Drake Proud To Be ‘A Naija Man’ After Learning His Dad’s Ancestry Results

Drake is proud to announce his “Naija” roots after learning his father’s ancestry.

The Grammy award-winning rapper took to Instagram Sunday to post the results from his father’s ancestry test. According to the image, Drake’s dad, Dennis Graham, is 30% Nigerian.

“This is my dad’s results, does this mean I’m a Naija man finally?” Drake asked his followers.

Drake DNA Ancestry shows he is 30% Nigerian pic.twitter.com/SMjcE56U2r

— Naija (@Naija_PR) May 8, 2023

The results show Drake’s dad is listed with a 30% makeup from Nigeria, 28% from Cameroon, Congo, and Western Bantu Peoples, 11% for Ivory Coast & Ghana, another 8% for England and Northwestern Europe, and small percentages from Scotland, Mali, Benin and Togo, and Germanic Europe.

Drake, real name Aubrey Graham, is biracial and grew up splitting time between his parents after their separation. Drake’s dad is an African-American Catholic drummer from Memphis, Tennessee, who once performed with country musician Jerry Lee Lewis. Drake spent most of his childhood in Toronto with his mother, Sandra “Sandi” Graham, a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew, who worked as an English teacher and florist.

Growing up biracial and living in the culturally and ethnically diverse city of Toronto, Drake grew up embracing people from all racial backgrounds.

“Well, Canada’s like a cultural melting pot, especially Toronto. America, I come here sometimes and I witness, like, real segregation,” he told the Village Voice in 2011, via My Houston Magic.

In fact, Drake says he didn’t really start to notice issues of racism and segregation until he traveled to the United States and was educated by his peers.

“Like when you go to LA and it’s like, “This area’s Mexican, and this area’s white.” That’s crazy to me because in Toronto we have cultural areas—’OK, this is Little India, this is Chinatown, this is where there the Greek people are’—but it’s not segregated,” he explained.

Drake also credited his biracial makeup with making him more relatable to rap fans around the world.

“I get a lot of love everywhere in the world for just being diverse, instead of just being straight out [one thing]. I’m all mixed up and people embrace that,” he said.

But growing up in an ethnically diverse city didn’t stop the “Hotline Bling” rapper from hearing comments about his light skin.

“I mean, I’m so light that people are like “you’re white.” That’s what I get more than anything, people saying “you’re white, you’re not black,'” he shared.

“But I mean those are whatever, those are just silly jokes. That’s like ‘the light-skinned complex.’ That’s a very American thing as well, light skin and dark skin, like I don’t even notice that. Girls will be like, ‘Oh I’ve seen you talk to dark-skinned girls, that’s so good.’ And I’m like, “Why? I talk to any girl!’ I talk to anybody, you know?”