Drake's first rap mentor was a convict whose real name he never knew this is
but he started as just Aubrey Drake Graham trying to
make a name for himself. His parents split when he was three years old
leaving his mother to raise him as a single parent. They rented out the first
floor in basement levels of a house in a Jewish neighborhood on the north side of
Toronto, Canada. Aubrey's mother is Jewish and he even
had a Bar Mitzvah.
'Thank you all for being here today — to my mom's side of the
family I say shabbat shalom and to my dad's side of the family I say what's up?!?'
As he got older, Aubrey began to take advantage of the talents he inherited
from his father a former musician and entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee.
They pulled together the money for him to get an agent in the eighth grade, and in 2001
he threw his hat in the ring for the reboot of a 1980s Canadian drama for
preteen
Aubrey spent seven seasons as Jimmy Brooks; a cocky
basketball player who's best remembered for catching a bullet in the back during
a school shooting which paralyzed him from the waist down.
'You pretended to be my friend. You made me do this.'
Before 'Degrassi,' Aubrey's mother was deep
in debt due to the high rent and even higher medical bills from her
osteoporosis and debilitating joint pain.
Now, he was making upwards of $40,000 per year
enabling him to relieve some financial burden and blow his money on
irresponsible purchases such as a lease on a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Aubrey's father was in and out of his life like a revolving door; flitting between other
relationships and even landing in prison at one time.
When his father would call from the pen, he'd often share his phone-time with his cell mate
Poverty became Aubrey's first mentor in the rap game.
'I told him you know I rap
too so we used to kind of use the remainder of my dad's phone time and
just rap rap it rap until it cut off, but yeah he definitely gets a lot of credit
in those in those early years.'
Poverty's encouragement sewed a seed to be
cultivated by a New Orleans-based hip-hop icon, inspiring Drake to write
In 2006, Aubrey released his first mixtape 'Room For Improvement,'
using his middle name as a stage name.
Weezy flew Drake out to Houston for an introduction and invited the Toronto boy on tour,
kick-starting and enduring bromance.
'And he was like, don't stop smiling either.
Don't try and get mean or aggressive, he's like just be you and just love life
and be happy be that guy be the guy that I could never be because he can't be that guy.'
He had no idea Drake was a former child star and to a San Francisco
crowd started chanting 'Jimmy' when they showed a picture of Drake on a mega screen.
Even before away and signed him to Young
Money Entertainment Aubrey, was already negotiating an endorsement deal with Sprite.
In 2010, best I ever had from Drake's third mixtape 'So Far Gone' earned
him his first two Grammy nominations.
That same year, his debut studio album 'Thank Me Later'
topped the Billboard 200 chart.
2011's 'Take Care' brought Sticky, Wayne, and Jersey collabs such as 'The Motto' and 'HYFR'
as well as Drake's first Grammy win in 2013 for Best Rap Album.
2011 would also be the year that Drizzy realized that sometimes
Drake was asked to host the Juno Awards
which is basically the Canadian version of the Grammys.
an embarrassing snub since past hosts such as Nelly Furtado, Shania Twain, and
Celine Dion each took home multiple glass statuettes.
In 2013, Drake turned down the
invitation to perform 'Hold On We're Going Home' at that year's Grammy Awards
because his album 'Nothing Was The Same' wasn't considered for Album of the Year
or Song of the Year.
When 'Hotline Bling' from his 2016 album 'Views' bested
its fellow Grammy nominees in two categories, Drake wasn't even present to collect his awards.
In 2017, he didn't bother submitting even one of the 22 songs for 'More Life' for consideration.
Further proving his point, 2018 'Scorpion' made Drake The Recording Industry Association
of America's top certified digital singles artist; selling more than 142
million digital singles.
Drake has had more than a fair share of beef on his
plate with fellow musicians such as Chris Brown, Meek Mill, and Pusha-T;
the latter of which led to a scathing freestyle that revealed a son Drake
hadn't shared with the world. Many have tried and failed to unseat
Champagnpapi from his throne.