How to Drake It in America

When he was just 23, the rapper Drake set a goal for himself: He’d make  $25 million by the time he was 25 years old by rapping about money, cars, girls,  and—here’s the bizarre part—his rawest feelings and emotions.    He achieved it.  Easily. Now 26 and readying his most inspired album yet, the Canadian sensation  has set a  new goal for himself. The approach is the same, but the endgame is  exponentially more ambitious

By Michael Paterniti   Photograph by Mario Sorrenti

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It begins at three in the afternoon—the pool party—about an hour after Drake  wakes in his manse in the San Fernando Valley. Another brightly scrubbed  California day, and Drake’s crew—the guys from Toronto who live with him  here—are downright joyous. It’s been a stretch of hard work, and everyone’s  eager to blow it up a little. Suddenly, bikinied women seem to materialize from  thin air, as if competing in a rap beauty pageant. Some are super chatty, some  aloof; some are full-bodied, some as wispy as a tamarack. A number swan about as  if in a museum or a music video, firing their iPhone cameras, while others take  dramatic, slow-motion strolls by the pool, as if this all will soon be theirs.

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