Although Drake has had a string of hits on radio and in the club, from his own “Best I Ever Had” to collaborations like “Forever” and “Say Something,” the pressure was on for the first official single from Thank Me Later to deliver. And, judging from the reaction he’s getting from some of hip-hop’s biggest tastemakers, Drizzy has another smash on his hands with “Over.”

Over is real dope,” DJ Statik Selektah said. “He could have chose to run with a soft, candy-coated record, but he didn’t. The beat is crazy. I’m looking forward to his album!”

I love this record,” DJ Khaled told MTV News. “It’s amazing! It’s special! Drake did it again! It’s a hit!

I think Drake’s record is dope,” said host of MTV2’s “Sucker Free” and Power 105.1 on-air personality DJ Envy. “I know he had a lot of pressure and the world staring at him, but I think he delivered. He did it his way — outside the box.

Drake’s song talks about how he’s dealing with his fame since coming on the scene last year. • Read full story

LOWDOWN: Drake’s LP is a reflection of how the upstart Toronto MC has become hip-hop’s new leading man. “I tried to capture every great moment I’ve had in the last year,” he says. “It’s triumphant.” To wit: He raps about a presumed love affair with Rihanna and his friendship with mentor Lil Wayne on “Fireworks.” Drake mostly eschewed big names in favor of home-town producers (Boi-1da, Noah “40″ Shebib) and a collaboration with New York indie rockers Francis and the Lights. “It’s gonna be interesting,” he says. “I hope it’s pleasing to the ear.”

Source: Billboard.com

Drake coached a basketball team in his “Best I Ever Had” music video, and he recently had a chance to call plays with NBA legend Magic Johnson during the NBA All-Star Game festivities in Dallas.

Drake and Magic’s team beat the squad coached by Alonzo Mourning and assistant coach Mario Lopez. Common, Chris Tucker and Pitbull were among the celebs who played with athletes such as Rick Fox, Chris Mullin and Terrell Owens.

Magic, an NBA Hall of Famer, said working with Drake earned him cool points at home.

“Drake is bringing a lot to the table, man, with a young audience,” Magic said in Dallas. “He’s from Toronto. I think he’s bringing it hard and heavy, you know? My daughter said I was cool because I was coaching with him instead of him coaching with me. All right, thank you!” • Read full story

It’s almost time for the 2010 JUNO Awards and our boy Drizzy is up for the 4 nominees. The award show is broadcasted in Canada and is basically the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. Drake is also set to perform that night live on CTV on Sunday, April 18 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Expect ATF to post coverage from the event.

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

Rusted From The Rain – Billy Talent

Anybody Listening – Classified

Best I Ever Had – Drake

Haven’t Met You Yet – Michael Bublé

Love Is A First – The Tragically Hip

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Carly Rae Jepsen

Danny Fernandes

Drake

Justin Bieber

Shiloh

RAP RECORDING OF THE YEAR

Still Fly _{Big Page} ft. Drake

Self Explanatory – Classified

So Far Gone – Drake

Yes! – k-os

Troubadour – K’Naan

Grammy-nominated recording artist Drake will join undefeated World Boxing Council super lightweight champion Devon Alexander “The Great” during the boxer’s walk to the ring for his world championship unification match on Saturday at Mohegan Sun that will be televised live on HBO (9:30 p.m. ET/PT) from Mohegan Sun. The event is being promoted by Don King Productions.
Drake will perform his smash-hit “Forever,” which will provide a perfect opportunity to play to the song’s lyric, “Last name ever, first name greatest,” as Alexander’s ring nickname is “The Greatest.”

Shinan Govani from The National Post compiled a “Worthy 30″ list of men from Toronto and Drake made the cut.

Drake (née Aubrey Graham) Age 23. Sign Scorpio. Gig Forest Hill-raised Degrassi kid turned Grammy-makin’ scorchingly hot rapper. Drink of choice Sprite. “Just did a commercial for them!” Celebrity twin “Quite possibly Drake.” Wheels On Degrassi (before his worldwide fame) he played a character in a wheelchair. Dream date Once told a radio host, “I like to throw on sweatpants and cook — give a nice massage.” Fun fact Told MTV.com last year: “I like older women, period. I never end up dating — seriously — women that are my age.” Oh, and his grandmother, he’s said, actually babysat Louis Armstrong way back when!

Read more: National Post

The marriage between hip-hop and R&B has done wonders for artists over the years. Unfortunately, British soul singer Sade says the concept isn’t something she’s ready to commit to. Rapper Drake, who was very optimistic about the possibility of working with Sade on his upcoming album, ‘Thank Me Later,’ will now have to face the reality that the collaboration won’t happen anytime soon.

Drake told MTV last month, “The melody she [Sade] chooses to use and her voice, it has that dark, sexy feel that a lot of my music has. Hopefully there will be a great Drake and Sade record for the people to listen to, and hopefully it’ll be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” So much for wishful thinking. • Read full story

The wait is almost over. Drake has selected the first single from his highly-anticipated debut album.

The first offering from Thank Me Later will be called “Over.” Drizzy exclusively tells Rap-Up.com that the track was produced by fellow Canadian Boi-1da, who is responsible for two of his biggest hits, “Best I Ever Had” and “Forever.”

The Young Money signee went through a painstaking process before choosing the right single. “Before I start working a single, I need to get about 10, 15, 20 songs done so I can pick from a batch of music as opposed to just committing to something right now,” he told Rap-Up.com in November. “It takes a lot for me to put a song onto that list. It’s gotta be a real great song. It’s gotta be something that I feel is timeless and is better than anything that I’ve ever done.”

The album, due this spring, is expected to feature collaborations with Jay-Z (“Light Up”), Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, and The-Dream (“Shut It Down”), as well as production from Kanye West, Noah “40” Shebib, and Tone Mason.

Source: RapUp

Rapper Drake, speaking to MTV News’ Sway at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night (January 31) about the nominations he received for his breakout hit “Best I Ever Had.” (Sadly, Drake didn’t come away with any hardware — he was beaten by Jay-Z in both the Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance categories.) As Quentin Tarantino noted during his introduction of the hip-hop performance that saw Lil Wayne, Eminem and Travis Barker also grace the stage, Drake has already scored some exceptional musical accomplishments despite not having released a real album yet (the nominated track came from his much-buzzed-about mixtape So Far Gone). As far as that album is concerned, he may need the So Far Gone buzz to keep going a little while longer. • Read full story

Last month, 10 up-and-coming MCs started getting fresh like it was their first day of school. They had to be camera-ready to shoot the annual “Freshmen 10″ issue of XXL magazine. The special edition of the publication has become a hip-hop tradition, as they give the nod to 10 mic masters they feel will be the next big stars.

In 2008, names like Saigon, Lil Boosie and Plies made the cut, while last year, B.o.B, Charles Hamilton, Wale and Asher Roth graced the cover. Other members of the ‘09 class were Kid Cudi, Ace Hood, Curren$y, Blu, Mickey Factz and Cory Gunz. • Read full story

Vanderbilt University is preparing their Rites of Spring Music Festival, which takes place Friday, April 23rd, and Saturday, April 24th. Among the line up is October’s very own, Drake. If you plan on visiting Nashville, TN around those dates, be sure to check out the show. This also confirms the missing date from the tour date lineup.

Tickets are available to the general public and will go on sale Monday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m. central time at all Ticketmaster locations, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 745-3000.

With the NBA All-Star game getting under way this weekend in Dallas, Drake and LeBron James are set to judge the amateur Sprite Slam Dunk contest. The event takes place this Friday Saturday at 9:00 p.m. and will also feature a performance by Drizzy.

Source: Rap Rader

Drake is teaming up with Sprite to launch their “Spark” campaign, which is aimed at giving teens a platform to express their creativity through music and film. This is Sprites first global campaign as well as Drakes first worldwide deal.

My management brought it to me and explained the initial idea and the message behind it and I was all for it,” Drake tells Billboard.com. “The campaign is really about creativity through music and film and promotes fresh thinking and originality. I guess they recognized my potential based off what has happened with my music career in the last year. I think it’s a great thing to be responsible, in a way, for exciting young kids. • Read full story

Amanda Bynes has laughed off reports her new mystery boyfriend is Drake, insisting she’s never even met the Canadian rapper.

The “Hairspray” star has been regularly updating her Twitter account to give hints about a new man in her life, and she prompted speculation of a romance with Drake with one message, which revealed her lover failed to win at the Grammy Awards last week.

She wrote, “The guy I love is the most talented person ever!!!!!! I’m irritated that a certain guy didn’t win certain awards. … He deserved them!!!”

Drake was nominated for two prizes at the 2010 ceremony but went home empty-handed.

Now the actress has taken to Twitter once again to rule out any romantic link with the “Best I Ever had” hit maker, writing, “FYI (for your information) I’ve never met Drake! We have a mutual friend but we haven’t met yet! So for some reason people think we’re dating but we’re not!”

Read more: SFGate

The release date of Drake’s highly-anticipated debut album may still be up in the air but he is still making his presence felt in other ways. The Toronto rapper has teamed up with Sprite for the first commercial of its recently launched “Spark” campaign, aimed at giving teens a platform to express their creativity through music and film. The campaign is the brand’s first-ever global marketing push as well as Drake’s first worldwide deal.

“My management brought it to me and explained the initial idea and the message behind it and I was all for it,” Drake tells Billboard.com. “The campaign is really about creativity through music and film and promotes fresh thinking and originality. I guess they recognized my potential based off what has happened with my music career in the last year. I think it’s a great thing to be responsible, in a way, for exciting young kids.” • Read full story

Below are tour dates for Drake’s upcoming “Away From Home” tour that will begin on April 6th in Charleston, Illinois and end on May 8th in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Confirmed dates are below:

4/06/2010 Charleston, IL Eastern Illinois University
4/07/2010 Columbus, OH Private Location
4/09/2010 State College, PA Penn State University
4/10/2010 Boston, MA Private Location
4/11/2010 Lock Haven, PA Private Location
4/14/2010 East Lansing, MI Michigan State University
4/15/2010 Rochester Hills, MI Oakland University
4/16//2010 Morgantown, WV West Virginia University
4/21/2010 Orlando, FL University Central Florida
4/22/2010 Greenville, SC Furman University
4/24/2010 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
4/26/2010 Kansas City, MO University of Missouri – Kansas City
4/27/2010 Lexington, KY University of Kentucky
4/29/2010 Lowell, MA University Mass Lowell
4/30/2010 Syracuse, NY Private Location
5/01/2010 Boston, MA Private Location
5/01/2010 East Rutherford, NJ Bamboozle Festival
5/04/2010 Worcester, MA Holy Cross
5/05/2010 Towson, MD Towson University
5/06/2010 Cheyney, PA Cheyney University
5/07/2010 Ithaca, NY Private Location
5/08/2010 Plymouth, NH Private Location

Sunday night, Drake took the stage with his mentor and current Rolling Stone cover star Lil Wayne for a highly anticipated collaboration with Eminem at the Grammys. After the big show, the 23-year-old rapper was exuberant about the appearance, but somber about Weezy’s upcoming prison sentence, which is expected to begin on February 9th.

“For me and Wayne, it was just such a full circle moment,” Drake said of the Grammys. “We started out this year on a mission for him to bring up some new artists under his label, Young Money. It’s very rare that an artist is successful in that, bringing up somebody and having the world recognize somebody else that they believe in,” he added (Drake received two Grammy nominations this year). “We had a great moment onstage. I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. It was amazing.” • Read full story

Billboard has a poll up to vote for the Sexiest Person(man x woman) in Music. Drake is amongst the artists to vote for. Here’s a little blurb:

The Billboard office has seen its share of arguments, but few have been as heated as our recent discussion about the sexiest people in music. Many names were tossed around, and it quickly became apparent that one person’s “totally hot!” is another’s “absolutely not!” So before we started turning over desks and strangling each other with headphone cords, we decided to turn this deabate over to the real experts: you.

Take a look at the lists below and tell us which stars have really brought sexy back. Vote now and vote often — we’ll tally the results and reveal your top 10 males and females by Valentine’s Day.