← PEOPLE
datastats / Music
LIVE
Music

Drake

Drake is the Toronto-born rapper, singer, and mogul who turned melodic introspection and beef into a decade-long cultural stranglehold on hip-hop.

By · datastats · Updated June 15, 2026
Drake

Drake: The Man Who Turned Rap Into a Soap Opera

Aubrey Drake Graham, known simply as Drake, is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 170 million records sold worldwide. He rose to fame as a teenage actor on the Canadian TV drama Degrassi: The Next Generation before reinventing himself as a rapper and landing a mentorship deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment around 2009.

Drake’s influence on modern hip-hop is impossible to overstate. He effectively popularized the fusion of rapping and singing, and his label OVO Sound (October’s Very Own) became a cultural brand in its own right. Albums like Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, and Certified Lover Boy all debuted at No. 1 and produced era-defining hits.

He is also the most-streamed artist on Spotify for multiple years running, a record that underscores how completely he has dominated the streaming era. His Toronto roots are central to his identity, he put the city’s “6ix” slang on the global map.

Beyond the music, Drake is a lightning rod for controversy, rivalries, and tabloid fascination. His feuds, his relationships, and his legal run-ins with other artists generate as many searches as his albums do. That combination of undeniable talent and perpetual drama is exactly why he dominates search trends year-round.

People also ask

Drake's primary residence is his custom-built mega-mansion in the Bridle Path neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada, one of the city's most exclusive addresses. The property, nicknamed 'The Embassy,' is widely reported to span over 35,000 square feet and features an NBA-regulation basketball court. He also maintains a residence in Los Angeles, as extensively documented in his music videos and public appearances.

Drake is Canadian. He was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, and has made his Canadian identity, particularly his Toronto roots, a cornerstone of his public persona. He does not hold dual U.S. citizenship, though he spends considerable time working in the United States.

Drake was born on October 24, 1986, which makes him 38 years old as of 2025. He launched his music career in his early twenties, meaning he has now spent roughly half his life as a public figure.

Drake is widely reported to stand 6 feet (183 cm) tall. This figure has been consistently cited across interviews and media profiles over the years.

Drake is not married. As of 2025, there is no publicly confirmed marriage on record. He has been linked to several high-profile women over the years, but no marriage has been announced or documented.

The most defining beef of Drake's career was his 2024 war with Kendrick Lamar, which exploded into a rapid-fire exchange of diss tracks and became one of the most-discussed rap rivalries in history. Drake has also had well-documented tensions with Meek Mill, Pusha T, and Kanye West at various points in his career. As of mid-2025, Drake and Universal Music Group are engaged in a legal dispute that has drawn significant public attention.

Drake's son Adonis was born in October 2017 to French-American artist and former adult film actress Sophie Brussaux. Drake kept the relationship and the pregnancy private until rapper Pusha T exposed it in the 2018 diss track 'The Story of Adidon.' Drake later confirmed Adonis publicly on the album *Scorpion*.

Same answer: Sophie Brussaux is the mother of Drake's only publicly known child, his son Adonis Graham. Brussaux has since pivoted to a career as a visual artist and maintains a co-parenting relationship with Drake, which he has referenced in multiple songs.

As of 2025, Drake has not publicly confirmed a girlfriend. He is notoriously private about his romantic life despite being romantically linked to numerous celebrities, including Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and others, over the years. None of those relationships were ever formally confirmed by both parties as exclusive.

Drake's full legal name is Aubrey Drake Graham. He has used his middle name as his stage name since his early career, and 'Drake' has become so ubiquitous that many fans don't know his first name is actually Aubrey.

Drake's net worth is widely estimated in the range of $250–300 million USD, based on publicly reported figures from outlets like Forbes. This figure encompasses music royalties, his OVO Sound label, OVO Fest, brand partnerships, and his Mod Sélection champagne venture. No official verified figure exists, treat all specific net worth claims as estimates.

'March 14' from *Scorpion* (2018) is the most direct song about Adonis, written before Drake publicly acknowledged his son. 'Emotionless,' also from *Scorpion*, addresses the secrecy around Adonis's birth. 'Never Recover' and several bars across *Certified Lover Boy* and *Honestly, Nevermind* also contain references to fatherhood and his son.

The Drake Passage, named after 16th-century English explorer Sir Francis Drake, not the rapper, is dangerous because it is the world's roughest stretch of open ocean. It sits between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica, where the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans collide with no landmass to break the wind or waves for thousands of miles. Winds regularly reach hurricane force and waves can exceed 40 feet, making it a notorious trial for any vessel.

This one is contested, and the honest verdict is that most observers, including much of the hip-hop press, concluded that Kendrick Lamar won the 2024 beef decisively, not Drake. Kendrick's diss track 'Not Like Us' became a No. 1 hit and a genuine street anthem, while Drake's responses ('Push Ups,' 'Taylor Made Freestyle,' 'Family Matters') largely failed to land with the same cultural force. Drake's camp argues otherwise, but public and critical consensus strongly favors Kendrick.

The Drake Passage is so rough because it is the only place on Earth where ocean water can flow completely around the globe without hitting a continent, creating the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the strongest ocean current on the planet. This unimpeded flow, combined with relentless high-latitude winds, generates massive, chaotic swells that make it uniquely punishing for ships.

The roots go back to 2013, when Kendrick dropped a verse on Big Sean's 'Control' calling out Drake and other MCs by name as competition. Tensions simmered for years through subtle jabs on tracks. The beef fully ignited in early 2024 when both artists began appearing on tracks by Metro Boomin and Future, trading increasingly pointed bars, before escalating into a full-blown diss-track war between March and May 2024.

Drake is signed to Young Money Entertainment (Lil Wayne's label) and Cash Money Records, through which he has a distribution deal with Republic Records / Universal Music Group. He also runs his own imprint, OVO Sound. His relationship with Universal Music Group has become publicly strained as of 2025, with Drake filing a lawsuit against the conglomerate, a highly documented and widely reported legal development.

Drake Maye is an entirely different person, an American NFL quarterback, born in 2002, who was selected No. 3 overall by the New England Patriots in the 2024 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of North Carolina and is considered one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the league. He shares only a first name with the rapper Drake.

Most Drake songs have explicit versions, but radio edits exist for nearly all his hits. Tracks considered relatively clean or with mild content include 'Hotline Bling,' 'One Dance,' 'Hold On, We're Going Home,' 'Best I Ever Had' (radio edit), and 'God's Plan' (edited version). Streaming platforms and YouTube offer clean versions of the vast majority of his catalog.

Kanye West produced 'Find Your Love' from Drake's debut album *Thank Me Later* (2010), one of Drake's biggest early hits. He also produced 'Say What's Real' and 'Unforgettable' from the same album. The two have had a complicated on-again, off-again professional and personal relationship since then, oscillating between collaboration and public friction.

Related topics
Music Trending now
Drake: ICEMAN & 'Janice STFU'
Music Trending now
Tay Keith Dead at 29: Grammy-Nominated Producer Behind Sicko Mode
Music Trending now
BTS ARIRANG Tour at Stade de France 2026
Music Trending now
Madonna: Confessions II
Music Trending now
Ariana Grande: The Eternal Sunshine Tour 2026
Music Trending now
Oasis are back - and so is the ticket-price outrage
Music People
Addison Rae
Music People
Ariana Grande