Today our character is Drizzy Drake..
Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario, to parents Sandi Graham (née Sher), an educator, and Dennis Graham, a drummer who worked with Jerry Lee Lewis. Two of his uncles, Larry Graham and Teenie Hodges, are also musicians.[11][12][13][14] Drake's father is an African-American from Memphis, Tennessee, and Drake's mother is a white Jewish Canadian. He attended a Jewish day school and had a Bar Mitzvah.[15][16][17] His parents divorced when he was five years old, and he was raised by his mother in two Toronto neighbourhoods; he lived on Weston Road in the city's west end,[18] until the sixth grade, when he moved to the affluent Forest Hill.[19][20] As a youth, he played minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings.[21] Drake has commented on the move to Forest Hill and his mother's struggle, saying that "She wanted the best for her family. She found us a half of a house we could live in. The other people had the top half, we had the bottom half. I lived in the basement, my mom lived on the first floor. It was not big, it was not luxurious. It was what we could afford." Drake then began attending Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, where he began acting,[22] but did not graduate.[23] It was the first of two high schools he would attend, as he later went to Vaughan Road Academy, describing it as "not by any means the easiest school to go to. It's a tough school."[18] Despite dropping out of high school, years later, he graduated in October 2012.[24]
At the age of 15, Drake met an agent, the father of a high school friend.[citation needed] The agent found Drake a role on the Canadian TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation as Jimmy Brooks.[25] In the show, Brooks is a basketball star who became physically disabled after he was shot by a classmate. Drake describes how his early acting career affected his family, "My mother was very sick. We were very poor, like broke. The only money I had coming in was off of Canadian TV, which isn't that much money when you break it down. A season of Canadian television is under a teacher's salary, I'll tell you that much. It's definitely not something to go fucking get."[18] He would continue his acting career on Degrassi: The Next Generation until 2009, when his character graduated from Degrassi. Overall, he appeared in a total of 138 episodes. Drake is mentioned in the 2010 television movie Degrassi Takes Manhattan, making him one of two Degrassi actors (along with Shenae Grimes) who exist within the series' fictional universe independently of their characters. Besides Degrassi, between 2001-2009 Drake appeared on other various Television shows in smaller roles such as, Blue Murder as Joey Tamarin, Soul Food as Fredrick, The Border as PFC Gordon Harvey, and Beyond the Break as himself.
Looking back on his early life, Drake had to essentially live two different lives because of his parents' divorce; he lived in a very upper-class part of Toronto, and, when in Memphis, was told he was "the furthest thing from hood." He witnessed many life-changing experiences because of this, one being his father's arrest, which he describes by saying "The fact that I didn't have a father, because he was in jail two separate times. He did a two-year bid and a three-year bid, I was there when he got taken down. We had just gotten back from Memphis." However, Drake comments on his childhood experiences by saying "I've seen things that didn't make me happy. They were character building. That's why I think people in the hood can still connect with what I'm saying even though I'm not saying 'yeah I got crack in my pocket' 'cause that wasn't my struggle necessarily, [but] I speak from a place that's just human emotion." Drake stated that his parents' divorce greatly affected him as a person, saying, "I had to become a man very quickly and be the backbone for a woman who I love with all my heart, my mother." At the age of 24, Drake commented on his early life by saying "I've seen a lot, man. I've seen a lot of life, put it that way. I've been with the most blessed kids in the world. I've been with people whose life is right at the bottom of the barrel. I was on a TV show, I went to art school, I went to hood schools. I've lived. I've lived a full 24 years, man."[18][26]
Around this time, Drake was dating fellow Canadian R&B singer Keshia Chanté.[27]
Influences
In an interview with SoulCulture TV Drake stated that R&B singer Aaliyah has had the biggest influence on his career. "Aaliyah has had probably the most impact on my career," he states, "because when I made a choice to start singing it was because of something that my father had told me which was, 'There's no rapper out there that sings and raps and does both things well... and in order to be successful you're gonna need something other than just what everyone else is doing. I was rapping already at the time so I had an identity in rap, but when I started singing I needed something to reference. I needed someone to be like, 'I wanna be like that'. I didn't want it ever to be a male because then I would sound like that person, so I just found comfort in all of Aaliyah's music and her melody choices and the things that she talks about – and how she always conveyed these amazing emotions but never got too sappy, she always kept it G. That had the biggest influence on my music because – as much as my music may be geared towards women – I try not to make it so that only women can sing it."[102]
Musical style
The lyricism of Drake is often in regard to his riches, fame and past relationships. Allmusic
describes Drake's moods as searching, thoughtful, introspective,
brooding, confident, dramatic, earnest, energetic, humorous, intense,
laid-back/mellow, literate, melancholy, nostalgic, playful, reflective,
smooth, tender, warm and yearning.[103]
Drake's sound is labeled as "soft" for his genuine, merciful lyrics and
soulful melody to most hip hop listeners. He denied this by saying "I'm
not soft. I'm just not one of those people who's closed off
emotionally."[104] A large portion of Drake's work incorporates elements of both rapping
and singing, which has led to him being unique as a recording artist.
Drake has even described himself as "the first person to successfully
rap and sing." He went on further about his statement by saying "I'm one
of the few artists who gets to be himself every day. It doesn't take me
six hours to get ready and I don't have to wake up in the morning and
remember to act like this or talk like this. I just have to be me.
That's one of the favourite parts of my life - I've done this purely by
being myself."[105]
Drake has a unique musical style that has set him apart from his (Young Money) counterparts, especially on his latest effort Take Care. Lil Wayne
even commented on the project prior to its release saying "I can tell,
you know, I don't know nothing else out there that can touch it,
including my stuff. That kid is on another planet."[106] Recently, Drake has been making a notable shift away from Young Money/Cash Money collaborations and towards a new project, OVOXO. The OVO owl symbolizes OVOXO, which is a separate entity from Young Money/Cash Money and represents a collaboration group between Drake and R&B singer The Weeknd. Its eyes and beak form the acronym for October's Very Own. Drake has been moving in this new direction after the release of Take Care, which featured writing collaborations with The Weeknd on 5 tracks ranging from "Crew Love"
to "Shot for Me" and 2 production collaborations on "Crew Love" and
"The Ride", more than any Young Money/Cash Money collaboration.[107][108][109](source-Wikipedia)
