Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham, known professionally as Drake, born October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the most commercially dominant rapper of his era, an artist whose fusion of rap and melodic singing pioneered a sound that reshaped the landscape of popular music throughout the 2010s. Raised in the Weston Road neighborhood of Toronto by his mother Sandra after his father Dennis, an African American musician from Memphis, relocated back to the US, Drake grew up between two cultural worlds. He broke into entertainment as a teenager playing Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-2007) while quietly building his music career through independently released mixtapes. His breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone (2009) attracted the attention of Lil Wayne, who signed him to Young Money Entertainment. Thank Me Later (2010) debuted at number one in both the US and Canada. Take Care (2011), featuring Marvins Room, won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and is widely considered one of the most influential albums of the decade for its blend of confessional lyricism and atmospheric production. Nothing Was the Same (2013), Views (2016), More Life (2017), Scorpion (2018), Certified Lover Boy (2021), and For All the Dogs (2023) have collectively produced more chart-topping singles and Billboard Hot 100 weeks than virtually any other artist in history, breaking records that had stood for decades. He holds records for most number-one singles, most Hot 100 entries, and longest-running number-one albums of any artist in Billboard history. His OVO Sound record label and OVO Fest music festival in Toronto have made him a central pillar of his home city's cultural identity and one of the most commercially successful entertainers on earth.