Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Dennis Graham, is an African-American Catholic drummer from Memphis who once performed with country musician Jerry Lee Lewis. His mother, Sandra “Sandi” Graham (née Sher), is a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew, who worked as an English teacher and florist. Graham performed at Club Bluenote in Toronto, where he met Sandra, who was in attendance. Drake is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, the former derived from Graham. In his youth, he attended a Jewish day school and became a bar mitzvah.

Drake’s parents divorced when he was five years old. After the divorce, he and his mother remained in Toronto; his father returned to Memphis, where he was incarcerated for a number of years on drug-related charges. Graham’s limited finances and legal issues caused him to remain in the U.S. until Drake’s early adulthood. Prior to his arrest, Graham 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”. Graham claimed in an interview that Drake’s assertions of him being an absent father were embellishments used to sell music, which Drake vehemently denies.

Drake was raised in two neighbourhoods. He lived on Weston Road in Toronto’s working-class west end until grade six and attended Weston Memorial Junior Public School until grade four, playing minor hockey with the Weston Red Wings. Drake was a promising right winger, reaching the Upper Canada College hockey camp, but left at the behest of his mother following a vicious cross-check to his neck during a game by an opposing player. He 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.” Demonstrating an affinity for the arts, at age 10, Drake appeared in a comedic sketch which aired during the 1997 NHL Awards, featuring a riff of Martin Brodeur and Ron Hextall and their record as being the only goalies to have scored multiple goals.

He attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute for high school, and then attended Vaughan Road Academy in Toronto’s multicultural Oakwood–Vaughan neighbourhood; Drake described Vaughan Road Academy as “not by any means the easiest school to go to.” During his teenage years, Drake worked at a now-closed Toronto furniture factory owned by his maternal grandfather, Reuben Sher. Drake said he was bullied at school for his racial and religious background, and upon determining that his class schedule was detrimental to his burgeoning acting career, he dropped out of school. Drake received his high school diploma in October 2012.

On January 7, 2022, Drake was announced as a featured artist on Gunna’s DS4Ever; he was included on the deluxe edition released a week later. On January 17, Drake announced another collaboration with DJ Khaled; this was reportedly recorded that June, and eventually released with Lil Baby on August 5 as “Staying Alive”, the lead single from Khaled’s thirteenth studio album God Did (2022). On March 3, Drake placed fourth on Forbes’s ranking of highest paid rappers of 2021, with an estimated pre-tax income of $50 million,[311] and then announced a return to touring, with two “interactive” concerts expected in Toronto and New York City. On March 23, he won Hip-Hop Artist of the Year at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards. On April 16, it was calculated Drake generated more streams in 2021 than every song released prior to 1980 combined; his music accumulated 7.91 billion streams, while songs pre-1980 had generated 6.32 billion. Drake was then confirmed as a guest artist on Future’s I Never Liked You (2022), featuring on the songs “Wait for U” alongside Tems and “I’m on One”, the former of which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Drake’s tenth number-one song and making him the tenth act to achieve ten number ones. On May 2, Jared Krichevsky, a Character and Creature Designer for Warner Bros. Pictures revealed the studio once sought to cast Drake as Victor Stone / Cyborg in an untitled television series, publishing concept art.

In Universal Music Group’s Q1 earnings call on May 4, it was announced Drake re-signed with the company in a multifaceted deal, which includes recordings, publishing, merchandise, and “visual media projects”; although an official figure wasn’t revealed, it was reported to be worth as high as $400 million, making it one of the largest recording contracts ever. On June 16, Drake announced his seventh album, Honestly, Nevermind, which released a day later; on the debut episode of his recently launched radio show Table for One on Sirius XM, he announced a poetry book with frequent writing collaborator Kenza Samir in 2022, and a yet undetermined release of the third iteration of his Scary Hours EP series. Honestly, Nevermind sold 204,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Drake’s eleventh US number-one album and making him the fifth artist with over 10 number one albums, after the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen, and Barbra Streisand (both 11). It was also the fourth-largest streaming week for any album in 2022, after Un Verano Sin Ti, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, and I Never Liked You. “Jimmy Cooks” also became Drake’s eleventh US number-one song, although, the song “Texts Go Green” tied the record (held by Kendrick Lamar and Taylour Paige’s “We Cry Together”) for biggest single-week drop in Billboard Hot 100 history, falling from number 13 to number 94.

On July 14, it was announced Drake would reunite with former Young Money label mates Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj on a three date Toronto exclusive concert series titled the “October World Weekend”, on July 28, July 29, and August 1. The concerts are also set to feature both Chris Brown and Lil Baby, and is expected to be the first leg of the Road to OVO Fest Tour, a worldwide edition of OVO Fest to commemorate its 10th anniversary. On July 29, Drake was revealed as a collaborator on Beyoncé’s Renaissance (2022), co-writing the song “Heated”. On August 2, the music video for “Sticky”, the second single from Honestly, Nevermind, was released. After the debut of “Staying Alive” on the US Billboard Hot 100, it marked the 30th Drake song to reach the top five on the chart, breaking a 55-year-old record for most songs to reach the top five on the chart (29), held by The Beatles. On October 5, 2022, Drake, in conjunction with SiriusXM, announced a special two-night live concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York for November 11 and 12; these were first delayed to that December and then delayed to January 2023, citing production delays. Drake then refused to submit his solo music for consideration at the 2023 Grammy Awards, refusing to submit his music for Grammy consideration for a second consecutive year. At the 2022 SOCAN Awards, Drake won Songwriter of the Year.

On October 22, Drake announced Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage which would release on October 28; it was then delayed to November 4 after Drake’s longtime producer, 40, was diagnosed with COVID-19. At the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, Drake was nominated for three awards: Male Artist of 2022, Song of 2022 (for “Wait for U” with Future and Tems), and Collaboration Song of 2022 (for “Jimmy Cooks” with 21 Savage). Her Loss debuted atop the Billboard 200, accumlating first week sales of 404,000 album-equivalent units. Eight of the album’s songs debuted in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, extending Drake’s record for most top ten entries, with 67 (with a record 49 as a lead artist). He is also the only artist to log eight top tens from one album twice. On November 15, Drake was nominated for four awards at the 2023 Grammy Awards: Album of the Year (for his writing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance), Best Melodic Rap Performance (for “Wait for U”), and two for Best Rap Song (for “Churchill Downs” with Jack Harlow, and “Wait for U”). A day later, he released the music video for “Rich Flex” from Her Loss.

On January 6, 2023, Drake was featured on “We Caa Done”, the lead single to Popcaan’s fifth studio album Great Is He (2023). In an interview that same month, producer Metro Boomin revealed he rejected the verse Drake recorded for the song “Trance” for his album Heroes & Villains (2022). On February 24, the music video for the song “Spin Bout U” from Her Loss was released. Four days later, he was announced to headline that year’s Dreamville Festival, which took place on April 1-2 at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. In February 2023, Drake was named the most streamed act ever on Spotify. On April 2, a song tentatively titled “Rescue Me” previewed on The Fry Yiy Show on SiriusXM Radio, which featured samples of Kim Kardashian from the final episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians (2007–2021); it was released five days later, officially titled “Search and Rescue”. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, with its potential number one debut having been thwarted by Morgan Wallen’s song “Last Night”.