Aubrey Drake Graham or popularly known by his many stage name, one of the most famous ones is Drake, are a well-known American Singer and a Rap artist.
| Real Name: | Aubrey Drake Graham |
| Born: | October 24, 1986 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation: | Rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, businessman |
| Children: | 1 |
| Labels: | OVO Sound, Republic, Young Money, Cash Money |
Drake Biography
Aubrey Drake Graham that goes by his famous rap stage name ‘Drake‘ was born on 24th October 1986, a Canadian + American rapper, singer, actor, producer, songwriter, and also an entrepreneur.
He gained his popularity by starring in a television series from 2001 to 2007 – Degrassi: The Next Generation, He released his debut mixtape in 2006: Room for Improvement, and later continuing his career in music, he released more mixtapes: Comeback Season in 2007 and So Far Gone in 2009 and later signed with young Money Entertainment.
The debut studio album that ranked at number one on the US Billboard 200 was the one he released in 2010: Thank Me Later.
In 2003 he released Nothing Was The Same that became the first commercial success for him along with the first commercial mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late in 2015. The latter two were also certified multi-platinum in the United States.
The fourth album he releases: Views in 2016 sat atop the Billboard 200 for the whole 13 non-consecutive weeks, becoming the first-ever album by a male solo artist to do so in more than a decade and also featured the chart record-setting lead single “One Dance“.
The second solo commercial mixtape by Drake More Life which was marketed as a playlist in 2017 set then multiple streaming records.
He released the double album Scorpion in 2018 which resulted in the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “Nice for What” “God’s Plan” and “In My Feelings“.
Early life
Aubrey Drake Graham was born on the 24th of October in 1986, Toronto, Ontario. Dennis Graham, his father, and Sandra “Sandi” Graham (née Sher), his mother. His father, Dennis Fraham, is an African American and a Catholic from Memphis, Tennessee, who also worked as a drummer performing with Jerry Lee Lewis, a country musician.
Sandra is a Canadian of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage who used to work as an English teacher and florist. Dennis Graham performed at a club in Toronto: Bluenote. Where he met the mother Sandra Sher, who was in attendance.
Drake has citizenship of both Canada and the United States, he has dual citizenship of both countries. He also attended a Jewish Day School during his youth and became a bar mitzvah.
When he was at the age of 5, his parents got divorced, and later that, he and his mother remained in Toronto while his father returned to Memphis, where he was detained for many years on drug-related charges.
Graham’s less and limited finances and legal issues made him remain in the United States until Drake’s early adulthood. Before his arrest, Graham would travel to Toronto and used to bring Drake to Memphis every summer.
His father later had collaborated with a music group of Canada known by the name Arkells on the music video for a song named “Drake’s Dad“.
In an interview, Graham claimed that Drake’s assertions of him being an absent father were embellishments used to sell the records, which Drake ragingly denies.
He was grown in two Toronto neighborhoods during his time with his mother. He lived on Weston Road in the city’s working-class west border until he reach class sixth, engaging in minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings.
After that, he moved to Forest Hill in 2000, one of the city’s affluent neighborhoods. When an interview he was asked about the move, he replied:
We had half of the house we could live in. Some other people had the top half, we had the bottom one. I lived in the basement of that house, my mom lived on the first floor. It was not big, it was not grand. It was what we could afford.
For schooling and studying, he attended the Forest Hill Collegiate Institute later, where he showed affection for the music and arts, first acting while being an active student at the school.
He later started attending Vaughan Road Academy in the multicultural Oakwood-Vaughan neighborhood of the city there.
Because of the financial status connected with the neighborhood, Drake called the school “not by any means the easiest school to go to”.
He got bullied in the school many times for his racial and religious background, and upon understanding that his busy class schedule was disturbing to his burgeoning acting profession, Drake dropped out of school.
He got graduated later in October 2012.
Legal Issues
Drake was once robbed at gunpoint on 31 May 2009 in Toronto’s Little Italy district and was forced to penance a gold and diamond necklace, a luxury watch: Audemars Piguet, and $2k.
At first, Paul Lelutiu and Soccer ties Cotterell were charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to engage in armed robbery, three counts of pointing a gun, and possession of the stolen property; though these charges were later dropped.
The two pled guilty to conspiring to commit robbery and spent six months in jail.
In March 2021, an unknown woman armed with a sharp knife was also arrested following a missed attempt to break into Drake’s house in Toronto.
Another singer Ericka Lee once filed a lawsuit against Drake for the usage of her voice in one of his singles “Marvins Room”.
She claimed to have given the vocals in the song as well and she also alleged that she was owed songwriting credits and royalties too.
Despite Drake’s legal unit countering by insisting that Lee simply asked for credit in the liner notes of the song, the dispute was settled in February year 2013, with both sides accepting an out-of-court settlement.
Drake was sued for sampling “Jimmy Smith Rap” for $300k in 2014. Jimmy Smith Rap is a single by Jazz musician Jimmy Smith (1982).
The lawsuit was filed by Jimmy Smith’s estate, who stated that Drake did never asked permission for sampling it for the intro on “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2“.
He also claimed Smith would have disagreed with its usage as he does not like hip-hop music.
In 2017, Drake would win the lawsuit with federal judge William Pauley stating the content was used by Drake in his song was transformative, and there was no liability for copyright infringement.
Drake was sued by another rapper in 2014 by Rappin’ 4-Tay. He claimed Drake misused his lyrics when collaborating with YG (another American Rapper) on the song “Who Do You Love?”.
Rappin’ 4-Tay sought $100k for abuse and artistic theft, which later Drake paid to the rapper that year.
Drake caused a nightclub to close down in Oklahoma City in 2016 due to his use of weed and a few other illegal drugs being prevalent at the club.
So Drake’s life seems to face a lot of legal issues and Feuds like most rappers in the United States, If you would like to read more about his personal life and feuds and legal issues head over to Wikipedia.
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