Aubrey Graham is like most of us in a lot of ways.
He had jobs and pursuits growing up, dabbled in a few things here and there, earned a paycheque doing different things until finally settling into something that now, looking back, he’s been doing for sixteen years and counting.
He’s done okay for himself these sixteen years, finding himself, at age 36, wondering where it will all lead. And lucky enough to say that, financially anyways, he appears to be set. So set that he’s actually thinking about retiring from his day job. To do what after? Not really sure about that, but if anything, Graham has always demonstrated an ability to stay busy and productive, if that’s what he wants to do.
Aubrey Drake Graham is professionally known by his middle name, Drake, and he just happens to be a giant in the world of hip-hop music. In a 22-second clip from an interview with Lil Yachty, Drake mused about retirement from hip-hop, making what he called a “graceful exit.”
Since many hip-hop fans consider Drake to be the king of the genre, any talk of his retirement, no matter how gracefully executed, is very bad news. Social media is already awash with fans posting about the demise of hip-hop without its GOAT, or Greatest Of All Time.
And it’s not just fans who are struck by his musings. Think of every artist who has put out an album featuring a track or two of Drake. Unless he’s thinking about making the odd cameo performance for another performer, his absence as a guest artist could deny some up-and-comers the boost that Drizzy, another name, had provided for their forerunners.
Seriously, though, the guy may well feel he’s accomplished all that he can in his sixteen years of massive success. Money for a retirement nest-egg is not the most pressing concern, as he’s made hundreds of millions of dollars in the music industry.
What would a young, talented, handsome, vital, and relatively down-to-earth guy like this do with himself? Golf? Play shuffleboard? Cocktails at 3? That’s the stuff of a Canadian snowbird in Florida. I don’t see it.
Drake has too much talent to just disappear. Not just as a studio and performing artist, but in other areas as well. He was once an actor, appearing as Jimmy Brooks in Degrassi-The Next Generation. He’s a successful businessman. And possibly the number one fan of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, where he has the run of the sideline and seems to be missing only a spot on the bench with the boys. Being court-side at a Raptor’s game must be a head-swivelling experience. “Look! There’s Lebron James!” “There’s Steph Curry!” “There’s Giannis Antetokounmpo!” “There’s……..DRAKE!!!”
Whether you’re a fan of hip-hop or not, Drake has been a terrific and prolific performing artist wrapped around what is, by all accounts, a decent human being. Wherever life brings him, and whatever he does, all those good qualities will go right along with him.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 