On Sunday, Kanye West announced that he will bring his mysterious gospel-influenced Sunday Service series to Coachella. Kanye’s Coachella Sunday Service will take place on Easter Sunday, April 21st, and 9:00 a.m. on the festival’s Indio, CA grounds.
Today, following the addition of Kanye’s special Easter Sunday Service, Drake has announced his own spiritual sojourn at Coachella 2019: Saturday Seder, a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which takes place during that same week. Drake’s Coachella Saturday Seder will take place at sunset on Saturday, April 20th, the evening before Kanye’s Sunday Service. Part-concert, part-Seder, Drake’s Saturday Service at Coachella will loosely follow the ancient Jewish Passover rituals laid out in the Haggadah.
Kanye has been vocal about his Christian faith throughout his career, stretching back to the release of “Jesus Walks” in 2004. Drake, who was raised Jewish, has similarly used his music as an outlet to express his faith. For his 2011 “HYFR” music video, Drake got “re-Bar Mitzvah’d as a re-commitment to the Jewish religion.” You can watch the video of Drake’s Bar Mitzvah “remix” below:
Drake ft. Lil Wayne – “HYFR” [Bar Mitzvah Music Video]
[Video: Drake]
This new announcement could be seen simply as an attempt to ensure representation for Drake’s different religious upbringing and the customs of Coachella’s Jewish patrons. The fact that it falls just hours before Kanye’s Sunday Service can be chalked up to the Jewish faith’s lunar calendar, which dictates that Jews around the world will host their second of two annual Passover seders on April 20th this year. However, considering the highly publicized beef between Drake and Kanye in recent months, it’s not hard to speculate that Drake’s Saturday Seder is, at least in part, an attempt to one-up Yeezy’s surprise Coachella booking.
A Tweet by Drake earlier today seems to add weight to that speculation:
As Drake commented, seemingly addressing Kanye, “You been doing Sunday Service for a few months? My Hebrew brothers been throwing seders for millennia! Chag Sameach, homie! #SaturdaySeder”
April Fools!