Tory Lanez is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. He was born on 27th July 1992 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His mother was of Dutch heritage from Curacao and his father was Bajan.
Although Lanez was highly appreciated in 2014 after he released his ‘Lost Cause’ mixtape, his major breakthrough, arguably came from his singles – ‘Say It’ and ‘Luv’. The songs respectively attained the number 23 and 19 spots on Billboard Hot 100. ‘Luv’ later earned Lanez a Grammy nomination for Best R&B song.
Tory Lanez is a stage name. He got the name when he was still a young child for refusing to wait for cross-lights. His real name is Daystar Peterson. Lanez would agree that the impatience that got him the name Tory Lanez has continued to fuel his motivation to succeed.
Introducing Tory Lanez’ Musical Style
It can be said with all certainty that like every other music genre, hip-hop has evolved into this current generation’s music genre of choice. Being the new pop music, hip pop has been driving the culture both musically and socially. With hip-hop being the culture of choice for many people around the world, varieties of young artists have been able to incorporate their styles with the sole aim of bringing beauty to the music genre.
For Lanez, he calls his music “Swavey” which is a blend of hip-hop rapping, R&B singing, and melody and drives from pop to Jamaican ragga. Lanez’ songs are mostly autobiographical, telling the story of his life and in part, talks about his unbridled ambition.
Speaking on his musical productions, the young rapper compares his record creation to making a movie, saying he does his best to make them real cinematic-record feeling. His “Swavey” music plays as a complete movie, it has skits, interludes, everything. “Luv”, Tory’s latest single mixes ragga with R&B and cold, ethereal synthesizers. The Canadian artist describes himself as a cultural person and that living in a cultural place such as Canada helped to build his strong musical skill.
Early Life and How He Rose To Stardom
Tory Lanez started rapping when he was only 9 years old. When his mom died of a rare disease in his childhood, his father became an ordained minister and a missionary. So he had to move a lot throughout the USA. At the age of 15, Lanez found out that he has lost his home and became homeless. But his passion didn’t die and he started performing in outdoor concerts for a living.
His debut mixtape was released in 2010, dubbed T.L 2 T.O. He also started directing some music videos and uploaded them to YouTube. One of his music videos caught the attention of Sean Kingston. Kingston asked Lanez for a meetup and offered him a deal. He accepted the deal and got signed with Sean Kingston’s Time is Money Entertainment record label. During his deal with the record label, Lanez started making many of his mixtapes. After cutting ties with the label, Lanez released his eighth mixtape.
In March and May 2012, Lanez released his 9th and 10th mixtapes respectively named ‘Ignant Shift’ and ‘Sincerely Tory’. His 11th mixtape named ‘Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story’ became one of his most famous mixtapes and earned him enough fame to release five singles.
Tory Lanez’s first album appearance was in 2014 when he appeared on YG’s album My Krazy Life. In the same year, another of his mixtape named ‘Lost Cause’ was released and was a great success. The rapper signed to Mad Love Records and Interscope Records in 2015.
With such hits as LUV (Single, 2016), I Told You (Album, 2016), Pa Mi (Single, 2018), Tory is no doubt on his way to fulfilling his dreams of becoming the biggest artist in the world. His career has seen him work with artists such as Soulja Boy, Sean Kingston, Kid Ink, Bow Wow, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, YG, Ty Dolla $ign, Meek Mill, and Yo Gotti
How Much Has He Made From His Singing Career?
For his accomplishments in the music industry which has majorly contributed to his estimated worth of $2.5 million, the Canadian rapper was listed in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 2017 Music Class.
Tory has continued to flourish in his role as a double-threat with his last five projects all securing top five debuts on the Billboard 200 (since his 2016 rookie campaign I Told You). This hybrid artist has no doubt married his passion for music with so much creativity in his bid to enlarge his wealth.
The rapper came to Toronto with nothing but has pulled his way up to an enviable spot within the entertainment industry. Good evidence of his inventiveness is his offer for people to become Citizens of Swavenation which would avail them a better opportunity to receive exclusive music, limited merchandise, and video premieres from him. This, according to him is his way to say ‘Thank you’ to his fans for their dedication. Often, Swavenation citizens receive invitations to secret dinners when he’s on tour so that he can spend time (with them) face to face.
While Swavenation is helping Tory to build his fan base, it also serves as a platform for the artiste to market and sell his brand of clothing. Lanez is also a fashion designer and has his own brand of clothing, named Crist. He also owns a store in Toronto named Forever Umbrella. His debut album ‘I Told You’ was released in August 2016.
Facts About His Personal Life
The ‘LUV’ hitmaker isn’t known to be currently in a relationship with anyone but there are rumors of him dating a Puerto Rican-Thai urban model and video vixen, Kaylin Garcia. The two, according to reports, started dating in 2016 and have been together since then. The rapper has previously been romantically linked to British female rapper, Stefflon Don. The two even collaborated in producing her ‘Senseless’ remix.
Other ladies Tory Lanez has also dated in the past include the Reality TV star named DreamDoll in 2014, and American rapper Trina, in 2015. In a lengthy Instagram post, the rapper once opened up about his preference for ‘regular’ girls over celebrities.
Is Tory Lanez Related to Drake?
Being a professional entertainer, Tory Lanez has spotlighted himself for several controversial reasons. Sometime in March 2016, he was in the news for instigating a riot. As it happened, the rapper was having a concert in Midland, Texas. It’s uncertain what got him pissed; while on stage he said to fans: “Let’s fuck this place up”. The concert literally became a battleground. Law enforcement officers were forced to shut down the show.
Six years earlier, he attracted much attention to himself after he challenged fellow Canadian rapper, Drake. Before the challenge, it was circulating that Tory Lanez is related to Drake. When Tory first started making waves in the industry, people started noticing the similarities between him and fellow Toronto rapper Drizzy, and dubbed him ‘Drake’s little brother’. But no, he isn’t related to Drake at all even though he hails from Toronto in Ontario, Canada – the same city as rapper Drake.
Lanez, in a video, dismissed the rumor and issued a challenge to Drake. Offering $10,000 he asked Drake to listen to his tracks from his second mixtape ‘Playing for Keeps’. He said he’d hand Drake the money if he didn’t like the mixtape.
Apart from the challenge, it is believed that Lanez has severally dissed Drake in his songs. Even his remix of Drake’s ‘Controlla’ has over 8.3 million plays on Soundcloud.
