Drake has just broken through the 130 billion streams barrier on Spotify, but how much do you know about the rapper? Here are some facts you might not know.
While internet streaming records are being broken all the time, the one set by Drake this week is still pretty mind-boggling. The Canadian rapper has broken through the 130 billion streams barrier on Spotify – the first artist to achieve the feat. 130 billion streams across all credits is a huge number – it is years of listening.
But it also shows just how successful Drake has been since his breakthrough in 2010 and the global reach of his music now. He is setting the benchmark that other artists are chasing.
But how much do you know about Drake? Here are some facts you might not know.
Drake is Drake’s middle name
Drake is one of those artists who is so famous that he is known by only one name. However, Drake isn’t a stage name, it is his middle name – his full name is Aubrey Drake Graham.
He made his name in a teen TV series
Drake first came to widespread attention when he landed the role of Jimmy Brooks in Canadian teen drama series DiGrassi: The Next Generation. He played the role of Jimmy from 2001-08, and his character had quite the arc – he began as a talented basketball player, but after an incident where he was shot by a classmate, he became a wheelchair user and ended up pursuing a music career.
The job on DiGrassi: The Next Generation helped his family financially. Drake has spoken before that at the time his mother was ill, so the only money coming in was from his acting work.
His debut mixtape earned him $300
While working on DiGrassi: The Next Generation, Drake was also developing his music skills and career and he even got in trouble on set for turning up late because he had spent his night recording music.
His first recording, called Room for Improvement, was released in 2006. It featured Trey Songz and Lupe Fiasco, and Drake has since described it as ‘radio friendly’ but with ‘not much content to it’. It was released for sale only and sold about 6,000 copies – and Drake received the princely sum of $304.04 in royalties for it. But we all have to start somewhere…
He’s beefed with so many people
OK, now any rapper worth their salt has beefed with at least one person over the course of their career – but few will have feuded with as many as Drake has over the years.
Probably the most famous is his beef with Kendrick Lamar, which has been going on, off and on, for more than a decade. You can read about one of the later episodes in the feud here.
But Drake has also beefed over the years with many others including (but not limited to): Chris Brown, The Weeknd, Puff Daddy, Kanye West, Joe Budden, Pusha T, DMX, Jay-Z and Ludacris. Some of these feuds have been resolved since.
He’s credited with popularising YOLO
The world YOLO – which stands for ‘you only live one’ has gone global over the last decade or so, but some of that is down to Drake. The Washington Post’s editor Maura Judkis credited Drake for popularising YOLO in the US by using the phrase on his single The Motto in 2016.
He also popularised ‘The Six’ to refer to his home city ofToronto, and this has now become a common point of reference to the city.
Drake holds so many music records
As well as the Spotify streams record, Drake has many other records to his name. For instance, he was the most streamed artist of the 2010s on Spotify.
Meanwhile, Drake holds the record for most charted songs of any artist on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – 359. He has also had the most top 10 hits (81) and is the rapper with the most number ones 13 (or 14, if you include one where he is uncredited). He was also only the second artist to claim all of the top 5 spots in the Hot 100 in a single week.
