Aubrey Drake Graham had two separate lives. During the academic year, he would live with his mother in a posh area of Toronto, and during the summer, he would live with his father in the seedy parts of Memphis, Tennessee.
Diversity in a way provided the quiet Canadian child a distinctive outlook on life.
Since no other celebrity saw a more rapid rise to prominence than the Toronto rapper during 2009, as of 2010, Drake was arguably one of the biggest stars of his generation.
The man himself famously quipped, "They just bad because I got the Midas touch." In many respects, this seems to be the case since he has a pretty good track record for making everything he touches successful, including five albums, six major stages, 35 Grammy Awards, his own record label, OVO, a music festival, restaurants, and a whiskey brand.
But before all these, Drizzy Drake was just like any other random kid.
On October 24, 1986, at St. Michael's, Toronto, Canada, Aubrey Drake Graham was born. His mother, Sandy Graham, is of Jewish Canadian origin, while his father, musician Dennis Graham, is of African American descent.
Due to his mixed background, Drake struggled to fit in at school from a young age. Even though he went to a Jewish school, he faced racial taunts because he was the only black Jew at his school.
Drake experienced his parents' unwavering love despite the difficulties he encountered outside the house. When he was younger, Drake's father would bring him up on stage to play the tambourine.
Additionally, according to rumors, Drake handed his Father $5 and bet Dennis that he would produce more films and songs than he ever did. We could say that it turned into a sure thing.
According to a source, Drake may have also taken tap lessons as a child, though this has never been proven. Sandy and Dennis's home life began to crumble, and the tension between them ultimately led to their divorce in 1991.
Dennis was arrested shortly after arriving in Memphis Ville on drug-related charges. Drake had admitted that his father had served a few periods of time in prison when he was younger.
After that, single Sandy, an English teacher by profession, made every effort to support her kid. They were residing in a low-income area off Weston Road in Toronto's West End at the time. Sandy did everything in her power to encourage her little son's interests, encouraging him to give everything a try. And since he's Canadian, he must play a little ice hockey.
When he was ten years old, he was a member of a neighborhood team called the Western Lions; however, there is some evidence to suggest that at some point, they may have changed their name to the Western Red Wings. Nevertheless, he is said to have had considerable hockey talent.
Drake had other opportunities as well; at the age of five, his mother registered him for modeling and acting auditions.
Now, except from a few pubs, restaurants, and local music acts, Toronto was not the top destination for tourists from outside the country. It was not a location where music was bragged, about and certainly not rap as Snow was the last international rapper to emerge from the metropolis.
He finally relocated with his mother to a townhouse's basement in Forest Hill, a wealthy Jewish neighborhood adjacent to the city's business district. Although the surroundings were a little better than in the West End, he still struggled to fit in at Forest Hill College.
As he grew older, he claims, he frequently attended social gatherings and home parties where other youngsters would tease him. Despite this nonsense from others, the majority of his buddies were aware that good ol' Drizzy Drake was unique.
Rheumatoid arthritis would eventually strike Drake's mother, forcing her to become disabled. Now, Drake's outlook on life was not restricted to Toronto.
He would fly to Memphis, Tennessee, every summer to spend time with his father, and it was there that his surroundings would change him drastically. Not to add that Tennessee has a history of racism, Tennessee is frequently listed as one of the most dangerous cities in America.
The Canadian boy found Memphis to be like a completely different world while living on Apple Ville Street near Shelby Drive. He was exposed to the gritty side of urban life at the same time that he was learning more about the significance of his family's heritage that was tied to music.
The Graham family has a lengthy musical legacy. It is widely known that Dennis performed with Jerry Lee Lewis in a band. His uncles are also well-known musicians in Memphis. Sly and the Family Stone's soul funk band featured Larry Graham on bass, and Teenie Hodges provided guitar and songwriting for Al Green.
Drake, you used to frequently go to the legendary Royal Studios on Willie Mitchell Boulevard, where musicians like Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, and Chuck Berry have previously recorded. Drake started experimenting with composing his own music in a notebook.
When he was a youngster, his uncle even took him to his first PDD concert in Toronto. Despite the fact that acting was his hobby, Drake tended to keep to himself. Drake made appearances in a number of short films, advertisements, and commercials. He was cast as the wheelchair-bound Jimmy Brooks in the 2001 season of the Canadian television series "Degrassi: the Next Generation."
Drake would remain on the program for six years; in fact, he quit school at the age of fifteen to concentrate on acting and support himself and his mother. His class schedule at the time in Vonroenn Academy, proved to be too demanding to manage in addition to his acting career.
Drake's actual interest lay elsewhere, and he soon became weary of the acting business. He understood that music was where his genuine potential lay and then decided to go fully in music
Now, how did this happen? Well, if you recall, we already mentioned Dennis Graham's numerous legal issues. Drake has even said that he saw his father get detained after returning from Memphis. He had an odd correspondence during one of his father's incarcerations.
He said that his father spent around a year in jail; he didn't know why, but it was presumably for an assault or drug offense. However, he shared a cell with a rapping prisoner who was alone and had no one to talk to. Drake's father informed the man that Drake enjoyed rapping as well and requested a conversation between Drake and the rapper, Poverty.
While Poverty was still in prison, they conducted this conversation over the phone, and the rapper would spit rhymes to the teen. Now that this had happened, Drake felt at ease enough to talk about the writings he had done while Dennis was incarcerated.
Poverty and Drake had multiple phone conversations in which they traded raps, and this encounter had encouraged the musician to come out of his shell. But till date, Drake is unsure about poverty's destiny and doesn't know exactly what happened to him.
Hip-hop at this time was evolving along with culture, and a number of musicians were becoming more well-known in the modern day. One of them was Lil Wayne, who had achieved solo success with both his Carter series and the record he made with Birdman.
20-year-old Aubrey Graham released "Room for improvement" on February 14, 2006; the 22-track mixtape was mostly created by Toronto beatmaker Boi-1da. The MC made the decision to use his middle name, Drake, as his stage moniker in order to remain true to himself.
The song "Room for Improvement" didn't quite hit the charts. It only managed to sell more than 6,000 copies before the end of the year. Now, Drake would also upload his music to the internet, creating a myspace website where fans could visit and hear his songs.
Drake would travel to New York City to network and hang out in local bars and comedy clubs. He wanted to advance, but nobody was placing bets on the "Degrassi" kid. His desire for achievement seems to have been fueled by the failure of his debut mixtape. He left "Degrassi" in 2007 to devote himself entirely to music.
Paying out of his own money, Drake shot the music video for "replacement girl," the lead single from his second mixtape, which is aptly dubbed "Comeback season".
Trey Songz provided the vocals for "Replacement Girl," which became popular not only in Toronto but also elsewhere. Despite being named BET's song of the month, "Comeback season" failed to chart at all.
"Replacement girl" and the Drake-hosted show were pulled from the cable. With "Replacement girl" making the rounds, he was starting to seem like a serious candidate for the Toronto hip-hop crown, but he wasn't yet signed to a label. He eventually caught Jas Prince's attention in Houston. Jas, whose father is the successful CEO of the "Rap-a-lot" record business, wanted to discover a new musician to sign to the label.
Searchingthe internet, Jas came across Drake's MySpace page. Astounded by what he heard, Josh contacted Drake. Jas Prince and Drake would correspond online, with Drake sending beats for Jas. While Drizzy kept his word and delivered, Jas' father wasn't a fan.
It appeared that Drake's career had little chance after J. Prince's passed him up. The Toronto-born child had struggled for acceptance his entire life. He'd moved from place to place, he finally bursted all, leaving his cozy acting gig, on the top of that, his girlfriend had just called off their relationship.
As Drake had practically missed numerous chances to succeed, it seemed as though his career was over. Drake made the decision to visit his neighborhood barbershop one day in November 2008 to get a new haircut. His phone started ringing as he was receiving the haircut, and it turned out that Lil Wayne was on the other end.
Lil Wayne was at the pinnacle of his game at the time; the Carter 3 had just been out. In actuality, Jas went to Weezy after J Prince rejected Drake, who at first despised what he heard.
Then, after listening to Drake's "a milli" remix in the car, he changed his mind and decided that he should get in touch with him and arrange for him to come to Houston to meet him. The very next day, Drake boarded a plane and made his way to H-town after grabbing his passport.
Drizzy Drake spoke of feeling as though he had reclaimed his swagger. Usually, it takes some time to heal after being dumped. However, once Weezy appears, there is no turning back.
Drake released "so far gone" in February 2009; it was his third mixtape and featured Weezy in addition to Trey Songz, Lloyd, and Bun B.
Drake has gone above and above to make his parents both incredibly proud, and he has made Toronto famous for more than just hip-hop. Because he established a platform for several other Toronto musicians who have emerged after him, and because everyone is now aware of the OVO event he organizes every summer in the city of Theriault Place.
The icing on the cake of all these incredible accomplishments may be his appointment as Toronto's international ambassador. And at the Scotiabank Arena, the Raptors team hosts Drake Night every year.
.jpeg)
0 Comments