Aubrey “Drake” Graham is a Grammy-Award winning, platinum-selling recording artist and multi-faceted entertainer.
Born in Toronto on October 24th, 1986, Drake is the son of Sandi and
Dennis Graham, a drummer who worked with Jerry Lee Lewis. His father is
African American, a native of Memphis, Tennessee and his mother is
Jewish Canadian. Drake’s interest in performing began at an early age.
From summers spent with his dad in Memphis, he gained an appreciation
and understanding for music that would later influence the sound he
would create in years to come.
Since first being recognized for his role on the highly-successful
television series Degrassi: The Next Generation, and going on the road
with rap star Lil Wayne after hearing Drake’s music in the summer of
2008, Drake has asserted himself as a trailblazer in the creative world.
Drake released his mixtape So Far Gone in 2009 and his massive
influence in the hip-hop and contemporary music space has commanded the
market since, with no end in sight. Drake now holds the record for the
most number one hits on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Chart.
As The New York Times Jon Caramanica writes, “So it’s gone with
Drake, hip-hop’s current center of gravity, his success a reminder of so
many of the victories hip-hop has won in the last couple of decades:
the right to be decadent, sure, but also the right to reimagine any
style of music, the right to be emotionally complicated, the right to be
unusual. He confounds expectations. He raps about soft things, sings
about hard things. Thanks to his versatility, he is the glue that binds
together all of urban radio.”
Drake has catapulted into stardom not only as an artist, but as a
cultural maven with October’s Very Own. Sharing the story of the
thriving music scene in Toronto, Drake has built out OVO from a
small-scale blog about his crew to an all-encompassing lifestyle brand,
including his clothing company, his record label OVOSOUND and his annual
OVOFEST.
Drake has reached great heights in recent years and he continues to
create and dominate the global market. As Drake says, “It’s about the
experience. If the city isn’t talking about it five, six, seven days
later, or if people don’t remember it for years to come, then I haven’t
done my job…I’m going to find out what comes after this, but there’s
definitely another evolution of Drake.”
