Drake's security firm set up months after rapper was 'freaked out' by uninvited visitors to his home

The security firm operating outside Drake's Toronto mansion was established four months after a repre‐ sentative for the rap star said he was "freaked out" and required "heavy secu‐ rity outside" his home, ac‐ cording to public records reviewed by CBC News.

In September 2019, the city granted Drake an exemp‐ tion to have extra tall fences built around his property in the posh Bridle Path neigh‐ bourhood. City officials were told that despite multiple cal‐ ls to police, security was being "left in his hands."

A shooting outside the mansion early Tuesday morning - which left a secu‐ rity guard seriously wounded - has brought the global su‐ perstar's home security arrangements into focus.

The man who was attack‐ ed has not been identified and Drake has not spoken publicly about the incident.

A vehicle parked at the scene provides clues about the firm handling the rap‐ per's security.

The white Nissan Rogue stationed near the property's front gates bears the name Jungle Lion Security. A neigh‐ bour and another man who works at a nearby property both told CBC the vehicle is parked there around the clock.

'Everyone knows where he sleeps'

Provincial company records obtained by CBC show Jungle

Lion Security was incorpo‐ rated on Jan. 30, 2020.

About four months before the security company was formed, a representative of an architecture firm then hired to work on Drake's property laid out the rapper's need to have guards on duty 24 hours a day in a public meeting with city councillors.

At the time, Drake ob‐ tained an exemption from the City of Toronto to have a taller-than-standard fence in‐ stalled around his newly-built mansion. The application in‐ cluded a request to build "fencing, columns, security walls and gates (that would) exceed the height permitted by the bylaw, between 3.0 and 4.42 metres."

"Everyone knows where he sleeps, where he eats and that has really freaked him out, us out, and we need heavy security outside," Brad Rafauli, vice-president of Fer‐ ris Rafauli Architectural De‐ sign Build Group, told Toron‐ to's North York Community Council on Sep. 16, 2019.

Rafauli said the number of uninvited visitors - fans and "people who think they're meeting the client" at all hours is "very, very sig‐ nificant."

He said police were fre‐ quently called to the prop‐ erty but "nothing is really done, so the security is really left in his hands," referring to Drake.

In May 2009, Drake was reported to have been robbed at gunpoint after leaving a restaurant in Toron‐ to's Little Italy. The following year, he told the New York

Times that he felt "unsafe" in the city "at all times."

WATCH | Toronto police are investigate after a shooting outside Drake's mansion:

Security vehicle linked to Drake himself

It's not clear whether Jungle Lion Security em‐ ployed the unidentified secu‐ rity guard who police said was injured early Tuesday morning in an apparent dri‐ ve-by shooting.

Ontario Transportation Ministry records show the li‐ cence plate number associ‐ ated with the Jungle Lion Se‐ curity vehicle parked outside the mansion is registered to Drake himself, listed under his birth name, Aubrey D. Graham.

The vehicle features a Toronto phone number and the slogan "Canada's #1 provider of security services."

Multiple calls to that num‐ ber were not answered and a voicemail message left on Wednesday was not re‐ turned.

Jungle Lion Security does not appear to have a web‐ site. A message sent on Tues‐ day to a LinkedIn account registered in the firm's name was not returned. The com‐ pany's name does appear in a registry of private security firms published by Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor Gen‐ eral.

Nessel Beezer is the only person named in the firm's profile report, provided by the province's Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery.

Known to Drake's fans as

Chubbs, Beezer is widely re‐ ported to be the rap star's head of security. He has ap‐ peared with Drake in public and in the music video for the rapper's 2013 hit, Hold On, We're Going Home.

Provincial records show Beezer is also associated with multiple business ven‐ tures bearing the name Jungle Lion, including Jungle Lion Management, which op‐ erated the now-defunct Drake-affiliated downtown Toronto sports bar, Pick 6ix.

Jungle is also the name of a song by Drake from his 2015 album, If You're Read‐ ing This It's Too Late.

Several questions re‐ main unanswered after shooting

A Toronto police spokesperson told CBC on Thursday morning that inves‐ tigators had no update to provide on the case.

On Tuesday, the force said officers responded to a call at Drake's address at about 2 a.m. after a security guard had been shot near a gate in front of the property.

"He was shot from a vehi‐ cle which then fled the scene," the Toronto Police Service said in a media re‐ lease. Earlier, a police source had described the incident as a drive-by.

Police said the victim was taken to hospital in serious condition. Investigators have since provided no update on the man's condition.

Steve Summerville, a former Toronto police detec‐ tive, told CBC Toronto's Metro Morning that investi‐ gators will need to gather key details from the security firm.

The questions Summervil‐ le said police will be asking include whether guards "were on high alert," and whether they were "provided any intelligence with respect to anticipated challenges."

LISTEN | Unpacking Drake and Kendrick's rap beef:

Drake has been embroiled in an escalating musical feud with California-based rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Toronto police Insp. Paul Krawczyk said on Tuesday he was aware of the beef, but that it was too early for in‐ vestigators to establish a mo‐ tive for the attack.