Drake Canadian Rapper With 140M Instagram Followers

Early life

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on 24 October 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. He grew up in the city, spending his early school years in the west end before his family moved to the Forest Hill neighbourhood in 2000. He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute and Vaughan Road Academy. Drake left school to concentrate on acting and received his high school diploma in October 2012.

Career

Drake first became known as an actor, playing Jimmy Brooks in the Canadian teen series Degrassi: The Next Generation, a role he held from 2001 to 2008. Music was running alongside the acting. He released the mixtapes Room for Improvement in 2006 and Comeback Season in 2007, and in 2009 he put out So Far Gone, which spread through free downloads, produced the singles "Best I Ever Had" and "Successful", and drew interest from several labels. He signed with Young Money Entertainment on 29 June 2009.

His first studio album, Thank Me Later, came out on 15 June 2010 and opened at number one on the Billboard 200. Take Care followed on 15 November 2011, and Nothing Was the Same on 24 September 2013. In February 2015 he released If You're Reading This It's Too Late without prior announcement, and in September 2015 a joint mixtape with Future, What a Time to Be Alive. Views arrived in April 2016 and spent thirteen weeks at the top of the Billboard 200; its single "One Dance" became his first number one in the United States and Canada as lead artist. The playlist project More Life followed in March 2017.

The EP Scary Hours in January 2018 contained "God's Plan", which entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one. Later that year he released Scorpion, and "Nice for What" and "In My Feelings" also reached the top of the chart. Further releases included the compilation Care Package in 2019, Dark Lane Demo Tapes in 2020, Scary Hours 2 in March 2021 and Certified Lover Boy in September 2021. In 2022 he released Honestly, Nevermind and, with 21 Savage, Her Loss. For All the Dogs followed in October 2023.

His output from 2025 included Some Sexy Songs 4 U, a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor released on 14 February 2025. In May 2026 he issued Iceman together with two further albums, Habibti and Maid of Honour, which took the first three positions on the Billboard 200 at the same time. In all, his listed discography contains 27 albums and 106 singles released between 2006 and 2026, and his label is OVO Sound.

Drake has also continued to act. His screen credits include Charlie Bartlett (2007), Mookie's Law (2008), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), Think Like a Man Too (2014) and Fear of Missing Out, a 2026 film that premiered on YouTube. He voiced a character in Ice Age: Continental Drift and hosted Saturday Night Live in 2014 and again in 2016, serving as musical guest on both occasions.

Recognition

The Grammy Awards are the most prominent of his honours. He won Best Rap Album for Take Care at the 2013 ceremony, and in 2017 he won both Best Melodic Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for "Hotline Bling". In 2019 "God's Plan" won Best Rap Song. His first nomination of this kind was for Best New Artist in 2011.

At the American Music Awards he won Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Views in 2016, along with Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Song for "Hotline Bling" and Favorite Soul/R&B Song for "Work" that year, and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist in both 2016 and 2017. He took the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist in 2017 and 2019, received an Echo Pop Award for Hit of the Year in 2017, and was added to Canada's Walk of Fame in 2011. His recorded total stands at thirteen wins and one nomination.

Public roles

Beyond music, Drake founded the label OVO Sound. He became the global ambassador of the Toronto Raptors basketball team in 2013, and in 2015 he entered a partnership with Apple Music.