Oh, if only we knew back in the early aughts that Jimmy Brooks would grow up to become Drake: the Jamaican — oh, sorry, Canadian — award-winning rapper worth, well, a lot. But how rich is he, really?
Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, comes from humble beginnings in Toronto, Ontario. He first came onto the scene at age 15, portraying Jimmy Brooks in the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi. At the time, Drake says, his early acting career was born from necessity. "My mother was very sick," Drake said in 2011. "We were very poor, like broke. The only money I had coming in was off of Canadian TV."
Flash-forward a few years, and Drake is now, at 32 years old, one of the most recognized names in music and the fourth-richest rapper in the world. He first started by making mixtapes in 2006, featuring artists like Lupe Fiasco and Trey Songz. His third mixtape, So Far Gone, received over 2,000 downloads in the first two hours of release, and quickly found commercial success.
Since then, Drake’s musical career has skyrocketed. He signed with Lil Wayne’s label, Young Money Entertainment, in 2009 in a $2 million deal. A decade later, he’s got five studio albums under his belt: Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was The Same, Views, and Scorpion. Views, from 2016, was number one on the Billboard 200 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks and achieved quadruple-platinum status in the U.S. Oh, and he’s also won three Grammys.
One of the things that set Drake up for success was the way he optimized his music for streaming from the very beginning. In 2015, he inked a $19 million deal with Apple Music and has seen huge payoffs: His 2017 mixtape, More Life, was the most streamed on the platform last year, and Views exceeded 3 billion streams in 2017.
Music isn’t Drake’s only revenue stream, though. His clothing line, October’s Very Own (OVO), has reported earnings of over $4.3 million. He has also signed with Nike’s Jordan brand, recently releasing an Air Jordan OVO sneaker, and has his hands in several companies and ventures, including the Toronto Raptors NBA team and the Virginia Black Whiskey company.
Since 2010, Drake has reportedly earned more than $250 million, before tax (and spending, of course). As of 2018, he’s worth over $100 million, according to Forbes. And he isn’t exactly discreet about his wealth: The artist owns an $8 million mansion in Hidden Hills, California, where his neighbors include fellow Canuck Justin Bieber. He boasts a flashy jewelry, watch, and clothing collection and a line of luxury cars.
To be fair, though he is almost literally rolling in the dough, Drake has given a lot of his money away. Since 2010, he has supported organizations including the Union Gospel Mission of Portland and the Jamaican Learning Center, and has also helped out families in need. Most notably, Drake gave away $1 million and documented the process in the music video for God’s Plan.
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Source: Refinery29