Artist Spotlight: Drake

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It was the year 1986… October 24th to be exact… the legend, the 6GOD, the “Goat” Aubrey “Drake” Graham was born to Dennis and Sandy Graham in Toronto, Canada. Drake’s parents divorced when he was just five-years-old. He and his mother decided to stay home in Toronto while his father moved back to his hometown in Memphis, Tennessee so that he could support himself financially. Drake was raised in two Toronto neighborhoods, Weston Road and Forrest Hill.

He attended Forrest Hill Collegiate Institute where he began his acting career. Later on, he attended Vaughan Road Academy but it wasn’t so easy to adjust to. After being bullied for his racial and religious background along with realizing his overpowering class schedule was a burden because it conflicted with his newfound acting interest he dropped out of school. Drake later went on to graduate high school in 2012.

At 15, Drake’s agent found him a role on a Canadian teen drama series entitled Degrassi: The Next Generation, where he portrayed Jimmy Brooks, a basketball star who became disabled after getting shot. He was on the show from 2001-2005 which tallied a total of 145 episodes.

In 2006, Drake decided to pursue his Hip-Hop dreams. He released his first mixtape ‘Room for Improvement’ via his website and Myspace. This mixtape was a huge success which led him to release others. In 2007, he released ‘Comeback Season’ which is where his road to stardom opened up. The first song released from the mixtape was, “Replacement Girl”  which featured Young Money’s Lil Wayne’s ad-libs from the song “Man Of The Year”.

On the Billboard Hot 100 chart of July 4, 2009, both “Best I Ever Had” and “Every Girl” by Young Money Entertainment entered the Top Ten at positions 3 and 10 respectively. Drake is only the second artist in musical history to have his first two Top Ten hits in the same week. On June 29, 2009 it was confirmed that Drake signed a record deal with Cash Money/Universal/Motown, which was considered “one of the biggest bidding wars ever.” Since then, Drake has released a total of 11 projects, which includes his newly released EP “Scary Hours”.

Currently he resides in Hidden Hills, California.