Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, and actor. Often referred to as one of the greatest rappers of all time, 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.
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Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, and actor. Often referred to as one of the greatest rappers of all time, 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's "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 singles. 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.. Due to his partnership with Apple Music, he is also credited with the success of the 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.
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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 (née 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.
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.
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, although the series was never completed.
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", 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, 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.
In January 2011, Drake was in negotiations to join Eva Green and Susan Sarandon as a member of the cast in Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage, before ultimately deciding against starring in the movie to focus on the album. "Dreams Money Can Buy" and "Marvins Room" were released on Drake's October's Very Own Blog, on May 20 and June 9, respectively. Acting as promotional singles for Take Care, the former was eventually unincluded on the album's final track listing, while "Marvins Room" gained 3× Multi-Platinum certification by the RIAA, as well as peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Headlines" was released on August 9 as the album's lead single. It met with positive critical and commercial response, reaching number thirteen on the Hot 100, as well as becoming Drake's tenth single to reach the summit of the Billboard Hot Rap Songs. It was eventually certified 4× Multi-Platinum in the United States and Platinum in Canada. The music video for the single was released on October 2.
Take Care was released on November 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews from music critics. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, and achieved great commercial success, eventually being certified six times platinum by the RIAA in 2019, with sales for the album marking 2.6 million in the US The album's third and fourth singles, "The Motto" and Take Care", were released on November 29, 2011 and February 21, 2012, respectively. Each song achieved commercial success, and "The Motto" was later credited for popularizing the phrase "YOLO" in the United States. The music video for "Take Care" met with widespread acclaim, receiving four nominations at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year. "HYFR" was the final single to be released from the album, and became certified 2× Multi-Platinum.
On August 5, 2012, Drake released "Enough Said", performed by Aaliyah and himself. Originally recorded prior to Aaliyah's 2001 death, Drake later finished the track with producer "40". In promotion of his second album, Drake embarked on the worldwide Club Paradise Tour. It became the most successful hip-hop tour of 2012, grossing over $42 million. He then returned to acting, starring in Ice Age: Continental Drift as Ethan.
By the Club Paradise Tour's European leg, Drake had begun working on his third studio album, which he said would retain 40 as the album's executive producer, include the influence of British producer Jamie xx, and stylistically differ from Take Care, departing from the ambient production and despondent lyrics previously prevalent. After he won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013, Drake announced his third album, Nothing Was the Same, and released its first single. The album's second single, "Hold On, We're Going Home", was released in August, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Nothing Was the Same was released on September 24, 2013, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, with 658,000 copies sold in its first week of release. The album debuted atop the charts in Canada, Denmark, Australia and the United Kingdom. The album also enjoyed generally favourable reviews by contemporary music critics, commending the musical shift in terms of the tone and subject matter, comparing it to Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.
The album, which sold over 1,720,000 copies in the United States, was further promoted by the "Would You like a Tour?" throughout late 2013 to early 2014. It became the 22nd-most successful tour of the year, grossing an estimated $46 million. Drake then returned to acting in January 2014, hosting Saturday Night Live, as well as serving as the musical guest. His versatility, acting ability and comedic timing were all praised by critics, describing it as what "kept him afloat during the tough and murky SNL waters".
In late 2014, Drake announced that he began recording sessions for his fourth studio album. On February 12, 2015, Drake released If You're Reading This It's Too Late onto iTunes with no prior announcement. Despite debate on whether it was an album or a mixtape, its commercial stance quantifies it as his fourth retail project with Cash Money Records, a scheme that was rumoured to allow Drake to leave the label. However, he eventually remained with Cash Money, and If You're Reading This It's Too Late sold over 1 million units in 2015.
On July 31, 2015, Drake released four singles: "Back to Back", "Charged Up", "Hotline Bling", and "Right Hand". On September 20, Drake released a collaborative mixtape with Future, which was recorded in Atlanta in just under a week. What a Time to Be Alive debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Drake the first hip-hop artist to have two projects reach number one in the same year since 2004. It was later certified 2× multi platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of over 2 million units. Drake announced in January 2016 that his fourth studio album would be launched during the spring, releasing the promotional single "Summer Sixteen" later that month. The album was originally titled Views from the 6, but was later shortened to Views.
"Summer Sixteen" debuted at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, and proved controversial—Drake's self-comparisons with more tenured artists divided many critics, who described his self-comparison as "goodly brash" or "conventionally disrespectful". Drake soon released the album's lead singles, "Pop Style" and the dancehall-infused "One Dance", on April 5. Both debuted within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100; however, the latter proved more commercially successful, with "One Dance" becoming Drake's first number-one single in Canada and the US as a leading artist. The single also became Drake's first number one single as a lead artist in the United Kingdom, and peaked at number one in many other countries. Views was previewed in London before its premiere a day later. It was released as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive on April 29 before being made available to various other platforms later that week. Views would become Drake's most commercially successful album, sitting atop the Billboard 200 for thirteen weeks, as well as simultaneously leading the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. It achieved sextuple-platinum status in the US, and earned over 1 million album-equivalent units in the first week of its release, as well as gaining over half-billion overall streams. Despite its success, critical reception was mixed: the album drew criticism for its length, lack of a cohesive theme, and dearth of artistic challenge.
Drake returned to host Saturday Night Live on May 14, serving as the show's musical guest. Drake and Future then announced the Summer Sixteen Tour to showcase their collective mixtape, as well as their respective studio albums. The latter dates of the tour were postponed due to Drake suffering an ankle injury. According to Pollstar, the Summer Sixteen Tour was the highest grossing hip-hop tour of all time, having earnt $84.3 million across 56 dates. On July 23, Drake announced that he was working on a new project, scheduled to be released in early 2017.
During the 2016 OVO Festival, Kanye West confirmed that he and Drake had begun working on a collaborative album. Soon after, the music video for "Child's Play" was released. On September 26, Please Forgive Me was released as an Apple Music exclusive. It ran a total of 25 minutes, and featured music from Views. At the 2016 BET Hip-Hop Awards, Drake received the most nominations, with 10, winning the awards for Album of the Year and Best Hip-Hop Video. Drake later announced the Boy Meets World Tour on October 10.
During an episode of OVO Sound Radio, Drake confirmed he would be releasing a project titled More Life, described as a "playlist of original music". Drake later secured his second and third Grammy Awards, winning for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song at the 59th ceremony. Upon release on March 18, 2017, More Life received mostly positive reviews, and debuted atop the Billboard 200, earning 505,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. It also set a streaming record, becoming the highest ever streamed album in 24 hours, with a total of 89.9 million streams on Apple Music and 61.3 million on Spotify. He later won a record 13 awards at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards in May. By this time, Drake had been present on the Hot 100 chart for eight consecutive years, and had the most recorded entries by a solo artist. Drake hosted the first annual NBA Awards on June 26, and also appeared in The Carter Effect documentary.
Drake released a mini EP titled Scary Hours on January 20, 2018, marking Drake's first solo release since More Life. Scary Hours featured the songs "Diplomatic Immunity" and "God's Plan", with the latter debuting at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was Drake's first song as a solo artist to reach number one. It also became his first song to be certified Diamond by the RIAA, and it is currently tied for the fourth highest certified digital single ever in the US He was later featured on BlocBoy JB's February 2018 debut single "Look Alive". The song's entry on the Hot 100 made Drake the rapper with the most top 10 hits on the Hot 100, with 23.
On April 6, "Nice for What", a single from his fifth studio album, was released. It replaced his own "God's Plan" on the Billboard Hot 100 at number one, making Drake the first artist to have a new number-one debut replace their former number-one debut. He then announced the title of his fifth studio album as Scorpion, with a planned release date of June 29, 2018. "I'm Upset" was released on May 26 as the album's third single. Scorpion was Drake's longest project, with a run-time of just under 90 minutes. The album broke both the one-day global records on Spotify and Apple Music, as it gained 132.45 million and 170 million plays on each streaming service, respectively. It eventually sold 749,000 album equivalent units in its first week of sales, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Drake earned his sixth US number-one with "In My Feelings" on July 21. The success of "In My Feelings" also made Drake the record holder for most number one hits among rappers. He then appeared on the Travis Scott album Astroworld, featuring uncredited vocals for the song "Sicko Mode", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake announced in July 2018 that he planned to "take 6 months to a year" to himself to return to television and films, producing the television series Euphoria and Top Boy. He then began the Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour with co-headliners Migos on August 12. This preceded a collaboration with Bad Bunny titled "Mia", which featured Drake performing in Spanish.
In February 2019, he received his fourth Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, for "God's Plan", at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. During his speech, producers abruptly cut to a commercial break, leading viewers to speculate they were censoring his speech during which he criticized The Recording Academy. A legal representative for the academy released a statement stating "a natural pause [led] the producers [to] assume that he was done and cut to commercial", and added the organization offered him an opportunity to return to stage, but he declined.
On February 14, Drake re-released his third mixtape, So Far Gone, onto streaming services for the first time to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. On June 15, Drake released two songs, "Omertà" and "Money in the Grave", on his EP The Best in the World Pack to celebrate the NBA Championship win of the Toronto Raptors. On August 2, he released the compilation album Care Package, consisting of songs released between 2010 and 2016 that were initially unavailable for purchase or commercial streaming; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 109,000 album equivalent units in its first week of sales.
Drake released the song "War" on December 24, 2019, which was widely noted for its UK drill-inspired instrumental. The following day, he revealed that he was in the process of completing his sixth studio album. On April 3, he released "Toosie Slide" with a music video, which features a dance created in collaboration with social media influencer Toosie. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Drake the first male artist to have three songs debut at number one. On May 1, 2020, Drake released the commercial mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes, with guest appearances from Chris Brown, Future, Young Thug, Fivio Foreign, Playboi Carti, and Sosa Geek. The mixtape is a compilation of new songs and tracks that leaked on the internet. It received mixed reviews and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, and at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Drake also announced that his sixth studio album would be released in the summer of 2020. On August 14, "Laugh Now Cry Later" featuring Lil Durk was released, which was intended as the lead single from the upcoming album Certified Lover Boy, but not included on the final track listing. It debuted at number two on the Hot 100, and was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. On his 34th birthday, Drake announced Certified Lover Boy was set to be released in January 2021. This was later pushed back after he sustained a serious knee injury.
In January 2021, Drake became the first artist to surpass 50 billion combined streams on Spotify. On March 5, Drake released an EP titled Scary Hours 2, which includes three songs: "What's Next", "Wants and Needs" with Lil Baby, and "Lemon Pepper Freestyle" with Rick Ross. These three songs entered the charts at numbers one, two, and three, respectively, making Drake the first artist to have three songs debut in the top three on the Billboard Hot 100. He was named Artist of the Decade at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.
Certified Lover Boy was released on September 3, 2021, becoming Drake's tenth number-one album on the Billboard 200; every song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album was the first to chart nine songs in the top 10, with "Way 2 Sexy" becoming Drake's ninth number-one single. Certified Lover Boy was nominated for Best Rap Album and "Way 2 Sexy" was nominated for Best Rap Performance at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. He was later named _Billboard'_s Top Artist of the Year for 2021, and was the fourth most streamed artist on Spotify for the year, and the most streamed rapper. On December 6, he withdrew his music for consideration for the Grammys, with multiple outlets noting his contentious relationship with the Recording Academy. Drake accumulated 8.6 billion on-demand streams in 2021, making him the most overall streamed artist of the year in the United States; one out of every 131 streams was a Drake song.
On March 3, 2022, Drake placed fourth on Forbes's ranking of highest paid rappers of 2021, with an estimated pre-tax income of $50 million. On April 16, it was calculated Drake generated more streams in 2021 than every song released prior to 1980 combined; his music accumulated 7.91 billion streams, while songs pre-1980 had generated 6.32 billion. Drake was then confirmed as a guest artist on Future's I Never Liked You (2022); one of the songs he featured on, "Wait for U", debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Drake's tenth number-one song and making him the tenth act to achieve ten number ones.
In early May, Drake re-signed with Universal Music Group in a multifaceted deal reported to be worth as much as $400 million, making it one of the largest recording contracts ever. On June 16, Drake announced his seventh album, Honestly, Nevermind, which released a day later; he also announced a third iteration of his Scary Hours EP series. Honestly, Nevermind sold 204,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Drake's eleventh US number-one album and making him the fifth artist with over 10 number one albums, after the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen, and Barbra Streisand (both 11). "Jimmy Cooks" also became Drake's eleventh US number-one song.
On July 14, it was announced Drake would reunite with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj on a Toronto exclusive concert series on July 28, July 29, and August 1. After the debut of "Staying Alive" on the US Billboard Hot 100, it marked the 30th Drake song to reach the top five on the chart, breaking a 55-year-old record for most songs to reach the top five on the chart (29), held by the Beatles. Drake refused to submit his music for Grammy consideration for a second consecutive year. On October 22, Drake announced Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage which would release on October 28; it was then delayed to November 4 after Drake's longtime producer, 40, was diagnosed with COVID-19. Her Loss debuted atop the Billboard 200, accumulating first week sales of 404,000 album-equivalent units. Eight of the album's songs debuted in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, extending Drake's record for most top ten entries, with 67 (with a record 49 as a lead artist). On November 15, Drake was nominated for four awards at the 2023 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for his writing on Beyoncé's Renaissance. In February 2023, Drake was named the most streamed act ever on Spotify.
On July 23, via an announcement for his poetry book Titles Ruin Everything, Drake announced his eighth studio album, titled For All the Dogs. On September 15, Drake released the lead single of the album, "Slime You Out", featuring SZA. The song charted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. On October 5, Drake released the album's second single, "8AM in Charlotte", on his social media accounts. On September 16, Drake released For All The Dogs, which debuted atop the Billboard 200, accumulating first week sales of 402,000 album-equivalent units. The album also debuted seven tracks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with "First Person Shooter" featuring J. Cole topping the chart, tying Drake with Michael Jackson for the most solo number-one songs by a solo male artist. On March 8, 2024, Drake remixed "Act II: Date @ 8" with 4Batz, the newest signee to OVO Sound.
On March 22, Kendrick Lamar dissed Drake, as well as J. Cole, on Future and Metro Boomin's song "Like That", beginning a feud between them. During this time, there were also other disses toward Drake from Future, ASAP Rocky, and The Weeknd. On April 19, Drake released "Push Ups" after early versions were leaked online as a response track while also addressing Future and Rick Ross, followed up with "Taylor Made Freestyle" later that day. On April 30, Lamar released a diss track named "Euphoria" in response, as well as "6:16 in LA" on May 3, exclusively on Instagram. That same day, Drake released "Family Matters" exclusively on YouTube in response. Lamar released "Meet the Grahams" 20 minutes later, and would go onto release "Not Like Us" the following day. On May 5, Drake released "The Heart Part 6", a reference to Lamar's "The Heart" song series.
On June 4, Drake appeared on social media personality Snowd4y's "Wah Gwan Delilah", a parody of the 2006 Plain White T's song, "Hey There Delilah". On August 2, Drake appeared as an unannounced guest at the Toronto stop on PartyNextDoor's tour and following his performance, he announced a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. On August 4, through the OVO Sound Instagram page, a picture of Drake and PartyNextDoor captioned "Hometown Love" was posted, which indicated the album's release. On August 6, Drake released three songs, all part of his sixth extended play 100 Gigs: "It's Up" featuring 21 Savage and Young Thug, "Blue Green Red", and "Housekeeping Knows" featuring Latto. The songs were eventually released on streaming services by the end of that month, alongside the songs "No Face" and "Circadian Rhythm", although, "Blue Green Red" was removed from streaming services due to sample clearance issues.
On January 3, 2025, producer Conductor Williams posted the Drake freestyle "Fighting Irish" on YouTube, but it was quickly removed. The track was interpreted to contain diss references towards LeBron James, with the title possibly being a reference to James' high school mascot. On February 3, 2025, Drake announced Some Sexy Songs 4 U, a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor, which was released on February 14, 2025. $ome $exy $ongs 4 U subsequently debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, supplanting GNX by Kendrick Lamar and tying the Billboard record with Jay-Z and Taylor Swift for most number one albums by a solo artist.
On February 16, 2025, it was announced that Drake would be the first artist in history to headline all three days at the 2025 Wireless Festival. Drake became the fastest artist to sell out the festival in its history, selling all tickets in minutes. Directly after the festival, he commenced his Some Special Shows 4 U tour in Europe (including the United Kingdom), which will conclude on September 23. He was announced as Toronto's host during the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, as well as its musical performer.
On July 5, 2025, Drake released the single "What Did I Miss?", which he previewed the night before through his Iceman: Episode 1 livestream. As the lead single of his upcoming ninth studio album Iceman, it marks his return to solo material. The singles "Which One", "Somebody Loves Me Pt. 2", and "Dog House" were released in 2025 and may be part of the album. He would promote the album via a sculpture made entirely out of ice blocks placed in a Toronto parking lot, in which it's melting would reveal the albums released date. The next day Drake announced on Instagram that the album will release on May 15, 2026. On May 14, it was announced that alongside Iceman, two new albums entitled Maid of Honour and Habibti, respectively, would release on May 15 as well.
Drake has cited several hip-hop artists as influencing his rapping style, including Kanye West, Jay-Z, MF Doom, and Lil Wayne, while also attributing various R&B artists as influential to the incorporation of the genre into his own music, including Aaliyah and Usher. Drake has also credited several dancehall artists for later influencing his Caribbean-inflected style, including Vybz Kartel, whom he has called one of his "biggest inspirations".
Drake is considered to be a pop rap artist. While Drake's earlier music primarily spanned hip-hop and R&B, his music has delved into pop and trap since the albums Nothing Was the Same (2013) and Views (2016). Additionally, his music has drawn influence from regional scenes, including Jamaican dancehall and UK drill. Drake is known for his egotistical lyrics, technical ability, and integration of personal backstory when dealing with relationships with women. His vocal abilities have been lauded for an audible contrast between typical hip-hop beats and melody, with sometimes abrasive rapping coupled with softer accents, delivered on technical lyricism.
His songs often include audible changes in lyrical pronunciation in parallel with his upbringing in Toronto, and connections with Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries which include such phrases as "ting", "touching road", "talkin' boasy" and "gwanin' wassy". Most of his songs contain R&B and Canadian hip-hop elements, and he combines rapping with singing. He credits his father with the introduction of singing into his rap mixtapes, which have become a staple in his musical repertoire. His incorporation of melody into technically complex lyrics was supported by Lil Wayne, and has subsequently been a critical component to Drake's singles and albums. Drake's style of R&B is characterized by vacant beats and a rap-sung dichotomy, which has also seen incredible mainstream success, spawning several imitators.
The lyrical content that Drake deploys is typically considered to be emotional or boastful. However, Drake is often revered for incorporating "degrading" themes of money, drug use, and women into newer, idealized contexts, often achieving this through his augmentation of the typical meaning of phrases in which he combines an objective and subjective perspective into one vocal delivery. His songs often maintain tension between "pause and pace, tone timbre, and volume and vocal fermata". Drake is credited with innovating what has been referred to as "hyper-reality rap", characterized by its focus on themes of celebrity as distinct from the "real world".
Drake lives in The Bridle Path, in a 35,000-square-foot, $100 million estate nicknamed "The Embassy", which was built from the ground-up in 2017 and is seen in the video to his song "Toosie Slide". He owned a home nicknamed the "YOLO Estate" in Hidden Hills, California, from 2012 to 2022, and bought a Beverly Crest home in 2022 from Robbie Williams for $70 million. He owns a condominium adjacent to the CN Tower. He also owns a Boeing 767, and in 2021, rented a $65 million multi-purpose property in Beverly Hills.
On August 18, 2021, Drake revealed he contracted COVID-19 amidst the pandemic, which led to temporary hair loss. He was also one of the first celebrities to publicly test for the virus in March 2020. He contracted the disease again in 2022, causing the postponement of reunion concerts with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.
Source: wikipedia
Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, and actor. Often referred to as one of the greatest rappers of all time, 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.
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Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, and actor. Often referred to as one of the greatest rappers of all time, 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's "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 singles. 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.. Due to his partnership with Apple Music, he is also credited with the success of the 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.
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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 (née 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.
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.
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, although the series was never completed.
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", 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, 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.
In January 2011, Drake was in negotiations to join Eva Green and Susan Sarandon as a member of the cast in Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage, before ultimately deciding against starring in the movie to focus on the album. "Dreams Money Can Buy" and "Marvins Room" were released on Drake's October's Very Own Blog, on May 20 and June 9, respectively. Acting as promotional singles for Take Care, the former was eventually unincluded on the album's final track listing, while "Marvins Room" gained 3× Multi-Platinum certification by the RIAA, as well as peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Headlines" was released on August 9 as the album's lead single. It met with positive critical and commercial response, reaching number thirteen on the Hot 100, as well as becoming Drake's tenth single to reach the summit of the Billboard Hot Rap Songs. It was eventually certified 4× Multi-Platinum in the United States and Platinum in Canada. The music video for the single was released on October 2.
Take Care was released on November 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews from music critics. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, and achieved great commercial success, eventually being certified six times platinum by the RIAA in 2019, with sales for the album marking 2.6 million in the US The album's third and fourth singles, "The Motto" and Take Care", were released on November 29, 2011 and February 21, 2012, respectively. Each song achieved commercial success, and "The Motto" was later credited for popularizing the phrase "YOLO" in the United States. The music video for "Take Care" met with widespread acclaim, receiving four nominations at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year. "HYFR" was the final single to be released from the album, and became certified 2× Multi-Platinum.
On August 5, 2012, Drake released "Enough Said", performed by Aaliyah and himself. Originally recorded prior to Aaliyah's 2001 death, Drake later finished the track with producer "40". In promotion of his second album, Drake embarked on the worldwide Club Paradise Tour. It became the most successful hip-hop tour of 2012, grossing over $42 million. He then returned to acting, starring in Ice Age: Continental Drift as Ethan.
By the Club Paradise Tour's European leg, Drake had begun working on his third studio album, which he said would retain 40 as the album's executive producer, include the influence of British producer Jamie xx, and stylistically differ from Take Care, departing from the ambient production and despondent lyrics previously prevalent. After he won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013, Drake announced his third album, Nothing Was the Same, and released its first single. The album's second single, "Hold On, We're Going Home", was released in August, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Nothing Was the Same was released on September 24, 2013, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, with 658,000 copies sold in its first week of release. The album debuted atop the charts in Canada, Denmark, Australia and the United Kingdom. The album also enjoyed generally favourable reviews by contemporary music critics, commending the musical shift in terms of the tone and subject matter, comparing it to Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.
The album, which sold over 1,720,000 copies in the United States, was further promoted by the "Would You like a Tour?" throughout late 2013 to early 2014. It became the 22nd-most successful tour of the year, grossing an estimated $46 million. Drake then returned to acting in January 2014, hosting Saturday Night Live, as well as serving as the musical guest. His versatility, acting ability and comedic timing were all praised by critics, describing it as what "kept him afloat during the tough and murky SNL waters".
In late 2014, Drake announced that he began recording sessions for his fourth studio album. On February 12, 2015, Drake released If You're Reading This It's Too Late onto iTunes with no prior announcement. Despite debate on whether it was an album or a mixtape, its commercial stance quantifies it as his fourth retail project with Cash Money Records, a scheme that was rumoured to allow Drake to leave the label. However, he eventually remained with Cash Money, and If You're Reading This It's Too Late sold over 1 million units in 2015.
On July 31, 2015, Drake released four singles: "Back to Back", "Charged Up", "Hotline Bling", and "Right Hand". On September 20, Drake released a collaborative mixtape with Future, which was recorded in Atlanta in just under a week. What a Time to Be Alive debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Drake the first hip-hop artist to have two projects reach number one in the same year since 2004. It was later certified 2× multi platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of over 2 million units. Drake announced in January 2016 that his fourth studio album would be launched during the spring, releasing the promotional single "Summer Sixteen" later that month. The album was originally titled Views from the 6, but was later shortened to Views.
"Summer Sixteen" debuted at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, and proved controversial—Drake's self-comparisons with more tenured artists divided many critics, who described his self-comparison as "goodly brash" or "conventionally disrespectful". Drake soon released the album's lead singles, "Pop Style" and the dancehall-infused "One Dance", on April 5. Both debuted within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100; however, the latter proved more commercially successful, with "One Dance" becoming Drake's first number-one single in Canada and the US as a leading artist. The single also became Drake's first number one single as a lead artist in the United Kingdom, and peaked at number one in many other countries. Views was previewed in London before its premiere a day later. It was released as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive on April 29 before being made available to various other platforms later that week. Views would become Drake's most commercially successful album, sitting atop the Billboard 200 for thirteen weeks, as well as simultaneously leading the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. It achieved sextuple-platinum status in the US, and earned over 1 million album-equivalent units in the first week of its release, as well as gaining over half-billion overall streams. Despite its success, critical reception was mixed: the album drew criticism for its length, lack of a cohesive theme, and dearth of artistic challenge.
Drake returned to host Saturday Night Live on May 14, serving as the show's musical guest. Drake and Future then announced the Summer Sixteen Tour to showcase their collective mixtape, as well as their respective studio albums. The latter dates of the tour were postponed due to Drake suffering an ankle injury. According to Pollstar, the Summer Sixteen Tour was the highest grossing hip-hop tour of all time, having earnt $84.3 million across 56 dates. On July 23, Drake announced that he was working on a new project, scheduled to be released in early 2017.
During the 2016 OVO Festival, Kanye West confirmed that he and Drake had begun working on a collaborative album. Soon after, the music video for "Child's Play" was released. On September 26, Please Forgive Me was released as an Apple Music exclusive. It ran a total of 25 minutes, and featured music from Views. At the 2016 BET Hip-Hop Awards, Drake received the most nominations, with 10, winning the awards for Album of the Year and Best Hip-Hop Video. Drake later announced the Boy Meets World Tour on October 10.
During an episode of OVO Sound Radio, Drake confirmed he would be releasing a project titled More Life, described as a "playlist of original music". Drake later secured his second and third Grammy Awards, winning for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song at the 59th ceremony. Upon release on March 18, 2017, More Life received mostly positive reviews, and debuted atop the Billboard 200, earning 505,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. It also set a streaming record, becoming the highest ever streamed album in 24 hours, with a total of 89.9 million streams on Apple Music and 61.3 million on Spotify. He later won a record 13 awards at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards in May. By this time, Drake had been present on the Hot 100 chart for eight consecutive years, and had the most recorded entries by a solo artist. Drake hosted the first annual NBA Awards on June 26, and also appeared in The Carter Effect documentary.
Drake released a mini EP titled Scary Hours on January 20, 2018, marking Drake's first solo release since More Life. Scary Hours featured the songs "Diplomatic Immunity" and "God's Plan", with the latter debuting at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was Drake's first song as a solo artist to reach number one. It also became his first song to be certified Diamond by the RIAA, and it is currently tied for the fourth highest certified digital single ever in the US He was later featured on BlocBoy JB's February 2018 debut single "Look Alive". The song's entry on the Hot 100 made Drake the rapper with the most top 10 hits on the Hot 100, with 23.
On April 6, "Nice for What", a single from his fifth studio album, was released. It replaced his own "God's Plan" on the Billboard Hot 100 at number one, making Drake the first artist to have a new number-one debut replace their former number-one debut. He then announced the title of his fifth studio album as Scorpion, with a planned release date of June 29, 2018. "I'm Upset" was released on May 26 as the album's third single. Scorpion was Drake's longest project, with a run-time of just under 90 minutes. The album broke both the one-day global records on Spotify and Apple Music, as it gained 132.45 million and 170 million plays on each streaming service, respectively. It eventually sold 749,000 album equivalent units in its first week of sales, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Drake earned his sixth US number-one with "In My Feelings" on July 21. The success of "In My Feelings" also made Drake the record holder for most number one hits among rappers. He then appeared on the Travis Scott album Astroworld, featuring uncredited vocals for the song "Sicko Mode", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake announced in July 2018 that he planned to "take 6 months to a year" to himself to return to television and films, producing the television series Euphoria and Top Boy. He then began the Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour with co-headliners Migos on August 12. This preceded a collaboration with Bad Bunny titled "Mia", which featured Drake performing in Spanish.
In February 2019, he received his fourth Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, for "God's Plan", at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. During his speech, producers abruptly cut to a commercial break, leading viewers to speculate they were censoring his speech during which he criticized The Recording Academy. A legal representative for the academy released a statement stating "a natural pause [led] the producers [to] assume that he was done and cut to commercial", and added the organization offered him an opportunity to return to stage, but he declined.
On February 14, Drake re-released his third mixtape, So Far Gone, onto streaming services for the first time to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. On June 15, Drake released two songs, "Omertà" and "Money in the Grave", on his EP The Best in the World Pack to celebrate the NBA Championship win of the Toronto Raptors. On August 2, he released the compilation album Care Package, consisting of songs released between 2010 and 2016 that were initially unavailable for purchase or commercial streaming; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 109,000 album equivalent units in its first week of sales.
Drake released the song "War" on December 24, 2019, which was widely noted for its UK drill-inspired instrumental. The following day, he revealed that he was in the process of completing his sixth studio album. On April 3, he released "Toosie Slide" with a music video, which features a dance created in collaboration with social media influencer Toosie. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Drake the first male artist to have three songs debut at number one. On May 1, 2020, Drake released the commercial mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes, with guest appearances from Chris Brown, Future, Young Thug, Fivio Foreign, Playboi Carti, and Sosa Geek. The mixtape is a compilation of new songs and tracks that leaked on the internet. It received mixed reviews and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, and at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Drake also announced that his sixth studio album would be released in the summer of 2020. On August 14, "Laugh Now Cry Later" featuring Lil Durk was released, which was intended as the lead single from the upcoming album Certified Lover Boy, but not included on the final track listing. It debuted at number two on the Hot 100, and was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. On his 34th birthday, Drake announced Certified Lover Boy was set to be released in January 2021. This was later pushed back after he sustained a serious knee injury.
In January 2021, Drake became the first artist to surpass 50 billion combined streams on Spotify. On March 5, Drake released an EP titled Scary Hours 2, which includes three songs: "What's Next", "Wants and Needs" with Lil Baby, and "Lemon Pepper Freestyle" with Rick Ross. These three songs entered the charts at numbers one, two, and three, respectively, making Drake the first artist to have three songs debut in the top three on the Billboard Hot 100. He was named Artist of the Decade at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.
Certified Lover Boy was released on September 3, 2021, becoming Drake's tenth number-one album on the Billboard 200; every song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album was the first to chart nine songs in the top 10, with "Way 2 Sexy" becoming Drake's ninth number-one single. Certified Lover Boy was nominated for Best Rap Album and "Way 2 Sexy" was nominated for Best Rap Performance at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. He was later named _Billboard'_s Top Artist of the Year for 2021, and was the fourth most streamed artist on Spotify for the year, and the most streamed rapper. On December 6, he withdrew his music for consideration for the Grammys, with multiple outlets noting his contentious relationship with the Recording Academy. Drake accumulated 8.6 billion on-demand streams in 2021, making him the most overall streamed artist of the year in the United States; one out of every 131 streams was a Drake song.
On March 3, 2022, Drake placed fourth on Forbes's ranking of highest paid rappers of 2021, with an estimated pre-tax income of $50 million. On April 16, it was calculated Drake generated more streams in 2021 than every song released prior to 1980 combined; his music accumulated 7.91 billion streams, while songs pre-1980 had generated 6.32 billion. Drake was then confirmed as a guest artist on Future's I Never Liked You (2022); one of the songs he featured on, "Wait for U", debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Drake's tenth number-one song and making him the tenth act to achieve ten number ones.
In early May, Drake re-signed with Universal Music Group in a multifaceted deal reported to be worth as much as $400 million, making it one of the largest recording contracts ever. On June 16, Drake announced his seventh album, Honestly, Nevermind, which released a day later; he also announced a third iteration of his Scary Hours EP series. Honestly, Nevermind sold 204,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Drake's eleventh US number-one album and making him the fifth artist with over 10 number one albums, after the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen, and Barbra Streisand (both 11). "Jimmy Cooks" also became Drake's eleventh US number-one song.
On July 14, it was announced Drake would reunite with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj on a Toronto exclusive concert series on July 28, July 29, and August 1. After the debut of "Staying Alive" on the US Billboard Hot 100, it marked the 30th Drake song to reach the top five on the chart, breaking a 55-year-old record for most songs to reach the top five on the chart (29), held by the Beatles. Drake refused to submit his music for Grammy consideration for a second consecutive year. On October 22, Drake announced Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage which would release on October 28; it was then delayed to November 4 after Drake's longtime producer, 40, was diagnosed with COVID-19. Her Loss debuted atop the Billboard 200, accumulating first week sales of 404,000 album-equivalent units. Eight of the album's songs debuted in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, extending Drake's record for most top ten entries, with 67 (with a record 49 as a lead artist). On November 15, Drake was nominated for four awards at the 2023 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for his writing on Beyoncé's Renaissance. In February 2023, Drake was named the most streamed act ever on Spotify.
On July 23, via an announcement for his poetry book Titles Ruin Everything, Drake announced his eighth studio album, titled For All the Dogs. On September 15, Drake released the lead single of the album, "Slime You Out", featuring SZA. The song charted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. On October 5, Drake released the album's second single, "8AM in Charlotte", on his social media accounts. On September 16, Drake released For All The Dogs, which debuted atop the Billboard 200, accumulating first week sales of 402,000 album-equivalent units. The album also debuted seven tracks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with "First Person Shooter" featuring J. Cole topping the chart, tying Drake with Michael Jackson for the most solo number-one songs by a solo male artist. On March 8, 2024, Drake remixed "Act II: Date @ 8" with 4Batz, the newest signee to OVO Sound.
On March 22, Kendrick Lamar dissed Drake, as well as J. Cole, on Future and Metro Boomin's song "Like That", beginning a feud between them. During this time, there were also other disses toward Drake from Future, ASAP Rocky, and The Weeknd. On April 19, Drake released "Push Ups" after early versions were leaked online as a response track while also addressing Future and Rick Ross, followed up with "Taylor Made Freestyle" later that day. On April 30, Lamar released a diss track named "Euphoria" in response, as well as "6:16 in LA" on May 3, exclusively on Instagram. That same day, Drake released "Family Matters" exclusively on YouTube in response. Lamar released "Meet the Grahams" 20 minutes later, and would go onto release "Not Like Us" the following day. On May 5, Drake released "The Heart Part 6", a reference to Lamar's "The Heart" song series.
On June 4, Drake appeared on social media personality Snowd4y's "Wah Gwan Delilah", a parody of the 2006 Plain White T's song, "Hey There Delilah". On August 2, Drake appeared as an unannounced guest at the Toronto stop on PartyNextDoor's tour and following his performance, he announced a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. On August 4, through the OVO Sound Instagram page, a picture of Drake and PartyNextDoor captioned "Hometown Love" was posted, which indicated the album's release. On August 6, Drake released three songs, all part of his sixth extended play 100 Gigs: "It's Up" featuring 21 Savage and Young Thug, "Blue Green Red", and "Housekeeping Knows" featuring Latto. The songs were eventually released on streaming services by the end of that month, alongside the songs "No Face" and "Circadian Rhythm", although, "Blue Green Red" was removed from streaming services due to sample clearance issues.
On January 3, 2025, producer Conductor Williams posted the Drake freestyle "Fighting Irish" on YouTube, but it was quickly removed. The track was interpreted to contain diss references towards LeBron James, with the title possibly being a reference to James' high school mascot. On February 3, 2025, Drake announced Some Sexy Songs 4 U, a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor, which was released on February 14, 2025. $ome $exy $ongs 4 U subsequently debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, supplanting GNX by Kendrick Lamar and tying the Billboard record with Jay-Z and Taylor Swift for most number one albums by a solo artist.
On February 16, 2025, it was announced that Drake would be the first artist in history to headline all three days at the 2025 Wireless Festival. Drake became the fastest artist to sell out the festival in its history, selling all tickets in minutes. Directly after the festival, he commenced his Some Special Shows 4 U tour in Europe (including the United Kingdom), which will conclude on September 23. He was announced as Toronto's host during the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, as well as its musical performer.
On July 5, 2025, Drake released the single "What Did I Miss?", which he previewed the night before through his Iceman: Episode 1 livestream. As the lead single of his upcoming ninth studio album Iceman, it marks his return to solo material. The singles "Which One", "Somebody Loves Me Pt. 2", and "Dog House" were released in 2025 and may be part of the album. He would promote the album via a sculpture made entirely out of ice blocks placed in a Toronto parking lot, in which it's melting would reveal the albums released date. The next day Drake announced on Instagram that the album will release on May 15, 2026. On May 14, it was announced that alongside Iceman, two new albums entitled Maid of Honour and Habibti, respectively, would release on May 15 as well.
Drake has cited several hip-hop artists as influencing his rapping style, including Kanye West, Jay-Z, MF Doom, and Lil Wayne, while also attributing various R&B artists as influential to the incorporation of the genre into his own music, including Aaliyah and Usher. Drake has also credited several dancehall artists for later influencing his Caribbean-inflected style, including Vybz Kartel, whom he has called one of his "biggest inspirations".
Drake is considered to be a pop rap artist. While Drake's earlier music primarily spanned hip-hop and R&B, his music has delved into pop and trap since the albums Nothing Was the Same (2013) and Views (2016). Additionally, his music has drawn influence from regional scenes, including Jamaican dancehall and UK drill. Drake is known for his egotistical lyrics, technical ability, and integration of personal backstory when dealing with relationships with women. His vocal abilities have been lauded for an audible contrast between typical hip-hop beats and melody, with sometimes abrasive rapping coupled with softer accents, delivered on technical lyricism.
His songs often include audible changes in lyrical pronunciation in parallel with his upbringing in Toronto, and connections with Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries which include such phrases as "ting", "touching road", "talkin' boasy" and "gwanin' wassy". Most of his songs contain R&B and Canadian hip-hop elements, and he combines rapping with singing. He credits his father with the introduction of singing into his rap mixtapes, which have become a staple in his musical repertoire. His incorporation of melody into technically complex lyrics was supported by Lil Wayne, and has subsequently been a critical component to Drake's singles and albums. Drake's style of R&B is characterized by vacant beats and a rap-sung dichotomy, which has also seen incredible mainstream success, spawning several imitators.
The lyrical content that Drake deploys is typically considered to be emotional or boastful. However, Drake is often revered for incorporating "degrading" themes of money, drug use, and women into newer, idealized contexts, often achieving this through his augmentation of the typical meaning of phrases in which he combines an objective and subjective perspective into one vocal delivery. His songs often maintain tension between "pause and pace, tone timbre, and volume and vocal fermata". Drake is credited with innovating what has been referred to as "hyper-reality rap", characterized by its focus on themes of celebrity as distinct from the "real world".
Drake lives in The Bridle Path, in a 35,000-square-foot, $100 million estate nicknamed "The Embassy", which was built from the ground-up in 2017 and is seen in the video to his song "Toosie Slide". He owned a home nicknamed the "YOLO Estate" in Hidden Hills, California, from 2012 to 2022, and bought a Beverly Crest home in 2022 from Robbie Williams for $70 million. He owns a condominium adjacent to the CN Tower. He also owns a Boeing 767, and in 2021, rented a $65 million multi-purpose property in Beverly Hills.
On August 18, 2021, Drake revealed he contracted COVID-19 amidst the pandemic, which led to temporary hair loss. He was also one of the first celebrities to publicly test for the virus in March 2020. He contracted the disease again in 2022, causing the postponement of reunion concerts with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.
Source: wikipedia