BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three-time Grammy Award winning rapper Drake gave a special shoutout to Buffalo’s own WBLK Radio on his latest album, Scorpion.
An air check featuring former WBLK radio personality Al Wood was used in one of the tracks. Wood says he was called by Drake’s people to record the new track. The take that eventually made it on the song; "After Dark" was an original air check from Wood in the 1990s.
Drake grew up listening to the Buffalo radio station that reached his hometown of Toronto. In the 1990s, WBLK was the only urban radio station reaching that area.
Wood talked to Spectrum News about the recognition that Buffalo is getting and the impact of WBLK.
"It pretty much is the culmination of what was the music and what was the station they listen to [Drake and his people]. They grew up on the sounds of WBLK,” Wood said.
Before Drake became a rap superstar and before he signed with a record label, WBLK also featured his music.
“I'm a person who listens to the album from beginning to end,” said radio personality, Adriana ‘Adri V’ Viverette. “I had to hurry up and get to the very ending and hear the actual track ‘After Dark’ and I was just completely floored and super excited because that is extremely major when you have this particular star at the level that he is to acknowledge a station that has been impactful in his childhood."