Drake Breaks Kendrick Lamar's Record For Best-Selling Rap Tour

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Less than half of Drizzy's tour dates from 2023-2024, plus its J. Cole expansion, already surpassed the entirety of "The Big Steppers" tour.

As the highest-grossing touring act of all time in hip-hop across his entire career, it's no surprise that Drake can beat a few more records in this field. Moreover, his It's All A Blur tour became the best-selling rap tour of all time- and that's counting just 30 of the 72 shows on its schedule. This means that the 6 God beat out Kendrick Lamar's The Big Steppers tour, which previously held claim to this milestone. K.Dot's trek grossed around $110 million, whereas current calculations from Touring Data indicate that Drizzy earned about $130 million so far. Once we have data from the entirety of this concert series, that number will probably skyrocket.

Furthermore, perhaps this is an indicator of how successful these massive and mainstream hip-hop tours must be to warrant a seat at the table. Drake could very well raise this record by more than double if these numbers are accurate, creating a lot of safe distance between him and whoever is number two in this race. Other high-profile treks like Travis Scott's current UTOPIA run, Lil Uzi Vert's The Pink Tape shows, and many others could also find themselves in contention. But getting these kinds of profits with less than half of your concerts is a tough metric to reach.

Drake's Estimated It's All A Blur Tour Numbers So Far

For those unaware, the It's All A Blur tour is getting yet another collaborative leg in the U.S. Its first iteration was alongside 21 S*vage, and in early 2024, Drake will hit the road once again- this time with J. Cole- for the trek's second leg: the Big As The What? run. Surely, this additional collection of performances will be equally as acclaimed and popular, especially with another artist who people consider the GOAT. It's actually quite curious that their other competition, at least when it comes to gross tour sales, is the other candidate in that three-headed race. Also, given the possible differences in pricing points, it's unclear whether this tour was simply more expensive or got more people into its seats, and many will argue about whether that's a valid achievement to boast about.

Meanwhile, with the lyrically dense and sonically classic expansion to For All The Dogs, Scary Hours 3, it's nice to hear that Aubrey Graham is treating the rap game more like a competition and proving his worth. It's boring for sales to be your main point of dominance, even if he's still as culturally influential and popular as ever. Once a titan brings the bars out, their place in hip-hop stardom is a much more treasured and interesting type of contested reign. Nevertheless, check back in with HNHH for the latest news and updates on Drake.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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