

That kind of self-referential playfulness makes Drake a hero to a certain crowd. There’s also a post-bar mitzvah “party” that gets wild, with guests chugging Manischewitz and rapper Lil Wayne joyfully smashing a skateboard into a table. In 2012, he released a music video for his song “HYFR” that purported to be a “re-bar mitzvah” that showed Drake rapping and praying in a Miami synagogue in front of family friends and music friends. Not only did he have a bar mitzvah himself, but in 2017 he threw a bar mitzvah-themed birthday party. Drake played up his Judaism in a 2014 skit on “Saturday Night Live,” doing a satiricial re-enactment of his bar mitzvah in a wig and kippah, rapping “I’m black and Jewish/it’s a mitzvah” over a klezmer clarinet.īar mitzvahs seem to be a theme for Drake. It’s not that his Jewishness is a secret.

“Jewish men in particular really know Drake is Jewish - and love that,” said Alex Fraknoi, a San Francisco-based Jewish rapper. Some of his fans, though, are definitely in on it. While public musings over his ethnicity are not uncommon on internet forums, few fans apparently ask Google if he’s Jewish - it doesn’t even come up as one of the top 10 search results for the query “Is Drake …”? I feel like they might? Some people might know.” “They probably - hmm, I’m not sure,” mused Pifko, a senior at Jewish Community High School of the Bay. Still, his Jewishness is not widely known among his many fans, like Leila Pifko. Talking matzah and plagues…Happy Passover.Ī post shared by champagnepapi on at 5:22pm PDT (He would return to graduate from high school.)ĭrake also told the magazine that he’s “proud to be Jewish.” He occasionally posts Instagram photos of Passover and Hanukkah gatherings, and told Rolling Stone that “I celebrate holidays with my family.”
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I was always the last kid to get the invite to the party,” he told Rolling Stone in 2014.Īt 15, however, his life changed when he was cast on “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” a Canadian teen TV drama he was on for six years. “I didn’t have the worst time, but I did have a hard time. According to earlier interviews, he went to a public high school that was largely Jewish but felt he didn’t fit in and was the target of racist remarks, including “shvartze.”
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His father was African-American, a professional drummer from Tennessee, but Drake was raised primarily by his white Jewish mother, a grade-school teacher. He was born Aubrey Drake Graham and grew up in Toronto. His most recent album, “Scorpion,” is an even bigger hit - all 25 songs appear in the top 100 chart - and has spawned at least one viral meme.īy any measure, Drake is an unusual Jewish celebrity. He broke onto the music scene in 2009 with “So Far Gone,” which had a single that peaked at No. “It’s still not ‘cool’ to be a Jewish hip-hop artist,” Bay Area DJ Maxwell Alegria said.ĭrake, 31, is known for his down-tempo music, at times sensitive lyrics and a mischievous sense of humor. And for Jews, he’s an anomaly, dominating a genre that isn’t exactly known as a Jewish milieu.

In 2014, Rolling Stone called Drake “the biggest Jewish rapper since the Beastie Boys.” Now he’s just one of the biggest rappers of all.įor pop culture watchers, he’s a slippery enigma who changes roles and even accents from song to song, all the while keeping his place on top of the charts. The Canadian rapper and singer during his career has set or matched records owned by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Whitney Houston and Paul McCartney. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for most of this year. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) - Drake has held the No.
