Gerald Hanks
A documentary due for release this summer promises to show the journey that turned a young Canadian actor into one of the most popular and influential rappers of his generation.
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Filmmaker MarQuis Trill’s documentary “From Toronto to Houston” shows how former teen actor Aubrey Graham transformed into the platinum album-selling rapper known as Drake.
Trill posted the trailer for the documentary on his Instagram page. Trill also cites the numerous Houston performances Drake gave as he was coming up in the rap genre, which he was there to film.
“He credits Houston for the culture and the impact it had on him with launching his career,” Trill wrote in his Instagram post, “specifically on May 8, 2009, the show at Warehouse Live.”
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At the time, Drake was only 22 years old and had come off a successful run on the Canadian TV high school drama “DeGrassi: The Next Generation.” Less than two months after his Warehouse Live show, Drake would sign with Lil Wayne’s label, Young Money Entertainment.
The trailer opens with an interview with Jas Prince, the son of Houston’s Rap-A-Lot Records Founder James “J” Prince. According to the interview, the elder Prince told his son to find talent. The trailer also includes Drake doing a shout out/call back, where he would shout “H!” and the crowd would respond with “Town!”
The clip shows him partying with other Houston rappers and celebrities, including at an outdoor party where he holds a large white Styrofoam cup, made famous by Houston rappers as they would sip “sizzurp,” a combination of soft drinks, candy and cough syrup from them.
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Drake also further cemented his relationship with H-Town by creating “Houston Appreciation Weekend” (HAW) in 2014. The weekend featured a charity basketball game, a concert, and of course, parties packed with champagne and beautiful women.
No official release date has been announced for the documentary, but Houston is likely to get a screening, possibly for HAW 2018.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdomJuRn0dK/?taken-by=marquistrill
