When did Drake buy his Toronto home? Everything to know about his manor house where his security guard was shot

Rapper Drake's sprawling 50,000sq. ft mansion in Park Lane Circle, Toronto, became a crime scene as a shooting occurred outside the house's gates on May 7, 2024. Reportedly, the altercation injured a security guard. They took him to the hospital and the police stated he was in a serious but non-life-threatening condition.

Drizzy's Toronto mansion, dubbed "The Embassy," became the subject of debate as Kendrick Lamar used a satellite image of the house as the cover art for his latest Drake diss track Not Like Us, which was released on May 4.

According to Toronto Life, Drake bought the existing house and land in September 2015 and knocked down the old house to build his lavish 21,000-square-foot home designed by local architect Ferris Rafauli.

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Architectural Digest covered Drake's "The Embassy" in 2020

Drake became the proud owner of the YOLO Estate mansion in California in 2012, which boasted two ranches and an English Tudor-style mansion. But, as a native Torontonian, he wanted to put down roots in his hometown and bought a plot of land on 21 Park Lane Circle in the exclusive Bridle Path neighborhood for $6.7 million in September 2015.

“Because I was building it in my hometown, I wanted the structure to stand firm for 100 years. I wanted it to have a monumental scale and feel. It will be one of the things I leave behind, so it had to be timeless and strong,” Drake explained about the new mansion.

According to Architectural Digest, the luxurious 50,000 sq. ft mansion is stacked with amenities, including an NBA regulation-size indoor basketball court crowned by a 21-square-foot pyramidal skylight, an indoor swimming pool, a state-of-the-art recording studio with a retro vibe and a 3200 sq. ft primary bedroom, to name a few. The manor was constructed in the Beaux-arts style by Ontario-based architect Rafauli.

“In form, materials, and execution, the structure is a proper 19th-century limestone mansion. But the exterior profiles are more minimal and the lines are a bit cleaner. This isn’t stucco, paint, and fake gold. That’s not what Drake wanted, and that’s not what I do,” Rafauli said.

The 44-foot-high great room is one of the focal points for the manor, housing a bespoke concert piano made by Austrian piano maker Bösendorfer designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Rafauli.

Drake's self-proclaimed favorite of the house is the 3200 sq. ft primary bedroom, extending to an additional 1100 sq. ft of covered terrace. Calling the room a place to decompress, he added,

“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.”

The stately bed and bed base, which weigh roughly a ton, is a product from Rafauli’s new line for Hästens, called Grand Vividus.

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One person seriously injured in a shooting outside Drake's Toronto mansion

According to The New York Times, Inspector Paul Krawczyk said at a press conference that a security guard was injured in a shooting outside Drake's manor in Toronto at around 2 am on May 7.

The inspector also said he could not confirm whether the rapper was in the house at the time of the incident. He also shared that the police were still looking for the assailant, who reportedly fled the scene in their vehicle, by combing through CCTV footage.

He also said that the police were aware of the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, adding,

“I cannot speak to a motive at this time, because it’s so early, but as we get information we will share it with you.”

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The ongoing rap battle between Drake and Lamar escalated last week as the two veteran rappers threw serious accusations at each other via diss tracks. Lamar's latest track, titled Not Like Us, featured a satellite view of The Embassy covered with 13 markers that represent registered s*x offenders.

This is alluding to the rapper's allegations that Drake and his associates are "certified p*dophiles" on the track. The song is currently dominating the charts globally and in the United States, with over 24 million views on YouTube at the time of this article.

Drake denied these allegations in his track, The Heart Part 6, released on May 5, stating he was "too famous" to be a p*dophile.