Drake has had a busy 2026. If dropping three albums at once wasn’t enough, the Canadian rapper is making it a point to uplift the women in his life.
On Tuesday, the “Shabang” artist held his third annual “Strong Women, Stronger Drinks” event in Toronto. At the invite-only event at Casa Loma, the 39-year-old star handed out major gifts and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash — including one special present for a former castmate.
Andrea Lewis — who starred on Degrassi: The Next Generation as Hazel Aden alongside Drake, who portrayed Jimmy Brooks — shared a clip on social media of the rapper presenting a $50,000 gift to Lewis and nine other attendees.
“My TV boyfriend stays blessing me!” Lewis, who celebrates her 41st birthday on Aug. 15, penned in the caption to her post.
In the video, Drake can be heard saying: “This is poetic because me and Andrea used to be on Degrassi together.”
Online, people shared their awe. Fellow Degrassi alum also chimed in.
“Jazel stays winning,” the official Degrassi Instagram account commented, mashing up the names of the characters the two portrayed in the 2000s.
“Oh, come on, Aubs! It’s her B-Day! Double it!” Cassandra Steele, who starred on the show as Manny Santos, quipped.
“One thing about him is he doesn’t forget his day ones!” a TikTok user added.
“Ashley isn’t going to be happy about this,” someone joked, referencing Melissa McIntyre’s character, who also dated Drake’s character on the show.
Drake portrayed Jimmy on Degrassi: The Next Generation, and his character dated Hazel, who Andrea Lewis (right) portrayed. (George Pimentel/WireImage)
Attendees were also given welcome gifts in the form of $1,000, according to social media posts. Canadian sports journalist Kayla Grey was also among some of the women who received vehicles; the 33-year-old sportscaster shared a clip of herself winning a G-Wagon at the event.
Another clip showed the Toronto-born rapper gifting $100,000 to a handful of “creators, business owners [and] people who I deeply respect and am grateful for.”
Speaking to the crowd in another video, Drake said he was inspired to create the event after attending an event in 2007 or 2008 by Shannae Ingleton Smith.
“She used to do an event called What Women Want,” he noted. “It was essentially women gathering to network, to socialize and to be a man at the event, you had to work. I always loved that aspect of it. We would show up and work the event because that’s what the event was about.”
The “God’s Plan” artist continued to explain how the evening would work, noting the invite list was full of people doing “incredible things” in their industries.
“Whether you’re grinding or ascending to the moon, or somewhere in between. We hope that you can be social, talk to each other, learn from each other, and we have an incredible evening for you,” he said.
“We’ll do some giveaways and hopefully change some lives and then we’ll go inside and get drunk and do what we’re supposed to do.”
It’s not the first time Drake has given back this year. In June, he hosted an apology party in Toronto after his hit song, “Janice STFU,” sparked jokes, memes and backlash. The event — only open to people with the first name Janice and aptly called “Janice Day” — reportedly had up to 200 guests with some as young as Gen Z and others who are boomers.
Held at Cactus Club, attendees were reportedly treated to a three-course lunch, bottomless bellinis and tens of thousands of dollars in door-prize money. Similar parties were held in cities like Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.
Some guests received invitations from the rapper that read: “Hey Janice, sorry we might have ruined your summer. Let us make it up to you.”
Let us know what you think by emailing us or threading us @yahoocanada. Follow us on TikTok, WhatsApp and Instagram.
