Drake Reveals He Got ‘High’ for ‘Degrassi’ Audition as a Young Teen

On Wednesday, Drake — who starred as Jimmy Brooks in Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001 to 2009 — revealed in a voice memo on Instagram that he succumbed to "peer pressure" and "got high" before for his audition for the series as a young teen.

"Someone asked me the other night what my biggest fear is, and I've never really had a good answer for it, but my answer was 'that all this is for nothing,'" the rapper said. "The idea that one day life ends, and it just all goes black."

"I guess that question sent me, obviously, deep into a spiral, thought, and it makes me think about my life and how surreal it feels at times," he continued.

"I go back to this day when I was like 13 or 14. I had an audition for a TV show that ultimately shaped my life," he said, referring to the Canadian teen drama. "Before my audition, I went to this kid's house. And I, out of, I guess, a desire to be accepted, I would succumb to peer pressure, and I got high with these kids right before my audition."

He concluded, "I kind of wonder like, if something bad happened that day, or you know, maybe I'm still high, maybe I'm in some coma. And this is just, like, me playing out my ideal life. That concept has stuck with me for a lot of years. It feels like reality, it feels tangible. But I definitely wonder sometimes."

The series, which ran for 14 seasons from 2001 to 2015, followed the students of Degrassi Community School as they faced personal and societal issues. Drake's Jimmy was a promising basketball star who was shot by a classmate and left paralyzed.

Drake has remained close to his Degrassi costars throughout the years, even featuring them in the music video for his song "I'm Upset" in 2018.

The video starred Shane Kippel, Miriam MacDonald, Lauren Collins, Cassie Steele and Nina Dobrev as they walked through the school halls for their 2007 high school reunion.