Drake celebrated his 35th birthday this weekend with a star-studded bash in Los Angeles – and a pricey gift with a special history.
The Toronto-born rap superstar jumped on Instagram on Sunday to show off a Rolls Royce Phantom given to him by longtime friend and business manager Future The Prince (aka Adel Nur).
“Back in 2007 we used to finesse this Rolls Royce Phantom rental to convince people in the city we were destined to make it,” Drake captioned a throwback video clip showing him dropping off his future OVO partner Nicholas Carino. “I used to scrape together 5k a month somehow to keep up appearances.”
At the time, Drake was six years into his run as Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation (for which, according to a 2013 GQ profile, he was making $40,000 a year).
“We whipped this to Ottawa to see [rapper Belly] and [Amir Esmailian, now co-manager of The Weeknd] and to Montreal for my first show ever,” wrote Drake. "I used to pick up [Carino] and roll every day or wait outside [then-girlfriend Zineb Samir’s] class for her.”
Drake said he would also park the rented ride outside the condo at 15 Fort York in Toronto where he was working on what would become his 2009 mixtape So Far Gone.
“Even though I don’t recommend putting yourself in financial trouble for material things I realize now that this was just my way of extreme manifesting,” the rapper explained. “I needed to see it and feel it and have it to believe that I could see and feel and have anything I wanted.”
Drake said Future The Prince tracked down the car he used to “stress over” and gave it to him for his 35th.
“It’s mine now. Manifestation complete.
Drake donned a cowboy outfit for his party on Saturday night at Goya Studios in L.A., where the theme was “Chico Amante” – which translates to “lover boy.” Among the guests were French Montana, Offset, Jack Harlow, Future and Drake’s father Dennis Graham.