Amid the feud between Drake and his Los Angeles-based rival Kendrick Lamar, on-line sleuths uncovered particulars concerning the former’s companies and different holdings that began a buzz on social media.
Over the course of April and May the 2 prolific rap artists, extensively thought of two of the very best of their era, exchanged a collection of diss tracks airing their private grudges.
Chatter on-line between followers led to a few of Drake’s naysayers posting public information obtainable within the U.S., revealing private and monetary particulars concerning the 37-year-old Toronto rapper. CBC News obtained a group of comparable paperwork, sourced from the American knowledge goliath LexisNexis, Pacer and others, and took a more in-depth have a look at the multi-Grammy profitable artist and his enterprise dealings south of the border.
Much of the curiosity surrounding the information centres on Drake’s many companies and what some recommended is an overuse of restricted legal responsibility corporations (LLC). An LLC is a sort of enterprise that permits a person to separate their private wealth and property from an owned enterprise, whereas nonetheless permitting them possession over that enterprise.
The CBC News search confirmed that Drake had included roughly 52 entities, of which 38 had been LLCs.
Multiple LLCs
But consultants say, for an individual like Drake with an estimated net worth of $250 million, having a number of LLCs or different included ventures is a respectable enterprise apply.
“It’s very common for people of very high net wealth to have an inordinate amount of LLCs at times,” stated Robert Kleinfeldt, senior company counsel at U.S. regulation agency Romano Law.
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“Donald Trump has quite a few of them… That is a form of asset protection: When you have that kind of net worth, you kind of have a bull’s eye or a target on you for what can be frivolous lawsuits at times.
“It’s actually advisable in many situations, while you have that type of internet price,” said Kleinfeldt about Drake’s business practices. “It’s a great way of defending your self from potential collectors attempting to succeed in your property by way of no fault of your individual, regardless of the case could also be.”
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There are several clear themes among some of the 52 entities’ names. Others are mysterious.
For example, one of the first viral tweets drew attention to the ominous name of Silence Policy, LLC, which listed the Toronto rapper as its manager. There are no surviving websites or other documentation for the company, which has shut down, other than in online, corporate databases. Its former address (which is the same for almost all of the 52 companies) is a building complex in Beverly Hills which counts Playboy offices and several Hollywood accounting firms as tenants.
There are nine companies referencing the name DreamCrew — Drake’s well-known media company, part of the teams behind Netflix’s Top Boy and HBO’s Euphoria — and 18 beginning with or including ADG, a nod to Drake’s initials, his legal name being Aubrey Drake Graham.
There were an additional four companies whose names begin with Away From Home, a reference to a song on one of Drake’s latest studio albums and three using the name Frozen Moments, which at one point was speculated by at least one outlet to be a personal record label.
At least three companies made mention of or allude to owls. The golden stencil image of the nocturnal bird is the globally recognized symbol of Drake’s OVO Sound record label.
And according to the list of incorporated companies there is an Owl Creative Holdings, LLC showing Drake as the manager, and the oddly named Strix S-Corp. In classical mythology a strix is a sort of owl-like creature known for feeding on the blood of humans.
Dividing a larger business into multiple companies allows people like Drake to protect each of those ventures from being affected by another if it comes under legal pressure and funds are targeted.
“You wish to maintain each single a type of companies in impact, properly, segregated,” said Jonathan Garbutt, a Canadian tax lawyer with Dominion Tax Law, which has practises in Toronto and Calgary.
That way, “any dangers associated to that venture and — getting sued or having, you realize, going broke or something to do with that individual venture — are remoted to that individual venture and the property of that individual entity.”
L.A. mansion, Florida condo
Since Lamar made the art for one of his diss tracks an image of Drake’s Toronto home, Drake’s properties have also become a topic of conversation, which the Toronto rapper has frequently bragged about in his music.Â
TMZ reported earlier this month that Drake has re-listed his multimillion-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. — which some have taken notice of in light of it being in Lamar’s home state.
While he reportedly owns more homes elsewhere in the U.S., the records obtained by CBC News show two of Drake’s former properties: an L.A. mansion he sold in 2022 and a Florida property he sold in 2012.
In his 2011 track The Motto Drake raps that he owns “a condominium up on Biscayne” in Miami. In that same year, Drake bought two Miami condos on Biscayne Boulevard, side-by-side units purchased for a combined cost of $1.9 million US, then renovated into one and flipped to former NBA player Mario Chalmers in 2012 for $2.4 million US.
According to public paperwork, Drake purchased the condos from the now-defunct Florida developer Leviev Boymelgreen Marquis Developers LLC, which was a partnership between controversial businessmen Lev Leviev and Shaya Boymelgreen.
Leviev and Boymelgreen have been linked to the illegal construction of Israeli settlements within the West Bank — together with in a 2008 Quebec court case which was later dismissed, after courts determined the case can be better litigated in the Israeli judicial system. UNICEF, Oxfam and the U.S. investment firm BlackRock cut ties with Leviev after the allegations.
Representatives for neither Boymelgreen or Leviev returned multiple requests for comment about their sale of condos to Drake and their involvement in West Bank settlements.
Drake’s public relations team declined to comment to CBC News on the record about his many companies or about the Miami condos.
