Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper and singer. He is credited with popularizing R&B sensibilities in hip-hop music through rap-singing. Drake first gained recognition as Jimmy Brooks in the CTV teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2008) and began his music career by independently releasing the mixtapes Room for Improvement (2006), Comeback Season (2007), and So Far Gone (2009), before signing with Young Money Entertainment.
Drake's debut album, Thank Me Later (2010), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and included his breakthrough hit "Best I Ever Had". He followed it with the albums Take Care (2011) and Nothing Was the Same (2013); the former was included on Rolling Stone "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. His fourth studio album, Views (2016), led the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks. Its second single, "One Dance", became the first song to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify. In 2018, Drake released his fifth studio album, Scorpion, spending 29 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with its singles: "God's Plan", "Nice for What", and "In My Feelings". Throughout the 2020s, Drake amassed six US number-one albums, including Certified Lover Boy (2021) and Iceman (2026), which respectively spawned nine and ten US top ten songs. In 2026, he became the first artist to occupy the top three spots on the Billboard 200.
As an entrepreneur, Drake founded the record label OVO Sound, production company DreamCrew, and the fragrance house Better World. 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 is a co-owner of the gaming organization 100 Thieves, and heads the OVO fashion label and the Nocta collaboration with Nike, Inc. His 2015 partnership with Apple Music has been credited with the successful launch of that platform. Drake has received widespread media coverage due to his extravagant lifestyle and rap feuds, including with Kanye West and with Kendrick Lamar.
Among the world's best-selling music artists, with over 170 million units sold, Drake is also ranked as the highest-certified digital singles artist in the United States. His accolades include 5 Grammy Awards, 6 American Music Awards, 41 Billboard Music Awards, 2 Brit Awards, and 3 Juno Awards. Billboard named him the Artist of the Decade (2010s), the highest-grossing hip-hop touring artist, and the fourth greatest pop star of the 21st century. He has achieved 15 Billboard 200 number-one albums and 14 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles; both rank as a record among male solo artists. He additionally has the most number-one singles on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Songs, and Rhythmic Airplay charts.
Early life
Aubrey Drake Graham 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. His mother, Sandra "Sandi" Graham ( Sher), is a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew, who worked as an English teacher and florist. Graham performed at Club Bluenote in Toronto, where he met Sandra, who was in attendance. Drake is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, the former derived from Graham. In his youth, he attended a Jewish day school and became a bar mitzvah.
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. Graham's limited finances and legal issues caused him to remain in the US until Drake's early adulthood. Prior to his arrest, Graham would travel to Toronto and bring Drake to Memphis every summer. Graham claimed in an interview that Drake's assertions of him being an absent father were embellishments used to sell music, which Drake vehemently denies.
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. 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. He moved to one of the city's affluent neighbourhoods, Forest Hill, in 2000. 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." 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.
He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute for high school, 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". During his teenage years, Drake worked at a now-closed Toronto furniture factory owned by his maternal grandfather, Reuben Sher. Drake said he was bullied at school for his racial and religious background, and upon determining that his class schedule was detrimental to his burgeoning acting career, he dropped out of school. Drake received his high school diploma in October 2012 at age 25.
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, 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." 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. 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.
During his early career, Graham co-formed the R&B duo The Renaissance with singer Melanie Fiona, although not releasing an album. 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, for which Drake received $304.04 in royalties. 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. In 2007, Drake released his second mixtape Comeback Season. Released from his recently founded October's Very Own label, it spawned the single "Replacement Girl" featuring Trey Songz. 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. On tour, Drake and Lil Wayne recorded multiple songs together, including "Ransom", "Forever", and a remix to "Brand New".
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. 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.
Due to the success of the mixtape, Drake was the subject of a bidding war from various labels, often reported as "one of the biggest bidding wars ever". He had secured a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment on June 29, 2009. Drake joined the rest of the label's roster on the America's Most Wanted Tour in July 2009. 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.Drake Injured During Concert Fall HipHopDX. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
In 2009 The Nightingale Company, the studio of television producer Debbie Nightingale, announced the development of Us and Them, a television comedy series which would have starred Graham and his Degrassi castmate Mazin Elsadig,Amy Haggar, "Nightingale teams with Degrassi duo". Playback, July 29, 2009. although the series was never completed.
2010–2012: Musical breakthrough with Thank Me Later and Take Care
Drake planned to release his debut album, Thank Me Later, in late 2008, but the album's release date was thrice postponed up to June 15, 2010. On March 9, 2010, Drake released the lead single "Over",Drake – Over JefeMedia. Retrieved March 10, 2010. which peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping the Rap Songs chart. It received a nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards. His second single, "Find Your Love", became a bigger success. It peaked at number five on the Hot 100, and was certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The music video for the single was shot in Kingston, Jamaica, and was criticized by Jamaica's minister of tourism Edmund Bartlett. The third single and fourth singles, "Miss Me" and "Fancy" respectively, attained moderate commercial success; however, the latter garnered Drake his second nomination at the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
Thank Me Later was released on June 15, 2010, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of over 447,000 copies in its first week. 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. 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 and featured Lil Wayne, Kanye West,Drake: Artist Profile The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved June 24, 2009. and Jay Z. Drake began his Away from Home Tour on September 20, 2010, in Miami, Florida, performing at 78 shows over four different legs. It concluded in Las Vegas in November 2010. 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.
Drake announced his intentions to allow Noah "40" Shebib to record a more cohesive sound on his next album than on Thank Me Later. In November 2010, Drake revealed the title of his next studio album would be Take Care. He sought to expand on the low-tempo, sensuous, and dark sonic esthetic of Thank Me Later. Primarily a hip-hop album, Drake also attempted to incorporate R&B and pop to create a languid, grandiose sound.