Update, May 12, 11:54 a.m. ET: After PopCulture.com published this article, some major updates were made on the case. Police revealed that the victim in the shooting at Drake‘s compound was a security guard. The guard was said to be standing at the home’s front gate when an unknown assailant shot him. It is unclear if the shooting had anything to do with Drake‘s feuds with Kendrick Lamar and other hip-hop artists.
There have also been three further security incidents at the “One Dance” rapper’s Toronto estate, which is known as “The Embassy.” On Wednesday, an alleged trespasser appeared on the property, and similar incidents occurred on Friday (per NBC News) and on Saturday (per TMZ).
Original Story, May 7, 10:27 a.m. ET: One person was injured in a shooting near Drake’s home on Tuesday morning, according to a report by TMZ. Police responded to the scene and are investigating the alleged shooting, while the unnamed person who was “seriously injured” has been taken to a hospital. Drake himself was not injured in the shooting, sources said.
Toronto’s Police Operations’ social media accounts posted alerts of a shooting at around 2 a.m. local time. They described the location within the city, and local news outlets soon confirmed that it was the home of rapper Drake – whose real name is Aubrey Graham. His home is especially recognizable to fans right now because an aerial photo of it was used as the album art for Kendrick Lamar’s recent diss track, “Not Like Us.” Naturally, commenters are speculating that the beef has something to do with this attack, but right now there’s no reliably reported motive, nor a suspect.
Police believe the shooter fled the scene in a vehicle, but they did not release descriptions of the suspect or their car. They did create a perimeter around Drake’s home, and videos from local news outlets showed police swarming the property. It’s still unclear if Drake was at home at the time of the incident, although insiders said that he has been spending most of his time in Toronto recently.
So far, neither Drake or Lamar have publicly addressed this shooting. The two have been exchanging diss tracks for several weeks now, and they ramped up in frequency and intensity this weekend. In his lyrics, Lamar accused Drake of pedophilia, and of shielding himself and members of his entourage from criticism or consequences of sex crimes. He released “Not Like Us” on Saturday night, using a satellite view of Drake’s home for the album art. It even included a street name in the photo, and it has a cluster of pins over the house that are meant to resemble sex offender registry map markers.
Drake’s lavish home has been well documented before, and local reports indicate that his address was common knowledge to Toronto locals. Photo tours of the rapper’s mansion are popular online, showing a 50,000-square-foot compound with an indoor basketball court and a professional recording studio. Those tours also emphasize the security measures around the house – it has high walls surrounding the property and is situated in a private neighborhood full of other wealthy residents.
Local reporters promise more details on this shooting coming soon, and police say their investigation is underway. Fans on social media are anticipating a direct address from the rapper himself as well.