Before Drake became Drake, he played a basketball star named Jimmy Brooks for more than six years (2001 to 2008) on the canadian TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation.
During his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Drake revealed he smoked marijuana for the first time before his first ever acting audition to help relieve some nerves.
Read: Drake was a cast member on the TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation
“It was the first audition I went on, but it was a real pivotal day in my life because it was also the day that I finally got accepted by these real cool Jewish kids at school,” Drake told fallon on the day he went on his Degrassi audition. “I had a really tug-of-war moment where I actually did something I probably shouldn’t have done that starts with W and ends with eed…That was my first time and we did it out of a starts-with-a-b-ends-with-a-ong. It was crazy because that was my first time. I started really getting paranoid. I thought I had completely ruined my life. I was splashing water on my face constantly like a Clearasil commercial.”
Drake says he was devastated about his act and couldn’t tell his mom that he smoked marijuana but he got a call back and landed the role of Jimmy Brooks.
In November 2019, Drake announced his involvement in the cannabis industry would be a joint venture with Canadian giant Canopy Growth Corporation (NYSE: CGC). The cannabis and wellness brand More Life Growth is majority owned by Drake, who has a 60% share of the company, with Canopy holding the other 40%.
Update: The video has since been deleted but you can watch Drake play Jimmy below.