Aubrey Drake Graham is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He is one of the best-selling artists of the 21st century. Drake initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation in the early 2000s. Intent on pursuing a career as a rapper, he departed the series in 2007 following the release of his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement. He rereleased two further independent projects, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, before signing to Lil Wayne's 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 and was soon certified platinum. His next two releases, 2011's Take Care and 2013's Nothing Was the Same, were critically and commercially successful; the former earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. In 2015, he released two mixtapes—the trap-influenced If You're Reading This It's Too Late and a collaboration with Future titled What a Time to Be Alive—both of which earned platinum certification in the U.S.

His fourth album, Views (2016), broke several chart records. The dancehall-influenced album sat atop the Billboard 200 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks, becoming the first album by a male solo artist to do so in over 10 years. The album's second single, "One Dance", topped the charts in several countries, and became his first number-one single as a lead artist. That year, Drake led both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 charts simultaneously for eight weeks. Views achieved quadruple platinum status in the US, and earned over 1 million album-equivalent units in the first week of its release. Its lead single "Hotline Bling" received Grammy Awards for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song. In 2017, he released the mixtape More Life. Described by Drake as a "playlist", it became his seventh consecutive number one on the Billboard 200, and set multiple streaming records. A year later, he released the double album Scorpion, which also broke several streaming records, and housed the number-one singles "God's Plan", and the bounce-infused "Nice for What" and "In My Feelings".

Drake holds several Billboard chart records. He has the most charted songs (186) among solo artists in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, the most simultaneously charted Hot 100 songs in a single week (27), the most time on the Hot 100 (431 weeks) and the most Hot 100 debuts in a week (22). He also has the most number one singles on the Hot Rap Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Charts. Drake has also won three Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, and thirteen Billboard Music Awards. He is the RIAA's top certified digital singles artist and one of the world's best-selling music artists with more than 10 million albums and 86 million singles sold globally. As an entrepreneur, Drake has founded the OVO Sound record label with longtime collaborator 40, as well as using the "OVO" moniker to create a clothing line and program on Beats 1 Radio.

Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Dennis Graham, is an African American and a practising Catholic from Memphis, Tennessee, and worked as a drummer, performing alongside country musician Jerry Lee Lewis. Drake's mother, Sandra "Sandi" Graham (née Sher), is an Ashkenazi Jewish Canadian who worked as an English teacher and florist. His parents met after Dennis performed at Clue Bluenote in Toronto, where he first interacted with Sandra, who was in attendance. In his youth, Drake attended a Jewish day school, and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. He is also a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.

Drake's parents divorced when he was five years old. After the divorce, he and his mother remained in Toronto, while his father returned to Memphis, where he was incarcerated for a number of years on drug-related charges. Dennis' limited finances and legal issues caused him to remain in the United States until Drake's early adulthood. Prior to his arrest, however, Dennis would travel to Toronto and bring Drake to Memphis every summer. His father later collaborated with Canadian music group Arkells on the music video for a song titled "Drake's Dad".

Drake was raised in two polarizing Toronto neighbourhoods; he lived on Weston Road in the city's working-class west end, until grade six. In his youth, he played minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings. Drake then moved to one of the city's affluent neighbourhoods, Forest Hill, in 2000. When asked about the move, Drake replied, "[We had] 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."

He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, where he demonstrated an affinity for the arts, first acting while an active student at the school. He later attended Vaughan Road Academy in the city's multicultural Oakwood–Vaughan neighbourhood. Due to the economic status associated with the neighbourhood, Drake described the school as "not by any means the easiest school to go to. [It's tough]." Drake was often bullied in school for his racial and religious background, and upon realizing that his busy class schedule was detrimental to his burgeoning acting career, Drake dropped out of school. He later graduated in October 2012.

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