A new article in the Toronto Star describes Drake’s rise to fame, and includes quotes from Linda Schuyler. Drake’s level of success has been blowing our minds for the last few months, and this article is no different. It describes Drake as “rap’s hottest property” and states that he is searched online even more than Eminem, who just released a new album. Here’s an interesting excerpt in which they describe his time on Degrassi and growing up as a racial minority:
Degrassi co-creater Linda Schuyler remembers Drake (it’s his middle name) as “very charismatic, even as a rather awkward 13-year-old when he started here. He had a way of connecting with people. We would do these mall tours, 3,000 to 4,000 teens screaming for the Degrassi kids, and you could see that Aubrey set off that energy.”
Wilson said the offspring of a Memphis-based black musician dad and white Jewish educator in Forest Hill is a border-hopping barrier-crosser. “He’s Canadian, he’s half-Jewish, that’s a novelty,” he explained. “Stereotypes of region and race are being challenged, yet he has no credibility issues and he’s comfortable in his own skin.”
It wasn’t always that way. In 2006, Drake spoke with the Star about being a racial minority at Forest Hill Collegiate. “It was very awkward,” he said. “I never had a girlfriend. Not one of those girls would bring me home. It would be too risky.”
“His parents represented two different sides of life,” said Schuyler. “As he got older, he needed to find ways to reconcile those two different influences. Music was a wonderful outlet for him and he turned out to be extraordinarily talented.”
Read the full article right here.