Drake (musician): the story on HearLore

Drake (musician)

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on the 24th of October 1986 in Toronto, Ontario, into a family that would later define the cultural landscape of the 21st century. His father, Dennis Graham, was an African American drummer from Memphis, Tennessee, who once performed with the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis, while his mother, Sandra Graham, was a Canadian Ashkenazi Jewish English teacher and florist. The couple divorced when Drake was five years old, leaving him to be raised by his mother in Toronto while his father returned to Memphis, where he was incarcerated for drug-related charges for a number of years. Despite the distance, Dennis Graham would travel to Toronto to bring his son to Memphis every summer, creating a dual identity that would later fuel Drake's music. Drake grew up in two distinct worlds, living on Weston Road in Toronto's working-class west end until grade six, and later moving to the affluent neighborhood of Forest Hill in 2000. He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, where he was bullied for his racial and religious background, and eventually dropped out to pursue his burgeoning acting career, only to receive his high school diploma in October 2012 at the age of 25. Before his music career took off, Drake worked at a furniture factory owned by his maternal grandfather, Reuben Sher, and played minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings, reaching the Upper Canada College hockey camp before leaving after a vicious cross-check to his neck during a game. This early life of duality and struggle laid the foundation for a man who would eventually become the most streamed artist in history, bridging the gap between the working-class roots of Weston Road and the high-end lifestyle of Forest Hill.

From Degrassi To The Mixtape

At the age of 15, Drake was introduced to a high school friend's father, an acting agent, who secured him a role on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation, where he portrayed Jimmy Brooks, a basketball star who became physically disabled after being shot by a classmate. While filming the show from 2001 to 2008, Drake was simultaneously recording music, often arriving late on set after spending nights in the studio, leading to an agreement with security guards to allow him to sleep in a dressing room. His first recorded song, Do What You Do, appeared on The N Soundtrack, but his true musical awakening came with the self-released mixtape Room for Improvement in 2006, which sold roughly 6,000 copies and earned him $304.04 in royalties. He performed his first concert on the 19th of August 2006 at the Kool Haus nightclub as an opening act for Ice Cube, earning $100 for a half-hour set. The momentum continued with the 2007 release of Comeback Season, which spawned the single Replacement Girl featuring Trey Songz and led to Drake joining Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III tour. It was during this tour that he and Lil Wayne recorded multiple songs together, including Ransom, Forever, and a remix to Brand New. The turning point arrived with the 2009 release of So Far Gone, which was made available for free download through his OVO blog website and featured collaborations with Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, Omarion, Lloyd, and Bun B. The mixtape received over 2,000 downloads in the first two hours of release, finding mainstream commercial success with the singles Best I Ever Had and Successful, both gaining Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. This success prompted a bidding war from various labels, and on the 29th of June 2009, Drake secured a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment, joining the rest of the label's roster on the America's Most Wanted Tour in July 2009.

When was Drake born and where was he raised?

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on the 24th of October 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. He grew up in Toronto's working-class west end on Weston Road until grade six before moving to the affluent neighborhood of Forest Hill in 2000.

What acting role made Drake famous before his music career?

Drake portrayed Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001 to 2008. He played a basketball star who became physically disabled after being shot by a classmate.

Which album won Drake his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album?

Take Care won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was released on the 15th of November 2011 and achieved six times platinum certification by the RIAA in 2019.

How many number-one singles does Drake hold on the Billboard Hot 100?

Drake holds 13 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, which is a joint-record for a male solo artist. He also holds the record for the most top 10 singles with 81 and the most charted songs with 359.

Who did Drake feud with in 2024 and what were the key tracks released?

Drake feuded with Kendrick Lamar starting on the 22nd of March 2024 on the song Like That. Key tracks released during the feud included Push Ups, Family Matters, Not Like Us, and The Heart Part 6.

What business ventures did Drake establish after 2012?

Drake founded the OVO Sound record label with 40 in 2012 and became the global ambassador of the Toronto Raptors in 2013. He also launched the Virginia Black bourbon whiskey with Brent Hocking in 2016 and heads the OVO fashion label and Nocta collaboration with Nike.

The Take Care Revolution

Drake planned to release his debut album, Thank Me Later, in late 2008, but the album's release date was thrice postponed until the 15th of June 2010. On the 9th of March 2010, he released the lead single Over, which peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Rap Songs chart, receiving a nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards. His second single, Find Your Love, became a bigger success, peaking at number five on the Hot 100 and being certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. The music video for the single was shot in Kingston, Jamaica, and was criticized by Jamaica's minister of tourism Edmund Bartlett. Thank Me Later was released on the 15th of June 2010, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of over 447,000 copies in its first week, becoming the top selling debut album for any artist in 2010. The album featured collaborations with Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Jay Z, and Drake began his Away from Home Tour on the 20th of September 2010, performing at 78 shows over four different legs. In November 2010, Drake revealed the title of his next studio album would be Take Care, seeking to expand on the low-tempo, sensuous, and dark sonic aesthetic of Thank Me Later. The album's third and fourth singles, The Motto and Take Care, were released on the 29th of November 2011 and the 21st of February 2012, respectively. The Motto was later credited for popularizing the phrase YOLO in the United States, while the music video for Take Care received four nominations at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year. Take Care was released on the 15th of November 2011, receiving generally positive reviews from music critics and winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. The album eventually achieved six times platinum certification by the RIAA in 2019, with sales marking 2.6 million in the US, and Drake embarked on the worldwide Club Paradise Tour, which became the most successful hip-hop tour of 2012, grossing over $42 million.

Views And The Six

By the Club Paradise Tour's European leg, Drake had begun working on his third studio album, which he said would retain 40 as the album's executive producer and include the influence of British producer Jamie xx. The album, Nothing Was the Same, was released on the 24th of September 2013, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 658,000 copies sold in its first week of release. The album debuted atop the charts in Canada, Denmark, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and was further promoted by the Would You like a Tour? throughout late 2013 to early 2014. In 2015, Drake released four singles on the 31st of July, including Back to Back, Charged Up, Hotline Bling, and Right Hand. On the 20th of September, he released a collaborative mixtape with Future, which was recorded in Atlanta in just under a week. What a Time to Be Alive debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Drake the first hip-hop artist to have two projects reach number one in the same year since 2004. The album was later certified 2× multi platinum by the RIAA for combined sales, streaming, and track-sales equivalent of over 2 million units. Drake announced in January 2016 that his fourth studio album would be launched during the spring, releasing the promotional single Summer Sixteen later that month. The album was originally titled Views from the 6, but was later shortened to Views. Summer Sixteen debuted at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, and proved controversial, with Drake's self-comparisons with more tenured artists dividing many critics. The album's lead singles, Pop Style and the dancehall-infused One Dance, were released on the 5th of April, with One Dance becoming Drake's first number-one single in Canada and the US as a leading artist. Views was previewed in London before its premiere a day later, and was released as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive on the 29th of April. Views would become Drake's most commercially successful album, sitting atop the Billboard 200 for thirteen weeks, and simultaneously leading the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. It achieved sextuple-platinum status in the US, and earned over 1 million album-equivalent units in the first week of its release, as well as gaining over half-billion overall streams. Drake returned to host Saturday Night Live on the 14th of May, serving as the show's musical guest, and Drake and Future then announced the Summer Sixteen Tour to showcase their collective mixtape, as well as their respective studio albums.

The Scorpion And The Crown

Drake released a mini EP titled Scary Hours on the 20th of January 2018, marking his first solo release since More Life. Scary Hours featured the songs Diplomatic Immunity and God's Plan, with the latter debuting at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was Drake's first song as a solo artist to reach number one, and it also became his first song to be certified Diamond by the RIAA, currently tied for the fourth highest certified digital single ever in the US. He was later featured on BlocBoy JB's February 2018 debut single Look Alive, and the song's entry on the Hot 100 made Drake the rapper with the most top 10 hits on the Hot 100, with 23. On the 6th of April, Nice for What, a single from his fifth studio album, was released, replacing his own God's Plan on the Billboard Hot 100 at number one, making Drake the first artist to have a new number-one debut replace their former number-one debut. He then announced the title of his fifth studio album as Scorpion, with a planned release date of the 29th of June 2018. I'm Upset was released on the 26th of May as the album's third single. Scorpion was Drake's longest project, with a run-time of just under 90 minutes, and broke both the one-day global records on Spotify and Apple Music, gaining 132.45 million and 170 million plays on each streaming service, respectively. It eventually sold 749,000 album equivalent units in its first week of sales, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Drake earned his sixth US number-one with In My Feelings on the 21st of July, and the success of In My Feelings also made Drake the record holder for most number one hits among rappers. He then appeared on the Travis Scott album Astroworld, featuring uncredited vocals for the song Sicko Mode, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake announced in July 2018 that he planned to take 6 months to a year to himself to return to television and films, producing the television series Euphoria and Top Boy. He then began the Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour with co-headliners Migos on the 12th of August, preceding a collaboration with Bad Bunny titled Mia, which featured Drake performing in Spanish. In February 2019, he received his fourth Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, for God's Plan, at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, and during his speech, producers abruptly cut to a commercial break, leading viewers to speculate they were censoring his speech during which he criticized The Recording Academy.

The Certified Lover Boy Era

On the 22nd of March 2024, Kendrick Lamar dissed Drake, as well as J. Cole, on Future and Metro Boomin's song Like That, beginning a feud between them. During this time, there were also other disses toward Drake from Future, ASAP Rocky, and The Weeknd. On the 19th of April, Drake released Push Ups after early versions were leaked online as a response track while also addressing Future and Rick Ross, followed up with Taylor Made Freestyle later that day. On the 30th of April, Lamar released a diss track named Euphoria in response, as well as 6:16 in LA on the 3rd of May, exclusively on Instagram. That same day, Drake released Family Matters exclusively on YouTube in response. Lamar released Meet the Grahams 20 minutes later, and would go onto release Not Like Us the following day. On the 5th of May, Drake released The Heart Part 6, a reference to Lamar's The Heart song series. On the 4th of June, Drake appeared on social media personality Snowd4y's Wah Gwan Delilah, a parody of the 2006 Plain White T's song, Hey There Delilah. On the 2nd of August, Drake appeared as an unannounced guest at the Toronto stop on PartyNextDoor's tour and following his performance, he announced a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. On the 4th of August, through the OVO Sound Instagram page, a picture of Drake and PartyNextDoor captioned Hometown Love was posted, which indicated the album's release. On the 6th of August, Drake released three songs, all part of his sixth extended play 100 Gigs: It's Up featuring 21 Savage and Young Thug, Blue Green Red, and Housekeeping Knows featuring Latto. The songs were eventually released on streaming services by the end of that month, alongside the songs No Face and Circadian Rhythm, although, Blue Green Red was removed from streaming services due to sample clearance issues. The majority of the public have declared Kendrick Lamar as the winner of the battle, with Lamar's Not Like Us accusing Drake of pedophilia and anti-black sentiment, while Drake's The Heart Part 6 denied Lamar's accusations and claimed he gave Lamar false information about the secret child. The feud, which began in 2013 with Lamar's Control verse, escalated into a full-scale war of words and music, with both artists releasing multiple diss tracks and response tracks, culminating in a series of legal and public relations battles that would define the hip-hop landscape of 2024 and 2025. As an entrepreneur, Drake founded the OVO Sound record label with longtime collaborator 40 in 2012. In 2013, he became the global ambassador of the Toronto Raptors, joining their executive committee and later obtaining naming rights to their practice facility OVO Athletic Centre. In 2016, he began collaborating with Brent Hocking on the bourbon whiskey Virginia Black. Drake heads the OVO fashion label and the Nocta collaboration with Nike, Inc., and founded the production company DreamCrew and the fragrance house Better World. In 2018, he was reportedly responsible for 5% of Toronto's CAD$8.8 billion annual tourism income, a figure that underscores his economic impact on his hometown.