Throughout his entire career, Drake has made it known how much his parents, Sandi and Dennis Graham, have influenced his story.

Born in Toronto to the Canadian school teacher and Memphis-born musician on Oct. 24, 1986, the “Hotline Bling” rapper grew up primarily raised by his mom, née Sandi Sher.

His parents, who met at a Toronto nightclub where Dennis was performing in the early ’80s, split when the future Grammy winner was 5 years old. Soon after, Dennis moved back to the United States, driving Drake from Toronto to Memphis with him every summer.

While the “God’s Plan” singer has admitted that he feels his parents “could have done a better job” with co-parenting in the wake of their split, he’s taking cues from their ups and downs as he navigates co-parenting his son Adonis, whom he welcomed with French artist Sophie Brussaux on Oct. 11, 2017.

“I’m just excited,” Drake previously said about fatherhood during an October 2018 episode of Lebron James‘ HBO series The Shop. He added that he was pulling from “all of the things I’ve learned from and through my father and the incredible things I’ve learned through my mother about patience, about unconditional love.”

Despite their ups and downs, Drake’s parents seem to be in a good place now. In January 2023, Dennis gave his ex-wife a shout-out on Instagram in honor of her 75th birthday. “Happy Birthday Pinky, we love you,” he wrote alongside a photo the family.

Most recently, Drake’s mom and dad were mentioned in Kendrick Lamar’s song “Meet the Grahams,” amid their ongoing rap battle.

Here’s everything to Drake’s parents — Sandi and Dennis Graham — and their relationship with the rapper.

Drake’s parents met when Sandi offered Dennis a cigarette

Before meeting Drake’s mom, Dennis already had a child from a high school girlfriend. He’d also been previously married to a waitress named Virginia, as he told Office Magazine in 2016, though they’d split by the time he made his first trip to Canada. It was there that he first met Sandi at a show he was playing with Jerry Lee Lewis.

“That’s where I met Drake’s mother. I was at the bar, asking the bartender where I could find cigarettes. So, she goes — Sandi, is her name —  she goes, ‘Here, have one of mine.’ And that was it,” he told the outlet.

He then moved to Toronto and married Sandi in June 1985, before welcoming Drake the following October.

Drake was almost given a different name

It turns out that Drake’s full name, Aubrey Drake Graham, was a compromise.

Sandi was raised Jewish, and according to Dennis, her mother wanted Drake’s name to be Abraham. Dennis wasn’t on board with the moniker, so they settled on Aubrey instead, while Dennis chose his middle name after himself.

“I named him Drake,” he told Office Magazine, explaining he previously used Drake Madison as his stage name while acting under Lee Strasberg in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Sandi and Dennis split when Drake was 5

Sandi and Dennis’ marriage was short-lived, with Sandi taking full custody of Drake by 1991.

In the wake of their split, Drake lived with his mom and mainly saw his dad in the summers.

“I was really hard on my parents for giving me sort of a childhood that I had to wrap my mind around as I grew,” Drake said on his The Shop appearance. “Multiple times I sort of suggested that they could have done a better job at co-parenting, sticking together, not being so divided.”

Now a single father himself, Drake hopes to set a better example for his son Adonis.

“I am a single father learning to communicate with a woman who, we’ve had our moments,” the artist said of his relationship with Brussaux. “No matter what happens, I have unconditional love for the mother of my child because I want him to love his mother and I have to project that energy.”

“I didn’t come from that [peace],” Drake continued. “I came from my mother being like, ‘Your dad is this.’ My dad would never speak ill of my mother — ever, ever, ever. My mother is the nicest, kindest, sweetest woman, but she’s a woman scorned and a woman who is exhausted.”