Yankee Stadium in New York City and almost quadruple as much as the continent of Asia’s most expensive stadium!
And can you believe it was built (funded) by ONE man?! Mr. Kroenke seems like a very nice man — when I listened to him speak in-person at the Rams’ Kickoff Gala day-before-yesterday, his voice cracked and all as he talked about how the Covid pandemic made him realize “what really matters in life is people [not possessions]”— but billionaires in general are filth. That’s a story for another day though; I’ll save it for when I’m on my soapbox.
How much did it cost Drake?
I don’t know. During a pre-season game, when I was talking to a couple of guys with suites on the third level of the stadium, they told me that they paid one-hundred-thousand dollars for the season. And that’s what, all of five events (home games)? Also, that’s only for their small slice of the space. Drake’s party took up a whole side of the stadium’s indoor-outdoor balcony space, the football field, and the 70,000-square-foot digital LED display. Oh, and we can’t leave out the celebratory fireworks show set off from the sideline! The space was impressive. I give it 60k for the set up.
What’s your guess? Somebody submit a request to have a private event at Sofi Stadium on their website and let’s see.
It’s likely it didn’t cost Drake a red cent to host his party at Sofi Stadium. Shoot, that multi-billionaire (emphasis on billionaire with a B) owner may have let Drake have his party there free of charge and even covered the costs of liquor and food, then threw a little play money on top. The owner could’ve seen it as great publicity. No events with guests had been allowed at the stadium since it completion. Debut with Drake? That’s quite a way to get the word out there, “hey, we’re open!” Or, the 74-year-old man who’s much more wealthy, but much less famous, could get a kick out of being buddy buddy with a young, worldwide hip hop star.
Oh, speaking of liquor and food, enough about the technicalities, let’s get into the party itself.
Free food and drinks are my favorite part of these types of parties.
Dave’s Hot Chicken was the food vendor at the event and I ate twice. Don’t worry, I didn’t shame us by walking back up for seconds; a girlfriend and I were at the party together and she didn’t want hers, so I ate both of ours. The all black, dressy jumpsuit that I had in my closet since college from New York and Company was rather loose, so I really had room for thirds, but I decided not to be gluttonous that evening.
Side note, and this may be another thing I can wait to mention when I’m on my soap box, but the man, that walked up to me and told me there was chicken over in another area I hadn’t seen, was white… and he introduced himself as the owner of Gametime Chicken (which owns Dave’s Hot Chicken)… but Dave’s Hot Chicken promotes itself as a fully Black-owned business. Even Black restaurants directories, such as one I follow on Instagram named “DineBlackLA,” repeatedly posts them as being Black-owned, which leaves me scratching my head because I vividly remember holding a face-to-face conversation with THEE owner and he is definitely Anglo-Saxon (white white). Businesses are out here Black-phishing to garner clientele while supporting Black businesses is trending; not saying Dave’s Hot Chicken is one, maybe it was a miscommunication, but just saying it’s a thing.. a weird thing. I digress.
The drinks were open bar and I had my fair share of that private party perk as well, so don’t ask me too many details. There was a featured liquor, I heard somebody say it was Drake’s. All I remember is it was whiskey, because that’s what I always order (yeah, I like my liquor like I like my men: brown). And it was strong! I wasn’t in the party taking notes because I had no intentions of writing about this experience. I’ve attended exclusive events by Drake and other notable celebrities, but it’s not something I go around broadcasting. Most times, I don’t even post it on social media.
Well, that’s the way I’ve been in the past, but now since I’ve launched this Los Angeles lifestyle blog, it may make sense to share more from Los Angeles’ exclusive nightlife and/or celebrity scenes. I’ll try to give you all as much as I can without defying any non-disclosure agreements I’ve signed.
Like this peek into LA’s social scene, for example, it’s fitting and timely to share (and attendants weren’t under NDA; it was actually the opposite- an event meant for publicization, they wanted it all over Instagram). It happened at LA’s newest and nicest entertainment complex, Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California and the album that drops today was quite literally the center focus. The initials for his, at-the-time, upcoming studio album, Certified Lover Boy, was printed in huge letters in the middle of the football field.
Drake holding a bottle from his whiskey brand, Virginia Black American Whiskey | photo: First We Feast
I, personally, don’t ever listen to Drake in my leisure. I hear his music because he’s a megastar and it plays everywhere you go, but I’m not going to take it upon myself to type Drake into my music streaming service. I’m not that into him, but the way this CLB talk has flooded my Instagram explore page and Clubhouse hallway, I see that y’all are.. so I’ma give y’all what y’all want.
Anyway, back to getting full of that brown.. I did a quick Google search to confirm what I think I remembered, and Drake indeed does own a liquor brand. (If nothing came up when I typed “Drake liquor”, I would’ve been sitting here stumped, wondering where my mind got that idea from). According to Food & Wine Magazine, Drake’s Whiskey Brand launched back in 2016. It’s called Virginia Black American Whiskey. I wonder if my multiple friends that consider Drake their favorite artist knew that.. That party was my first time ever hearing of it, and I’m a whiskey gal.
Yep, well..
Food and the venue, those are the important parts to me. And it’s going on 1 o’clock in the morning at this very moment, so your girl is going to call it a night. I just wanted to drop something for you, my lovers, on this Certified Lover Day.
Checkout the “LA” highlight on my personal Instagram page, @tee.krys, to see a clip I posted while at the party. Do you want me to take notes the next time I attend a high profile event? No, seriously, you have to tell me what you want to know because I take it so lightly, I may overlook something you’d find amusing.
