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When Drake went public with his hopes of persuading Wiz Khalifa to join him on his upcoming Light Dreams and Nightmares Tour, everyone in the hip hop world expected the young rapper to jump at the chance. So it was a big surprise when Khalifa came back with a polite ‘thanks, but no thanks.’

The 22-year-old rapper explained that he was flattered by the offer, but wants to focus on his solo commitments for now – including his own upcoming Waken Baken Tour. “Just the fact of me being on his radar is tight, to me,” he said. “But I think to keep me poppin’ and keep me relevant I gotta stay buildin’ on top of what I’m doin’ and what I been doin’, I gotta keep focusin’ on what it is.”

Drake, who has scored hits with singles like Best I Ever Had, Successful, Every Girl (with Lil Wayne), Over, Find Your Love and Miss Me, says the tour will still go ahead as planned, but hasn’t ruled out getting in another rap support act. It starts on 21^st September at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.

Aubrey Drake Graham, better known as simply Drake, is a hip hop/pop artist from Canada.

Born 24^th October 1986 in Toronto, Ontario, Graham comes from a musical family. His father used to be a session drummer (who worked with artists like Jerry Lee Lewis), while his uncle Teenie Hodges was a popular rhythm and lead guitarist (famous for his work with Al Green) and his other uncle Larry Graham is a popular singer-songwriter, musician and record producer (who gained prominence as a member of the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone). Naturally, Graham took an interest in music from a very young age.

However, he actually began his career in the entertainment industry as an actor. In 2001 he took the role of Jimmy Brooks in the popular Canadian television teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. He remained in this role until 2009, appearing in a total of 138 episodes and one television movie.

While still a cast member on the show, Graham released the mixtapes Room for Improvement (2006) and Comeback Season (2007). They found their way to the US rapper Lil Wayne, who invited Graham to come and tour with him. He released another mixtape in 2009, entitled So Far Gone, which produced the US Top 20 hits Best I Ever Had and Successful, and was subsequently named Hottest Mixtape of 2009 by MTV. He also scored a Top 10 hit with the Lil Wayne collaboration Every Girl, and was subsequently signed to his label Young Money Entertainment.

Graham released his official debut album on June 15^th 2010. Thank Me Later debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 450,000 copies in its first week of release in the US and reaching platinum status in Canada within seven days.

To date the album has produced three Top 20 singles: Over, Find Your Love and Miss Me.