Drake apparently used to visit a romantic interest who lived in the building, but took the service elevator to see her because they wanted to keep their trysts on the low. He’s talking about the London on the Esplanade, a condo in the St.
On the Kanye West-helmed “U With Me?” Drizzy makes a sly mention of a Toronto condo complex, rhyming, “Remember you was livin’ at the London for a month/Service elevator up to 4201/We was still a secret, couldn’t come in through the front.” The rapper is known to hit up Habibiz Restaurant & Café, on Kennedy, whenever he’s in town. On opening track “Keep The Family Close,” Drake croons: “You’re so predictable, I hate people like you/Kennedy Road taught me not to trust people like you.” It’s a reference to the crime-ridden Scarborough, ON thoroughfare that’s home to several OVO crew members.
Here’s a run-through of some of the most inside baseball Big Smoke name-drops we heard on VIEWS. Sure, sticking the CN Tower on your album cover might just be the soppy Torontonian equivalent of a New Yorker sporting an “I Heart New York” shirt, but let’s face it: for those from the Six, much of the joy of listening to The Boy lies in hearing him reference local people and places. Hell, Drake’s new LP is so Toronto that its cover sees him perched (read: photoshopped) atop the CN Tower, like he’s Simba watching over his expansive municipal kingdom. The moniker’s become so ubiquitious that there’s no need to even include it in the title anymore. Consider: Toronto got its new nickname, “the 6,” from the tentative name of the album. And, although the silky-voiced rapper decided to erase “From the 6” from the end of the album’s title just two days before its release, the record is nevertheless awash in Torontophilia.