Drake's Toronto

Aubrey Drake Graham was born in Toronto in 1986 to a Jewish Canadian mother and an American father, and grew up splitting time between the affluent Forest Hill neighbourhood and a more working-class stretch near Weston Road, an upbringing he has referenced repeatedly in his music as shaping his outsider-insider relationship with the city. He first became known nationally as a child actor, playing wheelchair-using student Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, filmed in Toronto, before shifting to music in the mid-2000s.

Turning local slang into global vocabulary

Drake built his OVO (October's Very Own) label and brand directly around Toronto identity, and his music is widely credited with popularizing Toronto slang and nicknames well beyond the city, most notably "the 6," a nickname for Toronto he helped bring into mainstream use. His success also intersected with the city's hip hop scene that existed well before him, and OVO Fest, an annual concert event he started, became a fixture of the city's summer festival calendar.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Drake
• Wikipedia — Drake (musician)

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