By Billboard’s standards, Drake is the most successful musician ever. Forbes wrote of his recent US tour, “Aubrey & the Three Migos” that “the Scorpion rapper is arguably more in demand now than ever before. At least two shows were presented in a majority of cities on the tour. Los Angeles and New York hosted seven dates each, while Houston and Atlanta each welcomed three…” The tour’s design was incredibly elaborate, and the subject of extensive feature press.

Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour was a co-headlining tour by superstar rapper, Drake, and American hip hop trio, Migos. Assassination Vacation is the subsequent European and UK tour featuring Drake with Tory Lanez and Baka Not Nice. The first tour took place last year in North America with 54 shows in total. The second tour began March 10, 2019 in Manchester and concludes April 26 in Amsterdam after 22 shows. We were commissioned to add more fun to the most awaited music event of 2018-2019 by bringing a completely next-level visual production to the project. Our main objective was to create cool stage design for both Drake's tours.

Our concept was to create an overwhelmingly beautiful visual experience for every song that Drake performed. We imagined an enormous, high definition LED screen, capable of creating 3D-like impressions for audiences, horizontally oriented beneath the artist, and complete with LED panels covering the stage reveals. We’d be able to transform the stage beneath the artist into virtually any kind of image we could imagine, from a black light basketball court (“Nice for What”), to a luxurious swimming pool (“Hotline Bling”), to an iPhone on Instagram (“In My Feelings”). We also imagined interactive elements with the artist, so that we could create effects like ice breaking beneath his feet as he ran across the stage. We had the dream to magically fly a, “yellow Ferrari like Pikachu” through the stadium. The show’s lead creative director described Drake’s aesthetic as, “modern day opulence” and we strove to effect that tone above all.

“Aubrey & the Three Migos” creative director worked with Drake and the larger visual team to conceptualize visual stories that were unique to each song for display on the giant LED stage. As the team finalized concepts, animators translated them into massive, interactive graphics, which were in turn displayed on giant, high definition LED monitors, capable of producing 3D-like effects. The team also produced other holographic moments with scrims and 3D projection mapping. A magical, flying, “yellow Ferrari like Pikachu” was actually a cleverly obscured drone, which traversed an inflatable, yellow, Ferrari-shaped balloon through the stadium. The artist himself wore Blacktrax digital gear on him throughout the show, so that the immersive graphics beneath him would respond to his movements as he performed.

Drake’s tour stage was in fact, a massive LED screen, capable of producing 3D-like illusions in the round.

His team transformed it into a variety of captivating images, from a black light basketball court (“Nice for What”), to a luxurious swimming pool (“Hotline Bling”), to an iPhone scrolling through Instagram (“In My Feelings”).

He wore a device that tracked his movements in real time and fed corresponding visual information to the giant monitor beneath him. This allowed for effects like the cracking of a sheet of ice as he walked across the stage.

The concert also appeared to include a flying yellow Ferrari, which was in fact a sophisticated drone, traversing a helium balloon through the air, the first time that this trick had been attempted in an indoor setting.

An additional 200 drones served as flying, choreographed spotlights, moving in and out of various formations to magical effect.

The “Aubrey & the Three Migos” tour landed on the top ten list of top-grossing North American tours. According to Pollstar, the 43-date run grossed $79 million and sold 678,410 tickets. The “Assassination Vacation” tour is on track to match that success proportionately in Europe. The tour design was the subject of extensive feature press in The Hollywood Reporter, Pin-Up, High Snobiety, and more.