Drake (musician)

Lore & Background

Drake was born in Toronto, Ontario, to an African-American father, Dennis Graham, a drummer who performed with Jerry Lee Lewis, and a Canadian Ashkenazi Jewish mother, Sandra Graham, an English teacher and florist. His parents divorced when he was five; his father returned to Memphis and was incarcerated on drug-related charges. Drake attended a Jewish day school and became a bar mitzvah. He was raised in two Toronto neighbourhoods: Weston Road until grade six, then Forest Hill. He played minor hockey as a right winger but left after a cross-check to his neck.

Reader's Guide

Drake's significance lies in his reshaping of hip-hop by blending R&B melodies with rapping, a style that influenced a generation of artists. Billboard named him the Artist of the Decade (2010s) and the fourth greatest pop star of the 21st century. Beyond music, he founded the record label OVO Sound, the production company DreamCrew, and the fragrance house Better World. Drake has also been the subject of widespread media coverage due to his extravagant lifestyle and rap feuds, including with Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar. His accolades include 5 Grammy Awards, 6 American Music Awards, 41 Billboard Music Awards, 2 Brit Awards, and 3 Juno Awards. He is the highest-certified digital singles artist in the United States.

Did You Know?

• Drake's first recorded song, 'Do What You Do,' appeared on The N Soundtrack.

From Mixtapes to Chart Dominance

Drake's musical trajectory is one of the most sustained in modern hip-hop. After independently dropping three mixtapes—Room for Improvement, Comeback Season, and So Far Gone—between 2006 and 2009, he secured a deal with Young Money Entertainment and released Thank Me Later in 2010, which shot straight to the top of the Billboard 200 on the strength of "Best I Ever Had." His follow-up, Take Care, earned a place on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, while 2016's Views held the number-one album position for thirteen consecutive weeks and produced "One Dance," the first track ever to cross one billion Spotify streams. Scorpion in 2018 saw three of its singles—"God's Plan," "Nice for What," and "In My Feelings"—collectively spend 29 weeks atop the Hot 100. Throughout the 2020s he added six more US number-one albums, including Certified Lover Boy and Iceman, and in 2026 became the first artist ever to simultaneously occupy the top three positions on the Billboard 200. Critics widely credit him with weaving R&B vocal sensibilities into rap, a technique that reshaped the genre's sound.

A Toronto Childhood

Aubrey Drake Graham entered the world on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, the son of Dennis Graham, an African-American drummer from Memphis who had once performed alongside Jerry Lee Lewis, and Sandra "Sandi" Graham, a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew who worked as an English teacher. The couple met at Toronto's Club Bluenote. Drake holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada, attended a Jewish day school, and underwent his bar mitzvah. His parents separated when he was five; his mother kept him in Toronto while his father returned to Memphis and later spent years in prison on drug-related charges. Growing up in the working-class Weston Road neighbourhood, young Drake played right wing for the Weston Red Wings minor hockey team and even reached the Upper Canada College hockey camp before a neck injury ended that path. The family later relocated to the more affluent Forest Hill area. He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute and Vaughan Road Academy, where he recalled being bullied for his mixed racial and religious background. He also spent time working at his grandfather's furniture factory. Drake ultimately left school to pursue acting and music, not earning his high school diploma until October 2012, at age twenty-five.

The OVO Empire and Beyond

Beyond the studio, Drake has built a sprawling commercial empire rooted in Toronto. He founded the record label OVO Sound, the production company DreamCrew, and the fragrance house Better World. In 2013 he was named global ambassador of the Toronto Raptors, joined their executive committee, and eventually secured naming rights for their practice facility, the OVO Athletic Centre. His business reach extends into spirits—Virginia Black bourbon, a collaboration with Brent Hocking launched in 2016—gaming, where he is a co-owner of the organization 100 Thieves, and fashion through the OVO clothing line and the Nocta partnership with Nike. Perhaps most influentially, his 2015 partnership with Apple Music is widely credited with helping that streaming platform achieve a successful launch. Drake's public profile has also been shaped by his extravagant lifestyle and high-profile rap feuds, most notably with Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, which have kept him in the headlines far beyond any single album cycle.

Records, Awards, and Industry Standing

With more than 170 million units sold worldwide, Drake stands among the best-selling music artists of all time and holds the distinction of being the highest-certified digital singles artist in the United States. His award shelf includes five Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, 41 Billboard Music Awards, two Brit Awards, and three Juno Awards. Billboard's recognition has been particularly sweeping: the publication named him Artist of the Decade for the 2010s, the highest-grossing hip-hop touring artist, and the fourth greatest pop star of the twenty-first century. His chart records are equally historic. Fifteen number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and fourteen number-one singles on the Hot 100 both stand as records among male solo artists. He also holds the most number-one singles across the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Songs, and Rhythmic Airplay charts. These achievements, spanning nearly two decades of consistent output, cement his status as one of the most commercially dominant figures in modern popular music.

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