Metro Founders of Metro on Last Year’s Drake Surprise Succession: ‘It’s Like the Pope Approves’

In its second year as a festival between a pandemic, Montreal’s rap festival Subway metro scored a big hit when Drake showed up unexpectedly during Lil Baby’s headline set for an impromptu performance.

In its first year, the festival also gained a big name in Cardi B, who had just won Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards. So what does Metro Metro organizer Midway Group have planned for a sequel? Last year’s headliner Lil Baby is back, along with Lil Wayne and Jack Harlow. Yeat, Coi Leray, Destroy Lonely, Nav, Metro Boomin, Murda Beatz and more round out the lineup. There is, but sometimes it’s also about planning for the unexpected.

Drake’s performance only came together in the final days leading up to the 2022 edition. Cardi almost didn’t show up after drawing a “yesterday’s prize isn’t today’s prize.” Last year, after Young Thug was arrested weeks before his scheduled headlining set, the party turned quickly and 50 Cent took a private jet to Montreal.

Subway metro organizers Olivier Primeau and Jonathan Marchitello, who also run the summer hotspot Beachclub and Latin Music Fest Fuego Fuego, are refreshingly candid about the chaos that inevitably swirls around a major festival. They know a rapper can be stopped at the border so instead of handling it privately they let the fans know things can change at any time but they are constantly working on the phone to make sure the party goes on .

This year that includes Primeau setting fire to two of its businesses ahead of Metro Metro 2023. He conducted this interview with Complex Canada before the incidents, and he hasn’t spoken publicly since, only saying on Instagram that he “step back and be less in public” until the situation is resolved.

On sight, Subway metro has revamped their location in the Olympic Stadium to deter fence jumpers – a problem last year – and give better lines of sight.

Complex Canada met Subway Subways Primeau and Marchitello to talk about how Drake got together, 50 Cent’s jet, and competed with the big festivals.

What did you learn from the first two Metro Metros?
OP: The big question we’re learning to deal with: Which artist is going to be there? That’s first. Last year, maybe two weeks earlier, we lost two of the three headliners with Young Thug and Playboi Carti. It’s a lot of stress. You have to make sure they get through customs, you never know.

People often thought that you couldn’t hold a rap festival in Canada because of the border? The first year you did it, pretty much everyone showed it.
AT: In 2019, we were the first hip-hop festival of that size in Canada. For Rolling loud, and of course there is OVO. We knew we were taking a risk, but I think we did well. In 2019, we started Cardi B just as she won the Grammy. Then last year was a huge event for us with Drake showing up and 50 Cent instead of Young Thug. And I think we have a nice lineup this year.