Hot 21 Radio

Drake

With his blend of R&B, hip hop, and pop, Drake became of the world's best-selling artists during the 2010s. He was born as "Aubrey Drake Graham" in Toronto, Canada, on October 24, 1986, and split his childhood years between Toronto and Memphis. Drake's time in the latter city broadened his musical tastes and paved the way for him to become one of the first Canadian rappers to make an international breakthrough. Initial interest was sparked by the mixtapes he released on the internet, along the 2007 single "Replacement Girl," which prompted Lil Wayne to invite him on tour. This led to another successful mixtape called So Far Gone, as well as collaborations with the likes of Jay-Z, Eminem, and Kanye West. He finally charted in his own right with "Best I Ever Had" and "Every Girl," both of which entered the Top 10 in the same week in 2009. His 2010 debut album Thank Me Later went straight to Number 1 in the US, followed by Take Care in 2011. Preceded by the promotional single "Wu-Tang Forever, " Drake’s third studio effort Nothing Was the Same arrived in 2013 and shot straight to the top of the North American charts. In 2015, he released If You're Reading This It's Too Late, another mixtape that went straight onto streaming services with no prior announcement. It sold more than 1 million copies and made Drake a platinum-selling artist. His fourth studio album Views (2016) achieved pole position in both the US and Canada, spearheaded by chart-topping hits such as "Hotline Bling" and  "One Dance" with WizKid and Kyla. He followed this success with the mixtape More Life in 2017. His fifth full-length, Scorpion, was officially released in June 2018 as a double album and broke records on streaming platforms with more than 132 million plays in one day. During the following years, Drake continued to dominate the charts with star-studded releases such as the mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes (2020) and Certified Lover Boy (2021) which, despite receiving mixed reviews, still managed to debut atop the Billboard 200. That same year, he was named Artist of the Decade at the Billboard Awards ceremony. Honestly, Nevermind arrived in 2022 and became Drake's eleventh Number 1 album, featuring a newfound emphasis on dance music and house influences. Before the year ended, he returned to Number 1 with Her Loss, a collaborative album recorded alongside fellow chart-topping rapper 21 Savage.