Drake Shares Invoice That Reveals He Was Paid $100 CDN to Open for Ice Cube at a 2006 Concert

Mar. 15, 2025

Drake, Ice Cube.Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Idol Roc, Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Noir Blanc

Drakedidn’t lie when he rapped about starting from the bottom.

Earlier this week, the rapper reportedly shared a post from Toronto-focused concert history accountThe Flyer Vaulton his Instagram Stories, featuring an invoice that revealed he was paid a mere $100 CDN to perform an opening slot forIce Cubeat what was likely Drake’s first live performance.

The invoice detailed the concert, which was held Aug. 19, 2006 at the now-defunct Kool Haus venue in Toronto, and featured several redacted dollar amounts — including the 53-year-old rapper and actor’s payout for the headline show. For his opening set, Drake, 35, was paid $100 in Canadian dollars, which currently equates to about $72 in US currency.

According toseveralnewsoutletsand screenshots shared onTwitter, Drake later reposted the invoice and confirmed its validity. “This is for anybody getting 100 a show right now… keep going,” the “God’s Plan” performer reportedly wrote alongside The Flyer Vault’s post.

Drake often doesn’t shy away from recognizing the early stages of his career. Long after transitioning from actor to full-time rapper, he featured several cast members fromDegrassi: The Next Generation— the Canadian teen drama credited with launching his career — in the music video for2018’s “I’m Upset.”

He starred as James “Jimmy” Brooks on the hit series when the 2006 concert alongside Ice Cube went down, so the $100 wasn’t his only income. However, he toldComplexin 2001: “A season of Canadian television is under a teacher’s salary, I’ll tell you that much. It’s definitely not something to go f—ing get.”

In July, Drake posted a set of throwback pictures onInstagram— one of a younger version of himself and the other of Jeff Bezos at a desk in his primitive Amazon office before it became the powerful shopping hub it is today.

In the first picture, Drake looked back at the camera as he stood in front of a door marked 1503. According toComplex, the doorway belongs to an old apartment at 15 Fort York in Toronto, Canada, where Drake and his friend Noah “40” Shebib recorded most of his work for his mixtapeSo Far Gone.

The “Way 2 Sexy” rapper references 15 Fort York in his song “Know Yourself.”

“Gotta start somewhere,” Drake captioned the photos.

source: people.com