The Ascension of Aubrey Graham
//Shit is hot up in the 6 right now//
Aubrey Graham is an actor best known for playing the characters “Jimmy” in Degrassi: The Next Generation and “Drake” in pop music. Graham has focused on “Drake” for over a decade, to great commercial and critical success. As perhaps the most lucrative and difficult role ever offered to an actor, he has executed the part tremendously.
His most recent project, the highly anticipated “playlist” More Life is a 22 track monstrosity which connects all of his roots, current musical influences, and ambitions. The collection of tracks achieved a total of 61.3 million streams on Spotify and 89.9 million streams on Apple Music on the day of release (not including the amount of listeners during the OVO Radio debut of the album on Beats 1), setting the record of most streams of a record in a single day on any streaming service.
The “playlist” designation is intentional, as More Life is certainly not an album — there is no thematic thread tying the tracks themselves together — however, Graham described the collection as “a body of work he created to bridge the gap between his major releases”. More Life is a deliberately curated collection of “Drake” tracks that could have been plucked from any album in his discography. It listens like a best-of playlist, providing little experimentation while showcasing the ease in which he conquers the icy trap beats and nocturnal R&B that have brought him comfortable success through his career.
Graham’s desire to release a collection that links previous records is indicative of an awareness that he has shuffled through many versions of his rap moniker before rising to his current omnipotence. He is constantly influenced by sounds and ideas from cultures not his own, a practice best personified by his early pseudo-Atlanta style, Controlla, and his recent signing to Boy Betta Know, a U.K. grime label. But his muse is Toronto.
There has been a deliberate process toward creating “Drake” and his symbiosis with Toronto, one of the few topics in his music that blurs the line between the man and the character. Graham started as a hungry young actor in the city, and through his progression through inauthenticity, has returned to a Toronto that should welcome his rap alter-ego for what it is — a representative for social change and financial growth.
//Started from the Bottom//
But, Graham did not start on top.
He grew up a mixed-race, middle-class Jewish boy and attended school in two polar sections of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA): Weston Road and Forest Hills. As part of the cast of DeGrassi, a young Aubrey sharpened his acting abilities while learning how to develop a character with which an audience could emphasize. Jimmy was tough to like at first and tried too hard to be a bully. He was mean and braggadocious, but transparently, deeply frustrated. After a school shooting left him in the infamous wheelchair, he became more reserved, sensitive, and likable. Jimmy’s unique experience and coupled renewal of character made him a main protagonist as the show continued. By the end of his seven year tenure, Jimmy was complicated, flawed, humble but confident (and able to walk again).
That thespic training facilitated an abnormally smooth introduction to rap for an independent, twenty-year-old Canadian — not too many of which get Lupe Fiasco and Trey Songz on their debut mixtapes, produced by boi-1da. Despite the co-signs from popular artists, the appropriately named 2006 tape Room for Improvement only sold about 6,000 copies. An eclectic mix of cliches, the tape tries to be something that it’s not, with song titles including “Pianist Hands,” “Money,” and (my favorite) “Drake’s Voice Mail Box #3” — “Drake” has always been a revered, separate character to Graham, the man. By accepting “Drake” as a persona to be modified and improved, like Jimmy, Graham has been able to move swiftly through phases of the character, experimenting to find the most appealing version.
//Last name Ever, first name Greatest//
In 2010, “Drake” debuted with Thank Me Later, a full-length album featuring the Kings of Leon, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. As the newest member of Young Money, Thank Me Later Drizzy was confrontational and ambitious, but the least genuine representation of Graham. He was unable to create authentic subject matter, so he synthesized metaphors for the struggles of others: in “Houstanatlantavegas”, he speaks for a stripper, in “November 18th”, the city of Houston, etc. Every song relied on the common rap platitudes of ego, wealth, and a vague understanding of the music industry.
His album Take Care (one of many with sample-clearance issues) marked a grand transition toward contemporary “Drake,” featuring the irresistibly sensitive “Marvin’s Room,” “Shot for Me,” and “Doing it Wrong.” Genuine emotion — which Aubrey had been avoiding in his music with effort — would make him a distinctive artist. Even the album’s obligatory banger “HYFR” probes Graham’s previously unexpressed insecurities:
“Are you high right now? Do you ever get nervous? You think them niggas you with is with you?”
2013’s Nothing Was the Same displayed a synthesis of Graham’s newly stabilized identity and reverence for Toronto. “Started from the Bottom” and “305 to My City” rely heavily on Aubrey’s connection to the GTA, creating a timeline bound to Toronto that connects his childhood in Weston Road to his modern issues with the city. The skeletal, balladic instrumentals of “From Time” and “Too Much” allow Graham to reveal his improved artistry and emotional depth.
Aubrey Graham never succumbed to the allure of becoming “Drake” — alternatively, the character accepted Graham. In just two years, he began to understand himself, his localized brand, and special ability to elicit specific emotional responses from listeners. By literally performing “Drake,” the Meme Machine allowed fans and internet culture to curate his best self.
Now, we can see him acting out the intimately crafted persona on camera.
His acceptance of this reality is best represented by a Saturday Night Live digital sketch in which he mocks himself for getting into “beef” with Meek Mill, right down to using the “Back to Back” beat in the segment. He is self-aware, sensitive, and even goofy at times. Like Jimmy, the best version of the “Drake” character is the most honest, and he had to understand his own identity before becoming a main character.
His most recent formal album Views debuted atop the Billboard 200, and remained there for twelve weeks. It garnered over 290 million streams, more than twice as many as Justin Bieber’s Purpose, which was the second highest streamed album for the year. The album’s critical flaw, however, is its deep focus on the city of Toronto — it was an intimate love letter to the city, crafted at the expense of greater commercial success.
After years of experimentation, Graham returned to his most honest self — a faithful, loving Torontonian. He wanted to be a symbol for the city, coining “the 6ix” and appointing himself it’s God — Toronto’s savior. Certainly, the Toronto that has emerged from “Drake’s” discography has a mythicality that transcends politics or divisional municipalities. His Toronto is unified under one OVO flag. To complete his final evolution into the 6ix God, his miracles must aid the people he represents.
//OVO, we a gold mine//
Graham is a Canadian citizen living in the city of Toronto within the province of Ontario. He made $39.5 million (US) in 2015, and $38.5 in 2016. Without getting into the muck of tax codes and the financial assistance provided to Drake by the seven agencies he is signed to (OVO, Young Money, Cash Money, Republic, Aspire, Universal Motown, and Boy Better Know), in 2016, Aubrey Graham would still owe about $12,690,000 in Federal taxes minimum — and $5,061,000 to the province of Ontario alone.
To confirm his dedication to the province and city, he recently purchased a home in the Toronto metro area worth $6,700,000. As of summer 2010, new home buyers in Ontario are charged 13% Harmonized Sales Tax on their purchase, which consists of a 5% federal tax and 8% provincial tax. That’s an additional $335,000 to the federal government and $536,000 to Ontario. For the rest of ownership he will pay $46,000 in property taxes annually, of which $33,300 will go to the City of Toronto government.
But at the end of 2012, the City of Toronto’s total debt stood at USD $2.7 billion. The city needed a broader advancement.
In 2014, the Ontario Music Fund was officially launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport in Toronto. A domestic company grossing over $100,000 annually would be granted access to up to $2.1 million in government subsidies through the new The Music Company Development Fund and The Music Industry Development Fund, and applicants with eligible revenues that exceed $5M could apply for an additional $250,000 for new strategic activities. The North was almost immediately graced with two of the largest musical acts on the planet (Bieber and Tesfaye) and led by “Drake,” Toronto’s mascot and the global leader in sales. Through The Live Music Fund, the annual OVO Fest always receives the maximum allowed provincial subsidy. The festival is worth too much to the city — the economic benefit to Toronto’s bottom line is anywhere from $5 million to $20 million each year.
At 2015’s OVO Fest, at the height of his back-and-forth with Meek Mill, Graham debuted the new Toronto Raptors uniform on stage — before a player wore it on the court. In the 24 hours following, searches for Raptors Jersey outpaced Meek Mill by 2-to-1. When he provided complimentary OVO branded T-shirts for the first Drake night, they were on eBay at $200-per before the game ended.
“He just made the Raptors cool. I don’t think you can put a dollar figure on that.”
Cabbie Richards, host, SportsCentre TSN
//My record deal should be 500 million//
Toronto is beginning to harness the visibility of the city’s most successful musician and use it to inject its image with a progressive cultural landscape. Music Canada found that the live music industry contributed just under $1.2 billion to the economy of Ontario in 2013, and generated a total of 10,500 full-time jobs, with an additional 9,500 full time jobs from tourism generated by music festivals. 81 percent of Canada’s 2010 musical activity took place in Ontario and most of that activity was in the GTA.
Since his ascension, “Drake” has provided a calculable shot of adrenaline to Toronto and Canada. Apple Music debuted OVO Sound Radio in July 2015. Views dropped in April 2016. That year, Canadian music streaming doubled and provided over $100 million more to the economy over the previous year. Five percent more Canadians attended live music festivals, and in 2015, the live music industry in Canada was said to generate approximately 987 million CAD, up from 878 million Canadian dollars the year before. During the first half of 2016, streams in the country hit 18.6 billion, compared to 6.3 billion in the second half of 2014. Sales for Views nearly doubled the second-best selling album in Canada that year, Adele’s 25. Four of the ten best selling artists in Canada are now Canadian.
That socioeconomic production is evidently not limited to any of Graham’s discrete focuses, but is united toward the development of Toronto. Overall, his endorsement of the city since 2012 has been valued at near three billion dollars. To replicate the effect of when he mentions Toronto with a traditional advertising purchase, it would cost roughly $300 million.
Of course, supporting music doesn’t undo poor decision making and procrastination: a crumbling infrastructure has caused $4.10 billion of Toronto’s $14.84 billion 2012–2021 Capital Budget to be financed using debt. Transportation and clean drinking water are, in fact, prerequisites to applied creativity. But despite its continuing economic troubles, Toronto has become one of the most popular places for young people to move, and was ranked the best city to live by Citi. That migration can’t all be attributed to Drake, or the combined effort of all popular Canadian artists. There are other variables — your average American is six times more likely to be incarcerated than your average Canadian. Canada also ranks higher for healthcare, press freedom, and economic freedom.
//More life, Six to the World, gang shit//
“This reinforces in my mind the real potential of what supporting the music industry can do to transform and grow a real 21st century city.”
John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, when Graham received the key to the city
Graham’s calculated supremacy of Canadian culture, although successful, will never be complete. The man, the character, and the city have become reciprocal engines, linked for their mutual benefit, but susceptible to synergic destruction. Within Canada, Toronto’s share of “Drake’s” sales for Take Care was roughly 40 percent, despite the market representing only 1.5 percent of the global share. Without the Toronto market, “Drake” would not be the best selling artist in the world, and he is singularly liable to that risk. On the other hand, Graham is the only top Canadian artist who outwardly supports his roots and provides constant, measurable economic boosterism to Canada and Toronto.
Drake the Icon, intrinsically linked to the economy of Toronto, cannot allow either institution to fail.
“I travel the world performing and everywhere I go, I preach the gospel that is Toronto.”
Aubrey “Drake” Graham
