The 477 on Drake
Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a
Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur.Drake
initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series Degrassi:
The Next Generation in the early 2000s. Intent on pursuing a career as a
rapper, he departed the series in 2007 following the release of his debut
mixtape, Room for Improvement. He released two further independent projects,
Comeback Season and So Far Gone, before signing to Lil Wayne's Young Money
Entertainment in June 2009.
Drake released his debut studio album Thank Me Later
in 2010, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and was soon
certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His
next two releases were 2011's Take Care and 2013's Nothing Was the Same, which
were both critically and commercially successful; the former earned him his
first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. In 2015, he released two mixtapes—the
trap-influenced If You're Reading This It's Too Late and a collaboration with
Future titled What a Time to Be Alive—both of which earned platinum
certification in the U.S.
Drake released his fourth album, Views, in 2016, breaking
several chart records in the process. The dancehall-influenced album sat atop
the Billboard 200 for ten nonconsecutive weeks, becoming the first album by a
male solo artist to do so in over ten years. The album's second single,
"One Dance", topped the charts in several countries, including the
US, the UK, and Canada, where it became his first number one single as a lead
artist. That year, Drake lead both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200
charts simultaneously for eight weeks, coming close to a record held by Whitney
Houston.Views achieved quadruple platinum status in the US, and earned over
1,000,000 album-equivalent units in the first week of its release. The album's
lead single "Hotline Bling" secured him his second and third Grammy
Awards, for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song, at the organization's
59th ceremony.
Drake released the multi-genre More Life in 2017.
Described by Drake as a "playlist", it was his seventh consecutive
number one on the Billboard 200, and set multiple streaming records.
Drake holds several Billboard chart records. He has
the most charted songs (154) among solo artists in the history of the Billboard
Hot 100, the most simultaneously charted Hot 100 songs in a single week (24),
the most time on the Hot 100 (431 weeks) and the most Hot 100 debuts in a week
(21). Drake also has the most number one singles on the Hot Rap Songs, Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Charts. Alongside his Grammy Award wins,
Drake has won three Juno Awards and six American Music Awards, as well as a
record thirteen Billboard Music Awards, while also being one of the most
acclaimed and best-selling rappers of the 21st century, with 86 million estimated
global sales.
Drake has developed other ventures, including his OVO
Sound record label with longtime collaborator Noah "40" Shebib. Drake
acts as a producer, producing under the pseudonym Champagne Papi. Using the
"OVO" moniker, Drake has his own clothing line and his own program on
Beats 1 Radio. He has also developed a whiskey, is a restaurateur, and is the
global ambassador for the Toronto Raptors
Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24, 1986, in
Toronto, Ontario. His father, Dennis Graham, is an African American and a
practising Catholic from Memphis, Tennessee, and worked as a drummer,
performing alongside country musician Jerry Lee Lewis. Bass guitarist Larry
Graham and the late songwriter Teenie Hodges are his paternal uncles. Drake's
mother, Sandi Graham (née Sher), is an Ashkenazi Jewish Canadian who worked as
an English teacher and florist. Drake attended a Jewish day school, and had a Bar
Mitzvah ceremony.
Drake's parents divorced when he was five years old.
After the divorce, he and his mother remained in Toronto, while his father
returned to Memphis to find a way to supplement himself financially. As a
child, he witnessed his father's arrest while visiting him in Memphis. His
father later collaborated with Canadian music group Arkells for a song entitled
"Drake's Dad", detailing the events that had occurred following his
departure from Drake's early life.
Drake was raised in two polarizing Toronto
neighbourhoods; he lived on Weston Road in the city's working-class west end,
until grade six. In his youth, he played minor hockey with the Weston Red
Wings. Drake then moved to one of the city's affluent neighbourhoods, Forest
Hill, in 2000. When asked about the move to Forest Hill, 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."[citation needed]
He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, where
he demonstrated an affinity for the arts, first acting while an active student
at the school. He later attended Vaughan Road Academy in the city's
multicultural Oakwood–Vaughan neighbourhood. Due to the economic status
associated with the neighbourhood, Drake described the school as "not by
any means the easiest school to go to. [It's tough]." Drake was often
bullied in school for his racial and religious background, and upon realizing
that his busy class schedule was detrimental to his burgeoning acting career, Drake
dropped out of school. He later graduated in October 2012.
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