Drake says being robbed at gunpoint was `valuable lesson`

The Canadian - real name Aubrey Drake Graham - says he was mugged in May last year while on a date in his hometown of Toronto.

In an interview with US GQ, Drake, 24, says: 'A city is unpredictable.

'One night I took a girl out and got robbed at gunpoint - two guns, in fact. I wasn't even really Drake yet.

'I knew it was a set-up, because I had on a sweater and a jacket, but when they banged on the car window with a gun and opened the door, the first thing he said was, 'Yo, run that chain'.

'They didn't rob her, and her purse was sitting right there.

'So I was like, 'OK, yup - you set the whole thing up'.'

Drake had $4,000 and several pieces of jewellery on him at the time of the attack - all gifts from his mentor Lil Wayne.

The incident happened a month before one of his first hit singles, Best I Ever Had, soared to the top of the hip-hop charts.

But Drake focuses on the positive side of the attack. He tells GQ that the incident was 'not horrible'. He says: 'It was a valuable lesson.'