Toronto Mascot: Drake shares a joke during an NBA game of the Toronto Raptors. Photo / Vaughn Ridley, Getty
Canadian rapper Aubrey "Drake" Graham makes a lot of music about success and what he's done for his home town of Toronto.
However, latest tourism studies show there's more substance to his claims than the usual boastful hip-hop braggadocio.
His fifth album Scorpion has broken records for the most online audio streams in an opening week.
The new record's 750 million streams equate to an eye-watering amount of cash.
More than just lining the rapper's pockets, his success has marked an uptick in visits and tourism spending for his Canadian hometown of Toronto.
The ongoing chart success and heavy incorporation of Toronto in his music has netted US$440m (NZ$645m) or about 5 per cent of the city's tourism economy.
Vice News dubbed the rapper a "walking economic stimulus package" for the city.
A lot of this comes from Drake's use of local landmarks and cultural references in his music.
His album Views From the 6 – a reference to the Toronto area code – featured Drake sat pensively on top of the city's CN Tower.
Until then, the landmark — which could be a double for Auckland's Sky Tower — had been considered an eyesore. It was famously airbrushed out of the many films which choose to use Toronto's streets as a cost effective filming location — often doubling for busier US cities.
Yet in the wake of the local rapper's success, Toronto has a new lease of civic pride — and it's not just tourism figures and Canadian self-esteem that have been boosted.
Local businesses are also benefiting from the "Drake effect" — such as Joso's Restaurant, which appeared on the cover of his 2011 album Take Care.
"At least once a week we get a note with reservations saying 'we want the Drake table, please'," said the restaurant's manager, Marnie FitzGerald
Tourists regularly pose for photos in the corner table and the obliging waiting staff have grown used to their restaurant's new found celebrity.
Jamaican fast food shop The Real Jerk in Riverdale was used as a location for a video collaboration between Drake and Rhianna. The music video has now clocked up over a billion views on YouTube and has brought in hundreds of orders for music fans.
"This has been huge. There have been people taking selfies, people doing poses outside the building. You have all these young kids with their parents dropping them off to have lunch so they can see the place. It's really just blown us away," said restaurant owner Edward Pottinger in the Toronto Star.
"He's helped rebrand the city. He's kind of made himself the same as Toronto," said brand consultant Gordon Hendren speaking with Vice News. Hendren's calculations have valued the rapper at $440M to the local economy, not taking in to account new business or events attracted to the new, trendier Toronto.
The city is undergoing a renaissance. Once a famously nondescript backdrop for Hollywood films, Toronto is now the proud home of musicians and top flight TV shows such as Suits.
Toronto has also cashed in from further star connections to Meghan Markle – now Duchess of Sussex – who filmed her role as Suit's Rachel Zane there since 2011.
Mirroring Drake's own ascent to the top of the charts, it seems the city has brushed a chip off its shoulder as an American doppelganger and is basking in new-found Canadian cultural cachet.
'At least I got to do some sightseeing.'