Drake's 40th Birthday Countdown

Drake's songs

Drake Timeline

About Drake

Drake went from teen actor on Degrassi to the most commercially dominant rapper of the streaming era, holding the record for the most charted songs in Billboard Hot 100 history and building the OVO label and brand.

From Degrassi to a call from Lil Wayne

Long before the records, Aubrey Graham was a Toronto teenager playing basketball star Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation, recording raps between shoots. In 2006 a Houston college student named Jas Prince found his MySpace page near the top of the site's unsigned-artist charts and played the songs for Lil Wayne, who brought Drake out on tour. The 2009 mixtape So Far Gone and its No. 2 hit Best I Ever Had turned the child actor into hip-hop's next headliner.

Four hundred hits and counting

By May 2026 Drake had become the first artist ever to land 400 career songs on the Billboard Hot 100, charting a record 42 of them in a single week. His 90 top-10 hits are the most in the chart's history — runner-up Taylor Swift has 69 — and his 14 No. 1 singles are the most by any solo male artist. Nearly two decades after So Far Gone, he is still the streaming era's defining hitmaker.

The video budget he gave away

In 2018 Drake took the entire $996,631.90 budget for his God's Plan video and gave it away on camera across Miami: a $50,000 scholarship for a University of Miami student, $50,000 to a women's shelter, $25,000 to a high school, free groceries for a whole store, plus cars and cash for local families. He called it the most important thing he had ever done in his career, and the video has been watched well over a billion times.

Quick facts

• Born October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Canada
• Started out as an actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation
• First artist to chart 400 career songs on the Billboard Hot 100
• His 90 Hot 100 top-10 hits are the most of any artist in chart history
• Founded the OVO label and clothing brand
• Gave away the entire $996,631 budget of the God's Plan video in Miami