What is Drake’s Net Worth?
Drake is a 250 million dollar rapper, producer, and actor who was born in Canada. Drake is one of the world’s top-paid performers constantly. Drake made his screen debut in the popular Canadian series “Degrassi: The Next Generation” early in his acting career. But it was music that would establish him as a global superstar; since 2006, he has been penning or producing hit song after hit song. 2010 saw the #1 debut entry of his debut studio album, “Thank Me Later,” on the hip-hop charts, and he hasn’t stopped since. He has relentlessly toured, made appearances on numerous music events and award ceremonies, and generally concentrated on expanding his fan base as much as he could.
Before taxes and living expenses, Drake’s career earnings have exceeded $430 million since his initial mainstream popularity.
From June 2017 to June 2018, Drake made $45 million in revenue. He made a total of $95 million in 2017. He made $75 million from June 2018 to June 2019. Over the next twelve months, he made fifty million dollars. For a detailed breakdown of Drake’s yearly earnings by year, scroll below.
Universal Music Group Contract
In May 2022, Universal Music Group said during the Q1 results call that Drake had inked a new contract with them that would be a “long-term worldwide partnership.” Everything was covered by the agreement, including “recorded music to music publishing, film, television, and brands.” Drake has made a few lyrical references to this deal. He rapped in one song about taking a deal that required paying “360 up front.” Given Universal’s confirmation, some have interpreted that line to indicate he was paid $360 million upfront for the agreement. The transaction is reportedly worth at least $400 million, according to other reports. Drake’s music catalogue alone had been bringing in $50 million a year for the corporation in the years before the agreement.
If the transaction was valued at $400 million after taxes, Drake could have received $200 million upfront.
Early Life
Aubrey Drake Graham in Toronto, Canada, October 24, 1986. Throughout his career, Dennis, the father of Drake, was a drummer who performed with artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Sandra, sometimes known as Sandi, was Drake’s mother and an English teacher. Drake conventionally celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and went to a Jewish day school.
When Aubrey was five years old, Sandi and Dennis got divorced. After that, his father relocated to Memphis, where he finally faced drug-related charges that led to his incarceration and years in prison. Even though Aubrey’s father was not incarcerated, he would spend every summer visiting him in Memphis, Aubrey continued to live with his mother in Toronto. Drake would later claim that Dennis was absent from his early years; Dennis has angrily refuted this claim and says it was made up to promote the song.
Drake and his mother resided in the lower level of a two-story townhouse in the Forest Hill upscale area starting in the sixth grade. Drake resided in the basement, while his mother occupied the floor closest to the street. They were not wealthy; in fact, they had very little money.
Drake discovered his passion for singing and acting while he was a student at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. Afterwards, he went to Vaughan Road Academy, where he experienced bullying because of his mixed-race and religious upbringing. After a period of abandonment, he eventually graduated in 2012.
Degrassi
Drake got his first break in acting at the age of fifteen thanks to the acting agent father of a childhood friend who helped him get a part in the popular Canadian adolescent drama series “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” He portrayed basketball player Jimmy Brooks in the show, who was shot by a classmate and later became crippled. He made guest appearances in 2008 in addition to being a cast member for seasons 1 through 7.
It was during Drake’s Degrassi appearance that his mother fell unwell and was unable to work. For several years, their only source of income was his Degrassi pay cheque. He was being paid $50,000 a year at the time for the show. That comes out to almost $2000 a month after taxes. Later on, he would say the following about this period:
“My mum had a serious illness. We were broke. The only source of income I had was Canadian television.”
Music Career
In 2006, Aubrey—who by then was using his stage name “Drake”—started putting out mixtapes, inspired by rap legends like Jay-Z who secured record deals after finding success as independent musicians.
His debut mixtape, “Room for Improvement,” was made available on his official MySpace profile and website in February 2005. He succeeded in directly selling over 6,000 copies. The next year, he dropped “Comeback Season,” his second mixtape. The mixtape was made available by him via October’s Very Own, a record label he recently founded (called OVO Records). This mixtape contained the underground smash song “Replacement Girl.” The song’s music video was the first to be shown on BET by an unsigned Canadian rapper. A sample of the song “Man of the Year” by Brisco, Flo Rida, and Lil Wayne was spliced into one version of the song.
After hearing the song, Houston-based producer and Rap-A-Lot Records founder Jas Prince gave it to Lil Wayne. After being impressed, Lil Wayne gave Drake a call and asked him to come on his Tha Carter III tour in Houston. Drake and Wayne composed and recorded some songs throughout the tour, such as “Brand New,” “Forever,” and “Ransom.”
Young Money Entertainment
Contrary to popular belief, Drake was not yet signed to Wayne’s record label. In 2009, he dropped “So Far Gone,” his third mixtape. On his OVO website, he made the mixtape available for free download. Bun B, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, Omarion, and Lloyd were among the guests on the mixtape. The mixtape peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA after being downloaded 2000 times in its first hour. Eventually, the mixtape was published as an EP, which won the 2010 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year and peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200.
Drake, who remained an independent artist, was suddenly in great demand in the music business. There was a bidding war as labels fought for his signature. There has been speculation that the desperate situation is “the biggest bidding war in music history,” however this has not been verified.
Drake inked a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment on June 29, 2009. Universal Music handled distribution for the record agreement, which was a joint venture between Young Money and its parent company, Cash Money.
Mainstream Success
Released on June 15, 2010, “Thank Me Later” was Drake’s first studio album. In both the US and Canada, the album peaked at #1. It peaked at number one on the US Rap, R&B/Hip Hop, and Billboard 100 charts. In the end, the RIAA certified it Platinum.
“Take Care,” his 2011 second studio album, also peaked at number one on many charts across multiple nations before going platinum six times.
Since then, every album has received at least four platinum awards.
One of the most prominent and successful figures in hip-hop and the music business overall is Drake. Many of the biggest names in music, such as Travis Scott, Jay-Z, Eminem, and Kanye West, have collaborated with him. Drake has received numerous award nominations. He has received over 180 significant honours as of this writing, including four Grammys from over 40 nominations.
Drake makes almost $1 million every time he performs.
Singles Sold
Compared to other artists in history, Drake has sold the most digital singles. He has sold over 163 million digital singles as of this writing. That’s forty million more than Rihanna, who came in second. With an estimated 26 million records sold, is the 80th-highest-selling musician of all time in terms of album sales. With Shania Twain (48 million) and Celine Dion (50 million), he is now the third-best-selling Canadian musician of all time.
Drake’s Earnings By Year
- 2010: $10 million
- 2011: $11 million
- 2012: $21 million
- 2013: $11 million
- 2014: $33 million
- 2015: $40 million
- 2016: $40 million
- 2017: $95 million
- 2018: $47 million
- 2019: $75 million
- 2020: $50 million
- 2021: $40 million
- 2022: $30 million
Total: $503 million
