Remember the chintzy, pimped-out McMansions from the long-running MTV series Cribs? The Toronto home of blockbuster recording artist Aubrey Drake Graham is quite unique. Drake’s extraordinary home, measuring 50,000 square feet and featuring features such as an NBA regulation-size indoor basketball court topped by a 21-square-foot pyramidal skylight, is undeniably opulent. Instead of vast expanses of cheap drywall and mountains of ungainly furniture upholstered with a hоt glue gu𝚗, stately Drake Manor, as imagined by Canadian architectural and interior designer Ferris Rafauli, is a marvel of old-world craftsmanship, made of limestone, bronze, exotic woods, and other noble materials. Every aspect of the huge property has been properly planned and implemented. There’s no Scarface poster in sight.
Two sculptures by Kaws flank the home’s entrance. Custom bronze-and-solid-marble chandelier by Rafauli; Escarpment Light and Nero Marquina marble cover the floor.
“Because I was building it in my hometown, I wаnted the structure to last for 100 years. Drake explains that he wants his passion project to have a massive scale and vibe. “It will be one of the things I leave behind, so it had to be timeless and strong,” he says.
The residence, known as The Embassy, is inspired by traditional Beaux Arts architecture but has been distilled and slightly abstracted to give it a more contemporary feel. “In form, materials, and execution, the structure is a typical 19th-century limestone mansion.” But the outside features are more simple, and the lines are a bit cleaner,” says Rafauli, who has his own luxury design/build firm in Ontario. “This is not stucco, paint, or imitation gold. That’s not what Drake intended, and it’s not what I do.”
Rafauli characterizes the crazysexycool interiors as “modern Art Deco,” referring to a classic historical design that has been altered and revived to reflect both the spirit of the times and his high-profile client’s DNA. “Once you’ve decided on a style, you can dance within it,” the designer notes. Drake insisted, “It’s overwhelming high luxury.” That message is conveyed by the scale of the rooms, as well as the materials and details on the floors and ceilings. I wаnted to ensure that people could see the work I’d done over the years from all angles.”
Indeed, the grandeur of the rooms sets the tone for the home experience from the moment one enters the massive entry hall, which is encased in solid limestone with beveled inserts of Nero Marquina marble beneath a faceted ceiling of ancient mirrors framed in bronze. The gigantic big chamber, which reaches 44 feet high, amps up the volume even further. A bespoke concert grand piano by the venerable Austrian piano maker Bösendorfer, designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Rafauli, sits nestled within a portal defined by floor-to-ceiling macassar ebony panels set alongside bronze screens fronting more antique beveled mirror. “Drake’s entire life revolves around music, so he wasn’t going to buy just any piano. “This prized possession is an authentic marriage of artistry, craft, and quality,” Rafauli writes.
The second jewel in the great room is a massive version of Lobmeyr’s famed Metropolitan chandelier, which was originally created by Hans Harald Rath for the Viennese manufacturer to decorate the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1963. The stunning light sculpture is the world’s second largest installation of its sort, using over 20,000 hand-cut Swarovski crystals.
The designer’s allusions to Art Deco style become more evident in the sumptuous canary-yellow lounge, which, like numerous other areas in the house, can be seen in Drake’s music videos for “When to Sаy When”/”Chicago Freestyle” and “Toosie Slide.” The room’s crowning feature is a foliate ceiling of concentric illuminated hexagonal panels covered in Alcantara faux suede, with a large Venini-glass sunburst chandelier suspended in the center. Rafauli custom designed all of the furnishings in this room and throughout the house, using materials ranging from colored ostrich skin and mohair to macassar and bronze.
Drake’s favorite room in the house is his 3,200-square-foot master bedroom suite, which has an extra 1,100 square feet of covered terraces. “The bedroom is where I come to decompress from the world at the end of the night and where I open my eyes to seize the day,” he continues. “The bed lets you float, the shower lets you escape and gather your thoughts, and the closet makes you want to talk to yourself while you’re getting dressed.”
As always, God is in the details. The bed and bed base, which weigh almost a ton and cost more than many people’s whole homes, are from Rafauli’s new Hästens range, Grand Vividus. The headboard, which is embellished with an antique mirror and channel-tufted leather, includes a whiskey-and-champagne bar on the reverse side. The nightstands have mother-of-pearl inlays, and the bedding includes an Alexander McQueen hummingbird tapestry from The Rug Company.
The master bathroom’s showpiece is a 4,000-pound tub made of faceted black marble carved from a single block. Drake’s two-story closet is as impressive, with amethyst hardware, rock crystal, and diamond-tufted shearling seats with polished nickel studs. It’s the ideal setting for displaying the musician’s enormous wardrobe, sneaker collection, and collection of priceless Hermès Birkin bags, which he has amassed over years.
The hits keep coming. There’s the world-class recording studio, which Drake likens to “eccentric 1970s studios mixed with Annabel’s in London”; the well-used kitchen that features the first stove from Rafauli’s new line for La Cornue; the awards room, which tells the story of Drake from his childhood to his years on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation to his reign as a Grammy-winning artist; the hall of sports jerseys displayed in museum-like vitrines; and the indoor sw
When surveying the splendors of his Canadian pleasure palace, Drake takes the long view: “I think the house shows that I have true faith in myself to take on this task when I was just 27 and see it through,” says the now-33-year-old superstar. “I also think the house says that I will forever remain solid in the place I was born.”
