Aubrey Drake Graham, born October 24, 1986, is a Canadian actor, rapper, and singer. His mother is Jewish-Canadian and his father is African-American.

Drake's career in the entertainment industry began when he was just a child. His early work involved singing, acting, and professional modeling.

In 2001, Drake got his big break when he landed the part of Jimmy Brooks on the highly-rated teen show Degrassi: The Next Generation. Drake would play the high school character, whose life he said resembled his own, for eight seasons, until producers recast almost all of the show's actors.

While still a castmate on Degrassi, Drake became interested in rapping, and even participated in rap battles with his real-life high school classmates. Drake started seriously pursuing a rap career, booking studio sessions, and finally revealing in interviews his new passion.

As he continued to develop as a rapper, he felt that his actor-colleagues would be unable to relate to his music. So, he began using the mononym "Drake" for his music projects, while still being billed as "Aubrey Graham" for film and television projects. The intent, according to Drake, was to separate the two contrasting personas that he realized were projected through both his acting and rapping. Eventually, though, Drake got the opportunity to share and showcase his hidden musical talent with Degrassi viewers as the show's producers graced Drake's character, Jimmy Brooks, with the same skills.

After Drake's stint on Degrassi, he shifted his focus to his music. In 2008, a friend of Drake's passed some of his music to Lil Wayne, who would later reveal that it was Drake's "A Milli" freestyle that caught his attention. Drake received a call from Lil Wayne while he was getting a hair cut, and at the request of Lil Wayne, flew to Houston where the two began working together.

In June of 2009, Drake officially announced that he had signed a deal with Young Money Entertainment. In addition, Drake entered a management contract with Hip Hop Since 1978, and a distribution deal with Universal Music Group. His deal with Universal has been noted as one of the "smartest" deals ever to be brokered by an artist in the music industry. As part of the agreement, Drake maintains 75% of all of his music proceeds, and retains control of his publishing.

Drake is currently working on his first full-length studio album entitled Thank Me Later. In 2009, Drake revealed his preference for a release date in February, "around Valentine's Day." But, recently, he stated setbacks, including his knee injury, as the reason for not having enough material to follow through with such a release date. The highly-anticipated album currently has a tentative March May release date.

"Over," the first single from Thank Me Later premiered on Toronto radio station FLOW 93.5 on May 5, 2010. Less than a week later, "Over" was the number one added song at Rhythmic-based radio stations in the United States.

Posted: Jan 19th, 2010