Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on 24 October 1986 in Toronto, the son of Dennis Graham, an African-American drummer from Memphis, and Sandi Graham, a Jewish Canadian teacher. His parents divorced when he was five, and he was raised by his mother in Toronto's Forest Hill, spending summers with his father in Memphis. His uncles included the musicians Larry Graham and Teenie Hodges.

He first became known as an actor, playing Jimmy Brooks in the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001 to 2008. At the same time he pursued music, releasing his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement, in 2006. After the 2009 mixtape So Far Gone, he signed with Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment in June 2009.

His debut album Thank Me Later (2010) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. His second, Take Care (2011), won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and was later included on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Views (2016), with the hits Hotline Bling and One Dance, topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks, the first album by a male solo artist to do so in over a decade, and One Dance gave him his first Hot 100 number one as a lead artist. Hotline Bling won two Grammys.

He continued with the mixtape More Life (2017), which set multiple streaming records, and the double album Scorpion (2018), which contained the number-one singles God's Plan, Nice for What and In My Feelings. Drake has sold over 170 million records worldwide, is among the highest-certified digital singles artists in the United States and has won multiple Grammy, American Music, Billboard Music, Brit and Juno Awards.

He is credited with popularising the Toronto sound, bringing the city's music and culture to a global audience. He co-founded the OVO Sound label in 2012 and became the Toronto Raptors' global ambassador in 2013, and has built a business empire that includes a production company and a fragrance house.