Aubrey Drake Graham(born October 24, 1986), known mononymously asDrake, is a Canadian rapper, singer, and actor. An influential figure inpopular music, he has been credited with popularizingR&Bsensibilities inhip hopartists. Gaining recognition by starring asJimmy Brooksin theCTVteen drama seriesDegrassi: The Next Generation(2001–2008), Drake began his recording career in 2006 with the release of his debut mixtape,Room for Improvement(2006). He followed up with the mixtapesComeback Season(2007) andSo Far Gone(2009) before signing withYoung Money Entertainment.[5]
As an entrepreneur, Drake founded the OVO Sound record label with longtime collaborator 40in 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 whiskeyVirginia Black.[10] 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 percent (CAD$440 million) of Toronto's CAD$8.8 billion annual tourism income.[11]
Aubrey Drake Graham[16] was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Dennis Graham, is an African-American drummer from Memphis, Tennessee, who once performed with musician Jerry Lee Lewis.[17][18] His mother, Sandra "Sandi" Graham (née Sher), is a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew, who worked as an English teacher and florist.[19][20][21][22][23] Graham performed at Club Bluenote in Toronto, where he met Sandra, who was in attendance.[18] Drake is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, the former derived from Graham.[24][25][26] In his youth, he attended a Jewish day school and became a bar mitzvah.[27][28]
Drake's parents divorced when he was five years old. After the divorce, he and his mother remained in Toronto; his father returned to Memphis, where he was incarcerated for a number of years on drug-related charges.[29] Graham's limited finances and legal issues caused him to remain in the U.S. until Drake's early adulthood. Prior to his arrest, Graham would travel to Toronto and bring Drake to Memphis every summer.[30][31][32]Graham claimed in an interview that Drake's assertions of him being an absent father were embellishments used to sell music,[33] which Drake vehemently denies.[34]
Drake was raised in two neighbourhoods. He lived on Weston Road in Toronto's working-class west end until grade six and attended Weston Memorial Junior Public School until grade four, playing minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings.[31][35]Drake was a promising right winger, reaching the Upper Canada College hockey camp, but left at the behest of his mother following a vicious cross-check to his neck during a game by an opposing player.[36] He moved to one of the city's affluent neighbourhoods, Forest Hill, in 2000.[37][38] When asked about the move, Drake replied, "[We had] a half of a house we could live in. The other people had the top half, we had the bottom half. I lived in the basement, my mom lived on the first floor. It was not big, it was not luxurious. It was what we could afford."[39] At age 10, Drake appeared in a comedic sketch which aired during the 1997 NHL Awards, featuring a riff of Martin Brodeur and Ron Hextall and their record as being the only goalies to have scored multiple goals.[40]
He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute for high school,[41] and attended Vaughan Road Academy in Toronto's multicultural Oakwood–Vaughan neighbourhood; Drake described Vaughan Road Academy as "not by any means the easiest school to go to."[31] During his teenage years, Drake worked at a now-closed Toronto furniture factory owned by his maternal grandfather, Reuben Sher.[42] Drake said he was bullied at school for his racial and religious background,[43] and upon determining that his class schedule was detrimental to his burgeoning acting career, he dropped out of school.[44] Drake received his high school diploma in October 2012.[45]
Career
2001–2009: Career beginnings
At 15, Drake was introduced to a high school friend's father, an acting agent. He found Drake a role on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation, in which Drake portrayed Jimmy Brooks,[46] a basketball star who became physically disabled after he was shot by a classmate. When asked about his early acting career, Drake replied, "My mother was very sick. We were very poor, like broke. The only money I had coming in was [from] Canadian TV."[31]According to showrunners Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn, Drake regularly arrived late on set after spending nights recording music. To prevent this, Schuyler claimed Drake struck an agreement with the set's security guards to gain entry to the set after recording to be allowed to sleep in a dressing room.[47] Drake's first recorded song, "Do What You Do", appeared on The N Soundtrack, which was released by The N (the night-time block for Noggin), as it was the network that the series was airing on in the United States.[48]
Being musically inspired by Jay-Z and Clipse, Drake self-released his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement featuring Trey Songz and Lupe Fiasco, in 2006. Drake described the project as "pretty straightforward, radio friendly, [and] not much content to it." Room for Improvement was released for sale only and sold roughly 6,000 copies,[46] for which Drake received $304.04 in royalties.[50] He performed his first concert on August 19, 2006, at the Kool Haus nightclub as an opening act for Ice Cube, performing for half an hour and earning $100.[51] In 2007, Drake released his second mixtape Comeback Season. Released from his recently founded October's Very Ownlabel, it spawned the single "Replacement Girl" featuring Trey Songz.[52] The song sampled "Man of the Year" by Brisco, Flo Rida and Lil Wayne, retaining Lil Wayne's verse; the rapper invited Drake to Houston to join his Tha Carter III tour.[53]On tour, Drake and Lil Wayne recorded multiple songs together, including "Ransom", "Forever", and a remix to "Brand New".[53]
In 2009, Drake released his third mixtape So Far Gone. It was made available for free download through his OVO blog website, and featured Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, Omarion, Lloyd, and Bun B. It received over 2,000 downloads in the first 2 hours of release, finding mainstream commercial success from the singles "Best I Ever Had" and "Successful", both gaining Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA), with the former also peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.[54] This prompted the mixtape's re-release as an EP, featuring four songs from the original, as well as the additions of the songs "I'm Goin' In" and "Fear". It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, and won the Rap Recording of the Year at the 2010 Juno Awards.[55]
Due to the success of the mixtape,[56] Drake was the subject of a bidding war from various labels, often reported as "one of the biggest bidding wars ever".[57] He had secured a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment on June 29, 2009.[58] Drake joined the rest of the label's roster on the America's Most Wanted Tour in July 2009.[59] However, during a performance of "Best I Ever Had" in Camden, New Jersey, Drake fell on stage and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.[60]
2010–2012: Musical breakthrough with Thank Me Later and Take Care
Thank Me Later was released on June 15, 2010,[69] debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of over 447,000 copies in its first week.[70] Upon the album's release, 25,000 fans gathered at New York City's South Street Seaport for a free concert hosted by Drake and Hanson, which was later cancelled by the police after a near-riot ensued due to overflowing crowds.[71]The album became the top selling debut album for any artist in 2010 and had the highest sales week for any debut album in the 2010s[72] and featured Lil Wayne, Kanye West,[73] and Jay Z.[74]Drake began his Away from Home Tour on September 20, 2010, in Miami, Florida, performing at 78 shows over four different legs.[75] It concluded in Las Vegas in November 2010.[76]Due to the tour's success, Drake hosted the first OVO Festival in 2010. Drake had an eco-friendly college tour to support the album.[77]
Drake announced his intentions to allow Noah "40" Shebib to record a more cohesive sound on his next album than on Thank Me Later.[78] In November 2010, Drake revealed the title of his next studio album would be Take Care.[79] He sought to expand on the low-tempo, sensuous, and dark sonic esthetic of Thank Me Later.[80][81]Primarily a hip hop album, Drake also attempted to incorporate R&B and pop to create a languid, grandiose sound.[82]
In January 2011, Drake was in negotiations to join Eva Green and Susan Sarandon as a member of the cast in Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage,[83] before ultimately deciding against starring in the movie to focus on the album. "Dreams Money Can Buy"[84]and "Marvins Room"[80] were released on Drake's October's Very Own Blog, on May 20 and June 9, respectively. Acting as promotional singles for Take Care, the former was eventually unincluded on the album's final track listing, while "Marvins Room" gained 3× Multi-Platinum certification by the RIAA,[85] as well as peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.[86] "Headlines" was released on August 9 as the album's lead single. It met with positive critical and commercial response, reaching number thirteen on the Hot 100, as well as becoming Drake's tenth single to reach the summit of the BillboardHot Rap Songs.[87] It was eventually certified 4× Multi-Platinum in the United States and Platinum in Canada.[88] The music video for the single was released on October 2.[89]
Take Care was released on November 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews from music critics.[90][91][92][93][94] It also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, and achieved great commercial success, eventually being certified six times platinum by the RIAA in 2019, with sales for the album marking 2.6 million in the U.S.[95] The album's third and fourth singles, "The Motto" and Take Care", were released on November 29, 2011[96] and February 21, 2012, respectively.[97]Each song achieved commercial success, and "The Motto" was later credited for popularizingthe phrase "YOLO" in the United States.[98][99]The music video for "Take Care" met with widespread acclaim,[100] receiving four nominations at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year.[101]"HYFR" was the final single to be released from the album, and became certified 2× Multi-Platinum.[102][103]
Drake during a performance in Toronto in 2011
On August 5, 2012, Drake released "Enough Said", performed by Aaliyah and himself.[104] Originally recorded prior to Aaliyah's 2001 death, Drake later finished the track with producer "40".[105] In promotion of his second album, Drake embarked on the worldwide Club Paradise Tour. It became the most successful hip hop tour of 2012, grossing over $42 million.[106] He then returned to acting, starring in Ice Age: Continental Drift as Ethan.[107]
2013–2015: Nothing Was the Same and If You're Reading This It's Too Late
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, include the influence of British producer Jamie xx,[108] and stylistically differ from Take Care, departing from the ambient production and despondent lyrics previously prevalent.[109] After he won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on 10 February 2013, Drake announced his third album, Nothing Was the Same, and released its first single.[110] The album's second single, "Hold On, We're Going Home", was released in August, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[111]Nothing Was the Same was released on September 24, 2013, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, with 658,000 copies sold in its first week of release.[112] The album debuted atop the charts in Canada, Denmark, Australia and the United Kingdom. The album also enjoyed generally favourable reviews by contemporary music critics, commending the musical shift in terms of the tone and subject matter, comparing it to Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.[113]
The album, which sold over 1,720,000 copies in the United States, was further promoted by the "Would You like a Tour?" throughout late 2013 to early 2014.[114]It became the 22nd-most successful tour of the year, grossing an estimated $46 million.[115]Drake then returned to acting in January 2014, hostingSaturday Night Live, as well as serving as the musical guest. His versatility, acting ability and comedic timing were all praised by critics, describing it as what "kept him afloat during the tough and murky SNL waters
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Aubrey Drake Graham
