Drake’s Next Big Project: An Avant-Garde Amusement Park With Art From Jean-Michel Basquiat and Salvador Dalí
Grammy-winning rapper Drake has expanded his empire beyond music in recent years. From investing in esports to his latest endeavor, relaunching a popular traveling art show, Drake has demonstrated his interest in bringing many different kinds of culture to fans old and new.
Drake’s career in 2022
Drake‘s career success has continued over a decade since his mainstream breakout. He’s released two albums in 2022 alone: his seventh studio album Honestly, Nevermind, released in June, and Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage released in November.
In November 2022, Drake announced that he — along with his business and management company DreamCrew — would be embarking on a new journey. He learned about Luna Luna, an art-filled amusement park founded by Viennese artist André Heller in 1987 that featured the work of greats like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Salvador Dalí, and Roy Lichtenstein. But the park folded shortly thereafter after logistical and financial woes.
Drake and DreamCrew are investing $100 million in Luna Luna to bring it back to life and bring it all around North America.
Drake is reviving Luna Luna
It’s an ambitious project, to be sure, but something that Drake is determined to take on.
“When I first heard about Luna Luna I was blown away,” the rapper said in a statement. “It’s such a unique and special way to experience art. This is a big idea and opportunity that centers around what we love most: bringing people together.”
Making the Luna Luna dreams become reality will prove to be a challenge, but one that Luna Luna’s new chief executive and Drake’s DreamCrew partner Anthony Gonzales thinks will be able to achieve.
“It’s an undeniable project,” Gonzales said. “I think we’re actually built better than any other resource to make this a reality. We exist in live events, we exist in culture, we understand the art world and being artist-friendly.”
Luna Luna will partner with Live Nation
To help bring the revamped park to the masses on a global tour, the team behind Luna Luna is working with event production giant Live Nation. Meanwhile, the curatorial team behind the project is recruiting other artists to create new interactive and ridable pieces. Food and beverage is also a high priority, as well as music programming and educational workshops.
Because it’s Drake, fans are likely going to want to see his part in bringing Luna Luna to a new generation over three decades after its debut. The whole process is being filmed for a documentary; Drake and DreamCrew have produced shows like Euphoria and Top Boy in the past, so it would be their latest on-screen project.
“Drake’s done everything at the highest level,” Gonzales said, “and scale is something that he does better than anybody. This is a massive undertaking with huge logistical aspects, tons of moving parts. But it doesn’t seem overwhelming in my mind in any way whatsoever. It’s just like, ‘Let’s go and execute it.’”
