Drake City of Toronto

Rob Ford gets in bed with Drake

News from City Hall today: in what may be the the driest rap press release ever, Rob Ford and the Toronto Music Advisory Committee are planning to partner up with Drake's OVO Fest, which is taking place in Toronto this holiday Monday. Which makes us wonder: will Rob Ford skip the cottage for OVO?

The monotonous, totally flow-lacking press release goes on to intone: "OVO has made Toronto an international tourist destination through its annual OVO Fest festival and concert scheduled for this weekend at the Molson Amphitheatre."

To the credit of this statement, I'll have two guys from Winnipeg sleeping on my floor this weekend who are not (not!) in town for Deadmau5, as their hometown friends keep asking, but for the now Frank Ocean-less, one day only OVO. They'll be in the city spending their hard earned money on things like the JETS show (not the Winnipeg Jets...) on Saturday and, I don't know, probably not these Drake/Blue Jays hats, but you never know.

The new Toronto Music Advisory Committee's goal is to "develop and promote local talent, and to position Toronto as a leading live music tourist destination." A quote in the press release from OVO co-founder Oliver El-Khatib reads: "We're proud to help the city we love foster music talent and to promote Toronto as a premier music destination. The OVO Fest grows every year, and shows the potential of what's possible for Toronto. This is an exciting development and we're thrilled to help in every way we can." The full press release is here on, where else, Rob Ford's Facebook page. He's just so... with it.

So, which city councillors are you hoping to spot at OVO? What else should the "three-year, $45-million Ontario Music Fund to support the production, distribution, performance and international promotion of music made in Ontario" go toward? I'm thinking Offerings Magazine could use some funding right now.

Photo by Paul Flynn in the blogTO Flickr pool


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