DRAKE

Drake grinning

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario to parents Sandi Graham, an educator, and Dennis Graham, a drummer who worked with Jerry Lee Lewis. On his father's side, he is related to American musicians Larry Graham and Teenie Hodges, who are his uncles. 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. 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 working-class west end, until the sixth grade, when he moved to the affluent Forest Hill.In his youth, he played minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings. 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, but did not graduate. 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."Despite dropping out of high school, years later, he graduated in October 2012.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."

OVO

OVO T-shirt

OVO (October's Very Own) Sound is a Canadian record label founded by rapper Drake, his longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib in 2012. The label is based in Toronto, Ontario. OVO Sound consists of Drake and in-house producers 40, Boi-1da, T-Minus, Mike Zombie, Nineteen85, Future the Prince along with recording artists PartyNextDoor, Majid Jordan, OB O'Brien, Roy Woods & dvsn.The label's releases are currently distributed by Warner Bros. Records.Starting in 2006, Drake's early mixtapes such as Room For Improvement and Comeback Season were released under the unofficial record label, "October's Very Own" as he was unsigned at the time. Drake then began building up his October’s Very Own brand by shouting out to OVO on his songs, releasing music and selling OVO merchandise on their website. The record label was then officially founded in 2012 by Drake and Noah "40" Shebib. According to Billboard, Drake shortly signed a partnership deal with Warner Bros. Records aswith the label. Similar to how Rick Ross is signed as a solo artist to Epic Records and his artists on his Maybach Music Group label are signed to Atlantic Records (formerly signed to Warner Bros. Records), Drake will still be signed as a solo artist to Republic Records through Young Money/Cash Money, but the artists he signs to OVO Sound releases will be distributed through Warner Bros. Records. Upon founding the label in 2012, Drake and 40 signed frequent collaborators Boi-1da, T-Minus, and later Mike Zombie to the label as in-house producers. In late April 2013 it was reported that Drake was close to signing the label's first recording artist, PartyNextDoor, which he ended up revealing shortly thereafter.In August 2013, Drake announced that he signed Toronto music duo Majid Jordan to OVO Sound.On April 19th 2016, iLoveMakonnen announced he was leaving OVO to pursue interest in sticking with only Warner Bros. Records.

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