Rory and Mal praises Drake for being only the 2nd artist to sell out the Wireless Festival for 3 days after Prince

Rory Farrell and Jamil "Mal" Clay praised Drake for reportedly being the second artist to sell out the Wireless Festival for 3 days. The duo compared this achievement to Prince's 3-night headlining stint at the 2013 Mod Trox.

On the latest episode of the New Rory & Mal, which premiered on July 15, 2025, Mal commented on the One Dance rapper's headlining stint and said:

"Shout out Wireless Fest. Wireless Fest, was this weekend in in London. Shout out to Drake. Three nights, three different set list. Three different vibes. I think the only other person to headline Wireless three different nights was Prince. So I think there was some that was a little wink little wink wink. At the whole little you know."

Mal, however, did not clarify the context in which he mentioned the "that was a little wink," comparing Drake to Prince. It is speculated that this was an indirect reference to Kendrick Lamar and Future's line from the diss track Like That.

In one of the verses, Kendrick Lamar raps:

"Ni**a, Prince outlive Mike Jack (he was once a thug, he was, he-)."

According to Rolling Stone, it was allegedly a jab positioning Kendrick as Prince and Drizzy as Michael Jackson.

Notably, while Prince did headline Mod Trox for three nights, similar to Drizzy's headlining stint at the Wireless Festival, there is no confirmation on the sold-out aspect of the claim concerning Prince. Moreover, no reports have confirmed Prince's stint at Wireless either, suggesting Mal has mixed up the two.

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More details about Drake's three-day headlining stint at Wireless Festival explored

Shortly after releasing his latest single What Did I Miss? on July 4, 2025, Drake headlined the Wireless Festival's 20th anniversary edition from July 11 to July 13, 2025, and brought out multiple icons on stage.

On the first night of the fest, Drizzy addressed the crowd, stating:

“This is the first time in my life that I’ve done three different shows on three different days. You came to a very special night. It’s night one. It’s a celebration of all things R&B. All things melodies. All classics.”

In addition to celebrating milestones like this, Drizzy's stint at the festival also featured some controversial moments. According to Billboard, on night two of the Wireless Festival, Drizzy challenged the audience to "name another rap artist" competent to go head-to-head with him on stage.

This resulted in the crowd chanting "F*ck Kendrick", and Drizzy responded to the same by telling his associate Chubbs:

"Grab me a shot. I’ll drink to that.”

Moreover, tensions have been high between Drake and his long-time friend, NBA icon LeBron James. According to a report by HotNewHipHop, this began when the latter attended Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out in June 2024. The Pop Out concert followed Drizzy and Kendrick's heated rap battle, and Kendrick also performed his diss tracks against the Passionfruit rapper at the concert.

Following this, as reported by USA Today, Drake not only unfollowed LeBron James but also reportedly covered up a tattoo honoring LeBron that featured his high school jersey. He replaced the tattoo with the OKC Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's jersey.

In line with recent developments, according to an article by Billboard, Drizzy performed his track Nonstop at Wireless. He tweaked his lyrics from "How I go from 6 to 23 like I'm LeBron?" to "How I go from 6 to 23, no LeBron", adding to speculations of a rift in his friendship with the NBA player.

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Drizzy's Wireless Fest stint featured hits from his catalog, as well as his performances with PARTYNEXTDOOR, Lauryn Hill, Rema, and 21 Savage, among others.

Edited by Sriparna Barui