Author Description

Drake is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. 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 released 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 No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was soon certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His next two releases were 2011's Take Care and 2013's Nothing Was the Same, with certifications of quadruple and triple platinum respectively in the United States; the former also earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. They were followed by two mixtapes - the trap-influenced If You're Reading This It's Too Late, and a collaboration with Future for What a Time to Be Alive - in 2015, with both earning platinum certification in the U.S.Drake released his fourth album, Views, in 2016, breaking several chart records in the process. The dancehall-influenced album sat atop the Billboard 200 for ten nonconsecutive weeks, becoming the first album by a male solo artist to do so in over ten years. Its single "One Dance" topped the charts in several countries, including the U.S., the UK and Canada, where it became his first number-one single as the lead artist. This saw Drake leading the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 simultaneously for eight weeks, coming close to a record held by Whitney Houston. It achieved quadruple platinum status in the U.S., and earned over 1,000,000 album-equivalent units in the first week of its release. The single "Hotline Bling" secured him his second and third Grammy win, for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song, at the or