How Drake Emerged As One Of The Biggest Names In Music
Drake has become one of the biggest names in the music industry. But before that, the multi-Grammy award winner has had two shots of fame and nailed them both. Aubrey Graham is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur with a very dedicated fanbase. More than 600,000 people turned in to watch the rapper and a gamer play Fortnite on Twitch.
He's rarely out of the headlines, and can regularly be seen dating someone famous or signing someone to his own record label. From wheelchair Jimmy to Champagne Papi, Drake has carved out one of the most fascinating careers in music history.
The Rapper Finally Graduated In 2012
Years before the world knew him as Drake, Aubrey Graham was enrolled at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto. The teenager dropped out of the school one credit shy of taking home a diploma.
When his music career took off, he decided to go back to school to finish what he started, studying by correspondence. In June 2012, the rapper took his final exams and after five months of working tirelessly, the former actor finally got his high school diploma.
Outside Of Music, He Ventured Into The Liquor Industry
The rap star officially launched his Virginia Black whiskey brand with the creator of DeLéon Tequila, Brent Hocking. Virginia Black is an aged Bourbon whiskey with a rich, decadent and soothing taste. When it launched in Canada 2016, the liquor broke records by selling over 1,700 bottles on the day of its release.
In 2018, the Grammy-award winning musician announced his intentions to file a public offering that will allow investors to invest in the company's vision to redefine whiskey.
His Love For His Hometown Team Became An Official Role
Growing up in Toronto, the rapper cheered for the Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays. His love for the Raptors led to an official role in 2013. The team announced that Drizzy was involved with a new rebranding campaign.
Drake was hired to become a global ambassador which immediately gave the franchise a massive image boost. In his role, the Grammy-winning artist would help promote and serve as a host of festivities such as the 2016 All-Star Game.
His Own Record Label Opened The Door
During the composition of Nothing Was The Same, the rapper sought to release his music and help other artists too. With producer Noah "40" Shebib and business partner Olver El-Khatib, the trio teamed up to form OVO Sound. The abbreviation stands for "October's Very Own," the label the former child star used to publish earlier projects.
Warner Brothers Records distributes music from the label with Drake and PartyNextDoor as the label's inaugural artists. Six albums have been released since late 2012.
He Announced A Mysterious New Event In 2016
In the summer of 2016, the rapper announced a new event called "The Ballet" which took place in Houston. The event turned out to be a preview of his new club. On Instagram, he wrote "Treat yourself don't cheat yourself. Where the women are on a pedestal and the surroundings are unforgettable."
He describes the club as a new dance experience, with the focal point being the main stage featuring two to three female dancers on a giant glass table.
He's Movin' Up On Toronto's North-East Side
Drizzy purchased a $6.7 million plot of land in Toronto's exclusive Bridle Path area. The land at 21 Park Lane Circle was once the home of a bungalow which was demolished to make way for the OVO founder.
However, the most interesting part of the building of the mansion are the elements he's adding to the design. The home plans include an NBA-sized basketball court, a jersey museum, and an awards room where he will showcase his many Grammy Awards.
A High School Friend Gave Him His Start In Acting
Eager to pursue a career in acting as a fifteen-year-old, Aubrey's friend introduced him to his father, an acting agent. He would soon find the teenager a role on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation.
He starred as Jimmy Brooks, a basketball stud who became disabled after a classmate shot him. However, most people didn't know at the time that he was also making music while working on the show.
He Explains Why He Was Kicked Off Degrassi
In an interview with MTV, the child star revealed what happened when he got the boot from the teen drama series. "Back then, I'd spend a full day on set and then go to the studio to make music until 4 or 5 a.m." he explained.
"I'd sleep in my dressing room and then be in front of the cameras again by 9 a.m. Eventually, they realized I was juggling two professions and told me I had to choose. I chose this life." He doesn't seem to have hard feelings about the whole thing.
Music Runs In The Family
Aubrey's parents met after his father, Dennis Graham, performed at Clue Bluenote in Toronto. Dennis worked as a drummer, performing alongside country musician Jerry Lee Lewis.
As for Sandra Graham, she comes from a Canadian Jewish background. She worked as an English teacher and a florist. His extended family includes his uncle Larry Graham, who was a musician himself, who played bass for Sly and the Family Stone and was a founding member of Graham Central Station.
His Parents Divorced At A Young Age
At a young age, his parents split up and he remained in Toronto with his mother. While his father returned to his hometown of Memphis, he was incarcerated for years due to drug-related charges.
Meanwhile, his son was raised in two polarizing Toronto neighborhoods. He lived on Weston Road until the sixth grade, then moved to Forest Hill in 2000. During his youth, Aubrey attended a Jewish day school and formally celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in a religious service.
His Start In The Music Industry Is A Surprising One
In 2008, MySpace was all the rage, and was used by up and coming artists to gain traction with a fanbase. Drake was no exception. He composed his music using his middle name, which would become the rapper's stage name moving forward.
It wasn't long before Jas Prince heard Drake on MySpace and immediately took to the aspiring artist's style. In an interview with Business Insider, Prince explained that pitching Drizzy's music to Lil Wayne was challenging.
When Drake Met Wheezy
In the interview, Prince said, "Yo, you really need to check this dude Drake out, and Wayne wasn't tryin' to hear it. Then one day while leavin' the Galleria, I just threw his CD in and let it play."
"He was like, "Wait..who is this?," and I was like "Drake… the guy I have been tellin' you about." The next thing Wayne told Prince to do was to book Drake on the next flight to Houston.
Drake Showed Up The Next Day
Fans of Young Money may have listened to Drake's track "November 18." The significance of that track was that the date November 18, 2008, was the day the Canadian rapper met Wayne.
While in Houston, Wayne's tour manager brought the former child star on the bus to watch the rapper get a tattoo. Afterward, he stayed on the road with him for about a week and a half. It might sound like Drake got lucky, but he's one of Wayne's most successful artists.
So Far Gone Was A Major Catalyst For His Career
After releasing two mixtapes, the Canadian rapper released his third one on February 13, 2009. The hit track ended up launching his career on an international scale.
The tracks "Best I Ever Had" and "Successful" attained surprising success on the US Billboard Hot 100. The mixtape was promoted with a release party in Toronto with guests including LeBron James, Lil Wayne, and Lloyd. On the 10th anniversary of the mixtape, Drake revealed on his Instagram that it would be available for streaming services.
He Released His First Solo Album In 2010
On June 15, the rapper released "Thank Me Later." The album focuses on Drake's introduction to fame as well as his romances over the course of confessional, club-oriented songs.
Following the release, it debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with all four of the album's singles becoming immediate hits. At the end of the year, Time and Rolling Stone named the album to their top-ten lists of the best albums that were released.
He Owes His Success To New Orleans
While the Views rapper may be known for creating the Toronto sound, he owes a lot of his success to New Orleans. The city's influence on the rapper runs deep, being the home of his label Cash Money, and his mentor, Lil Wayne.
Most artists from the area use a style called bounce music, which includes taking a mainstream R&B song and speeding up the BPM'S. Drake applied that for by sampling Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor" for "Nice For What."
He Has A History With Bounce Music
While "Nice For What" includes elements of bounce, the song wasn't the first to feature it. That sound has been with the rapper for years.
"Practice" from Take Care uses Juvenile's "Back that Azz Up" and actually does the opposite of a traditional remix by slowing down the BPM, bring the energy down with it. He would find more success with "Child's Play" which keeps the higher BMPs but lacks the energy of a good bounce song.
Kanye Directed One Of His Music Videos
Drake told MTV News that he was in the process of making a music video for "Best I've Ever Had." "I don't wanna say who yet, because everything isn't confirmed yet. It should be pretty solid in the next few days."
Kanye West directed the music video, which was shot in Brooklyn. While some fans liked it, others were scratching their heads, and when West offered to shoot another video for the song, Drake declined. Receiving mixed reviews was a great lesson for the rapper.
Chris Brown Became His Rival
In June 2012, the rappers reportedly got into a bottle-throwing bar fight at the New York nightclub. The club suffered significant property damage from the incident, with a lot of broken glass and furniture.
A club promoter who was there claimed Brown sent a bottle of champagne to Drake. Drake refused the bottle and had it sent back with an unpleasant note about Rihanna. Both superstars left the club before police showed up to make any arrests.
He Felt Weird For Winning A Grammy For One Of His Singles
Despite the fact that rapper won a Grammy for "Hot Line Bling," he missed out on the awards show. In an interview with Britain's DJ Semtex on Apple Beat's 1, he expressed his frustration with the Recording Academy.
He said they only recognized him as a rap artist when his songs were actually mega pop hits. "I won two awards but I don't even want them because it feels weird to me. I'm a black artist, I'm apparently a rapper, even though 'Hotline Bling' is not a rap song."
He Played The Victim Role With Rihanna
Both musicians were linked in May 2009 but denied any romance rumors. However, in Drake's song "Fireworks," he dropped major hints that there was more to the story based on the lyrics. The Canadian would later tell The New York Times that the Barbadian singer played him and broke his heart.
"You know what she was doing to me? She was doing exactly what I've done to so many women throughout my life, which is show them quality time, then disappear. I was like, 'Wow, this feels terrible.'"
He Attempted To Steal Her Spotlight
The rapper went beyond public with the pop star leading up to the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. While gushing over her during a speech, Rihanna was quiet about the moment, but later opened up about how it made her feel uncomfortable.
She revealed to Vogue, "Waiting through that speech was probably the most uncomfortable part. I don't like too many compliments; I don't like to be put on blast." While she and Drake aren't friends anymore, they don't have bad blood towards each other.
He May Have Faked A Relationship With Another Artist
Just like how he stole Rihanna's spotlight at the VMAs in 2016, he allegedly used Jennifer Lopez. The rapper only did so to make his own star shine a bit brighter months later when the pair plastered their PDA across social media.
Many media outlets, including TMZ, reported that the out-of-leftfield romance was simply a ploy to sell more records. Plus, their relationship status was to promote a collaboration. While some people thought the relationship was fake and a publicity stunt, Drake dropped the song "Teenager Fever" sampling J.Lo's "If You Had My Love."
There Might Be Some Baby Drama
In 2017, Sophie Brussaux claimed she was pregnant with Drake's child and that the rapper told her to terminate the pregnancy. His reps denied it, saying in a statement she was one of the many women claiming he got them pregnant.
But, the rep also included that the Grammy-winning rapper would handle his business properly if he were proven to be the child's father. While his potential paternity was never made public, Pusha T made sure everyone knew there was a kid out there when he released the diss track "The House of Adidon" in 2018.
More Trouble Arose After The Diss Track
Pusha T didn't limit his disses towards the Canadian rapper. He attacked the rapper outside of his music be bring back up a picture from the past of Drake in blackface.
The image would soon spark widespread speculation about the origins and the context of the photo. The record producer would explain himself. He wrote on Instagram "This picture is from 2007, a time in my life where I was an actor and I was working on a project that was about young black actors struggling to get roles, being stereotyped and typecast."
Kanye Accused Him Of Rapping About His Wife
When Drake rapped about Kim Kardashian, it ignited a fire in West. After the Grammy-winning rapper released "In My Feelings," he talks about geographically going to a home that could be the home of Kim and Kanye.
At one point in the song, he raps about Kiki, which is one of Kim's nicknames. Some people, including Chris Brown and Snoop Dogg, speculated that Drizzy may have hooked up with her. While Kim denied it, Kanye unloaded on Drake.
Kanye Further Accused Him
In December 2018, West went on a Twitter tirade that sent shockwaves in the rap world and beyond. Entertainment Weekly reported that rant began with the rapper posting a screenshot of a text message asking Drake to clear a sample of "Say What's Real," the rapper's remix of Kanye's track "Say You Will."
West then referenced the Pusha T incident with the Tweet "Buying first two rows at Pusha show got me hot bro." After the tirade, TMZ reported that Drake increased security at his Hidden Hills, California home.
He Managed To Squash Beef With A Philadelphia Rapper
The feud was among the biggest hip-hop stories of 2015, with Mill accusing Drake of employing a ghostwriter. The Canadian fired back with the diss tracks "Charged Up" and "Back To Back Freestyle," and Mill fired back with "Wanna Know."
The beef remained until the Philly rapper was sentenced to prison. Three years after Drake and Meek Mill tossed diss tracks to one another, they would make amends. The two rappers shared the TD Garden stage to put their feud to bed for good.
After Mill's Arrest, The Beef Cooled Off
In May 2018, Meek Mill said he had "moved past" the beef after Drizzy campaigned for the release of the rapper from prison. Four months after, the rappers officially squashed their beef when they performed Mills' "Dreams and Nightmares" during Drake's concert in Boston.
Drake told the crowd after the performance "I wanna say something right now. This right here is a long time coming. This right here is important. This is one of my favorite rappers, for real for real."
He Got A Permanent Tribute To The Young Money Founder
Drake likes to pay tribute to some of his heroes with tattoos. It seems as though the rapper kept up with the theme with his latest tattoo in 2017. The first pictures of his Lil Wayne tattoo were share on Instagram. It was his first tribute tattoo.
It's located near a skull and a Drakkar Noir bottle on the Canadian's bicep. It's easy to see why Drake wanted a permanent reminder of the man who signed him to Young Money in 2009.
