The police said that they did not know whether the shooting was related to the recent exchange of increasingly personal diss tracks traded between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
A man identified as a security guard for Drake was wounded in a shooting outside of the rapper’s Toronto mansion around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the police said.
The man was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound, Inspector Paul Krawczyk, a member of the gun and gang task force, said at a news conference at the scene on Tuesday morning. The suspects fled in a vehicle and remain at large; the police did not offer a description but said the shooting had been captured on video.
The shooting occurred outside the gates in front of Drake’s 50,000-square-foot mansion on Park Lane Circle in the North York neighborhood known as Bridle Path in Toronto, but did not involve the rapper, the authorities said. Drake was previously permitted to build fences twice as high as allowed by city law, citing a need for increased security.
The shooting followed a weekend of increasingly personal diss tracks traded between Drake and the Compton, Calif., rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose long-simmering musical rivalry resulted in the release of six songs in 72 hours, including detailed attacks involving family members and claims of abuse against women on both sides.
“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,” Inspector Krawczyk said at the news conference. He said that he could not confirm whether Drake was home at the time of the shooting, but that authorities had been in contact with the rapper’s team, which was cooperating.
The police said the victim, who was not identified, remained at the hospital in serious condition.
A representative for Drake declined to comment.
Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which was released on Saturday and taunts Drake and his associates as “certified pedophiles,” features an aerial shot of Drake’s home on a map as its cover art. The track is currently topping the charts globally and in the United States on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. The cover is edited to portray the home as dotted with markers meant to represent the presence of registered sex offenders.
Drake has previously referred to the location of his home, which he calls the Embassy, on tracks like “7AM on Bridle Path.”
Representatives for Lamar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Olivia Chow, the mayor of Toronto, said she had been briefed by the police but declined to offer any details.
“Any shooting is not welcome in this city and I hope the police will find the people that are violating the law and catch them,” she told reporters.
Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
