Where does Drake rank among the richest rappers in the world? He is the most streamed musician of the past ten years and sells out every stadium and arena he performs in several nights. His endorsement deals with Apple, Sprite, and Nike were successful on all fronts, and he now invests a variety of brands under his OvO product line as well as blue chip and startup stocks. Through an evolving international distribution strategy, Drake's Virginia Black whiskey continues to break sales records and generate income.
According to the Billboard Musician 100, where he frequently sits at the top, Drake is currently the second most popular artist in the world behind Taylor Swift. The next two hip hop artists in line are Meek Mill and YoungBoy Never Broke Again. With a record 258 songs appearing on the Billboard 200, 54 of which made it to the Top 10, and nine of which took the top spot, Drake's discography, which crosses genres, continues to be the best-performing of his contemporaries.
I was so shocked to find his position on the list of the Top Ten Richest Rappers of 2022. Actually, he is eighth on the list. the eighth position, last of the ten. Only Usher and Ice Cube are placed ahead of Drake in the list of the ten richest urban musicians who are also business owners, behind Pharrell, Eminem, and even Master P. How does that function? His investments, four significant donations to startup fundraising rounds in 2021 alone, and many personal projects that have benefited from his massive cache regularly make the news.
For starters, Drake, who is just 36, has far less skin in the game than Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, or, dare I say it, his business partner Kanye West, who have all invested heavily over the previous ten years in sectors like IT, retail fashion, and cannabis (all of which are places Drake has put his money).
Despite still being young, Drake has a very excellent resume. His production firm, DreamCrew, which he co-runs with Adel "Future" Nur, creates Top Boy and the presently in development hugely popular Euphoria. Along with Marissa Mayer, the rap icon still has money invested in Players' Lounge, an e-sports betting site. However, recent developments suggest that Aubrey's money is likely about to become the hare in the rap billionaire tortoise race.
Drake's promising investments in fintech and fast service restaurants this year aside, it could be reasonable to infer from his failures alone that he lacks business knowledge and aptitude. Drake's entered the restaurant industry twice, however both ventures ended in closure due to a number of gang violence and worker rights problems. His collaboration with Canopy Growth, the industry leader in cannabis branding, was eventually dropped.
Most recently, The 6ix God's most recent passion project has been delayed in typical fashion. A month's worth of decent bookings were initially scheduled for History, a mid-scale live music venue, to make its splashy debut on the East Side of Toronto this October, but on Thanksgiving Monday it was reported the facility would be postponing its inaugural events. When the city announces its return to 100% capacity live events, a news release blames COVID-19 restrictions, but many believe the real cause was a lack of planning and management.
In advance of History's upcoming premiere, we analyzed Drizzy's business endeavors and where all of his money is going; some were profitable, others weren't; some companies are still in operation, while others have long since closed; all were analyzed to provide context as Drake negotiates the market for affluent rap investors and presumably climbs the mountain of billionaires.
October’s Very Own
Drake's lifestyle company, which he co-founded with his tour manager Oliver El-Khatib, originally began as an entourage blog to document the pop star's rapid ascent. Since then, it has developed into a record label, music festival, and product brand that has produced a number of popular fragrances and a popular apparel line. called OvO (get it?)
In contrast to any extremely superior designs, Drake's fashion retail brand is more heavily reliant on the cache of its face. This product strategy may be more in line with the actions of his mortal enemy than it is with the one he chooses to use. The "Anaconda" Air Jordan 3, the Bape 1st Camo snowboard jacket, the Canada Goose Chilliwack, and a line of varsity wear with the uniquely American brand Roots are just a few of the respectable collaborations OvO has to its name.
Virginia Black
Drake's proximity to the premium brand empire of Brent Hocking generated significant profits and name-brand value. With 1,779 bottles sold on opening day through the LCBO, 4650 in its first week, and 30,000 cases in its first year, their Virginia Black Whiskey, established together in 2016, broke records. With gateway nodes like vanilla and caramel appearing in every review of a flavor profile, it is now available in Australia and the Dubai International Airport. As an initial brand aiming for universal appeal, it has received positive reviews. There doesn't appear to be much growth other from that; Virginia Black's Instagram has only updated twice in the previous two years, and a $30 million round of fundraising led by Cambria Capital in 2018 postponed the sale of shares until this year.
Fring's & Pick 6ix
Until you looked into the wrongdoings of his close buddy and renowned fixture of the Toronto food scene Chef Susur Lee & his colorfully influential sons Kai & Levi, Drake's journey into the adventures of restauranteering seemed like a curse in the eyes of an industry vet. Their Fring's, a restaurant on King Street West co-owned by Drizzy and featuring Western and Lee's distinctive Asian fusion, debuted in the summer of 2015 to a warm reaction and chic guest appearances from Jayden Smith, Serena Williams, and Drake, who ran the DJ tables from the start.
After a Lee restaurant tipping controversy hurt sales, it closed in 2018. Two years after the restaurant's opening, allegations that upper management was withholding front-of-house tips to cover the cost of spilled drinks, server mistakes, and dine & dashes were found to be true, in violation of Canadian workplace law and leading to a public relations crisis for the Lee brand as employees at Fring's testified to being intimidated. In April of that same year, the restaurant's liquor license was also canceled due to complaints of overcrowding and a lack of care on the part of the bar personnel, who were serving customers to the point of "immoderate consumption." Instead, the restaurant's social media outlets attributed the one-week closure to remodeling. Four months later, the restaurant served its last patron.
On Yonge and Wellington, Drake's other restaurant concept called Pick 6ix closed its doors in February 2020. After receiving unfavorable reviews when it first opened in collaboration with sushi chef Antonio Park of Montreal, it was relaunched as a sports bar in 2019 following multiple occurrences. On May 20, 2018, just hours after Drake made an appearance at the restaurant, three suspects chased a customer at Pick 6ix down a parking lot, shot him 20 times, and fled in a Honda Civic. Then, in August, after flooding from a downpour, the restaurant remained shuttered for nearly seven months before the last piece of the puzzle—$70,000 in unpaid rent—was driven in.
Canopy Growth
When market juggernaut Canopy Growth Corp. severed their agreement in June 2017, Drake's initial foray into the cannabis industry came to an end. Late in 2019, Canopy made a 40% equity investment in Drake's More Life Growth Co. The two businesses intended to collaborate on a two-floor Scarborough building to cultivate around 4 tons of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis yearly. As the distributor of Seth Rogen's Houseplant and Martha Stewart-branded CBD isolate gummies on recommendation from legendary Canopy investor Snoop Dogg, Canopy at the time already had an impressive portfolio of useable intellectual property. In August 2020, the firm informed Bloomberg that Drake was low on their list of cross-promotions and that the relationship had "not been advancing as originally envisioned."
Companies have reorganized their promotional strategies as a result of The Cannabis Act's strict Canadian Endorsement Regulations, which prohibit celebrities or fictional characters from commercially endorsing cannabis retail brands: In Canada, the "Leafs by Snoop" brand was rebranded "LBS," and Rogen never made any public remarks about his association with Houseplant, which ended in July. Drake's reluctance to use his name to advertise his cannabis business may have contributed to its demise, but More Life's primary business plan of investing in physical stores in the midst of a quickly shifting post-COVID retail environment, according to the company, was a huge warning sign.
"I would say that [More Life] has not been progressing as originally intended and we're still working on details to determine where it goes," CEO David Klein told BNN in a phone interview, "it may be something that can't get to where we all want it to go. In many regards, at its essence, it's almost a real estate play where More Life is going to do a lot of activity on cannabis destinations. I don't know if that still fits anybody's way of thinking, at least in the COVID world." Since then, Canopy has transformed the Scarborough building into an R&D wing.
Drake aggressively invested his money in a line of reliable, diverse assets in 2021, indicating that the superstar would soon be making a lot of money, despite the difference between his position as a rap businessman and his customary one as the most streamed musician on the planet.
Overtime [April 22]
Sports Media Company
Round of Funding: $80 million
Drake has invested in Overtime, a firm that uses social media sites like Snapchat, YouTube, and Facebook to deliver unique sports video, along with Jeff Bezos, Alexis Ohanian, and other NBA players. In case they decide against pursuing NBA careers, the company has just created a basketball league for 16 to 18-year-olds and is providing them six-figure wages and additional scholarships.
Daring Foods [May 19]
Plant-based food company
Round of Funding: $40 million
A clear goal for expansion in the foreseeable future, given that chicken has become the most popular meat in the US. Because of its convincing recipe that metabolizes its product from soy protein at a time when a large portion of the population is embracing plant-based diets, Daring Foods, a practically new company that began to appear on shelves in 2020 and in select US Costcos in March, is creating a stir in the industry. By the end of this decade, the worldwide plant-based chicken market is anticipated to reach $8 billion.
Wealthsimple [May 3]
Online Investment Management Service
Round of Funding: $750 million
Prior to the GameStop fiasco, Wealthsimple's $5 billion valuation caused quite a stir. It attracted significant investments from five venture capital firms, including Meritech, Greylock, Dragoneer, and iNovia, as well as Canadian celebrities Ryan Reynolds, Michael J. Fox, and yours moi. 2 million people across the country use the services offered by Wealthsimple, which includes Wealthsimple Cash, a peer-to-peer money transfer app, Wealthsimple Crypto, a commission-free stock trading platform, and Wealthsimple Trade.
Dave’s Hot Chicken [September 22]
Quick Service Restaurant
Round of Funding: unknown
After opening in 2017, Dave's Hot Chicken faced long lines and criticism for not upholding proper social distance when it joined Toronto's crowded food service market in February. Since then, as part of an aggressive growth strategy that included three openings in a week in Houston, Santa Ana, and Santa Rosa just last month, they have added two additional sites in Leslieville and Midtown. With the help of other significant investors, including Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and Samuel L. Jackson, Dave's hopes to increase the number of outlets by the end of the year.