Artist Highlight : Drake
Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. A prominent figure in popular music, Drake is widely credited for popularizing the Toronto sound to the music industry. He initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation in the 2000s; intent on pursuing a career in music, he left the series in 2007 after releasing his debut mixtape Room for Improvement. He released two further independent projects, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, before signing to Young Money Entertainment in June 2009.
Drake released his debut studio album Thank Me Later in 2010, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. He achieved back-to-back widespread critical successes with his next two albums Take Care (2011) and Nothing Was the Same (2013). Drake's first commercial mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late (2015) earned a platinum certification in the US. His fourth album Views (2016) sat atop the Billboard 200 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks, becoming the first album by a male solo artist to do so in over a decade. Marketed as a playlist, Drake's third commercial mixtape More Life (2017) set multiple streaming records. A year later, he released the double album Scorpion, which produced three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake's fourth commercial mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes (2020) featured the Hot 100 number-one lead single "Toosie Slide".
As an entrepreneur, Drake founded the OVO Sound record label with longtime collaborator 40 in 2012. In 2016, Drake was announced as the new "global ambassador" for the Toronto Raptors, thereby joining the executive committee of the NBA franchise. In the same year, Drake announced his development with American entrepreneur Brent Hocking of the bourbon whiskey Virginia Black; it eventually broke sale records in Canada. In 2018, Drake was reportedly responsible for 5% ($440 million) of Toronto's $8.8 billion total annual tourism income.
Among the world's best-selling music artists, with over 170 million records sold, Drake is ranked as the world's highest-certified digital singles artist by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He has won four Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, a record 27 Billboard Music Awards, two Brit Awards and three Juno Awards. Drake also holds several Billboard chart records; he has the most top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (tied with Madonna),[16] the most charted songs (209) of any artists in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, the most simultaneously charted Hot 100 songs in a single week, the most time on the Hot 100 (431 weeks), and the most Hot 100 debuts in a week. He also has the most number-one singles on the Hot Rap Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Charts.
