The ugly beef between two hip-hop biggies and entertainment world giants Drake and Kendrick Lamar seems to reveal a lot about Drake. Recently the online sleuths uncovered details about the former’s businesses and other holdings that started a buzz on social media.
The background of the fued
The rappers got in an online fight at the start of this year’s May, when drake on his track ‘Family matters’ accused Lamar- a pulitzer prize-winning megaphone for socially important matters- of being a domestic abuser. Then lamar in his song ‘they not like us’ accused drake of a certified paedophile. It went from jousting, to sledging, to putting serious criminal allegations.
Fans talking online led some of Drake’s critics to share public records from the U.S. that revealed personal and financial details about the 37-year-old rapper from Toronto.
People are interested in Drake’s records because they focus on his many businesses and his use of limited liability companies (LLCs).
What is an LLC?
An LLC is a type of business that separates a person’s personal wealth and assets from their business, while still giving them ownership of the business.
According to CBS News search, Drake has approximately 52 entities, of which 38 were LLCs.
Drake’s Assets AND LLC’s
Experts say, for a millioanaire like Drake, cashing $250 million, or possessing multiple LLcs or ventures of a legitimate buiness practice.
“It’s very common for people of very high net wealth to have an inordinate amount of LLCs at times,” said Robert Kleinfeldt, senior corporate counsel at U.S. law firm Romano Law.
“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 honestly advisable in many instances, when you have that kind of net worth,” said Kleinfeldt about Drake’s business practices. “It’s a good way of protecting yourself from potential creditors trying to reach your assets through no fault of your own, whatever the case may be.”
There are nine companies that reference the name DreamCrew, Drake’s famous media company involved in Netflix’s “Top Boy” and HBO’s “Euphoria.” Additionally, there are 18 companies that start with or include ADG, a reference to Drake’s initials, as his full name is Aubrey Drake Graham.
There are four additional companies with names starting with “Away From Home,” referencing a song from one of Drake’s latest studio albums. Three other companies use the name “Frozen Moments,” which was once speculated to be a personal record label for Drake.
At least three companies mention or hint at owls, which are symbolized by the golden stencil image representing Drake’s globally recognized OVO Sound record label.
The list of incorporated companies also includes Owl Creative Holdings, LLC, with Drake listed as the manager, and the uniquely named Strix S-Corp. In classical mythology, a strix is an owl-like creature known for feeding on human blood.
By dividing a larger business into multiple companies, individuals like Drake can protect each venture from being impacted by legal issues targeting another.
“You want to keep every single one of those businesses effectively segregated,” said Jonathan Garbutt, a Canadian tax lawyer with Dominion Tax Law in Toronto and Calgary.
This way, “any risks related to that project — such as getting sued or going broke — are isolated to that particular project and its assets,” Garbutt explained.
Drake’s Properties
– Drake owns a home in Toroto, which was mentioned in Lamar’s one of the diss tracks directed towards Drake.
– TMZ earlier reported about his multimillion-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills, California.
– According to CBC News Drake’s other two properties – an L.A. mansion he sold in 2022 and a Florida property he sold in 2012.
– In 2011, a track The Motto Drake raps that he owns ” a condo up on Biscayne” in Miami.
– Again in 2011, his posession of another two Miami Condos on Biscayne Boulevard, with a combined cost of $1.9 million US surfaced. According to the public documents, Drake bought the condos from the now-defunct Florida Leiview Boymelgreen Marquis Developers LLC, which was a partnership between the controversial businessmen Lev Leviev and Shaya Boymelgreen.
They are controversial because, they have been linked to the illegal construction of Israeli settlements in the west bank – including in a 2008 Quebec court case which was later dismissed, after courts decided the case would be better litigated in the Israeli judicial system. UNICEF, Oxfam and the U.S. investment firm BlackRock cut ties with Leviev after the allegations.
