October 28, 2012 15:56

Drake delivers his high school graduation speech - watch

Rapper dedicates his new diploma to his mother during commencement address

Drake finally delivered his high school graduation speech, 10 years after he dropped out to appear in Degrassi: The Next Generation – you can watch him address his fellow graduates above.

Earlier this month, the rapper earned his diploma from Toronto's Jarvis Collegiate Institute, the school he dropped out of when he was 15 to star in the Canadian TV series, after he hired a private tutor this summer to help him pass his exams.

Speaking to his fellow graduates, Drake said: "I reached a point in my life where I realised that there aren't material things that can give me the excitement that I'm looking for. There's a void, there's a gap in my life that I need to fill and I needed to sit and think long and hard what that was.

"And it was the fact that I had left a gaping hole in my story of following through. So for five months, we talked back and forth on emails, we worked, we wrote papers, I studied for an exam, we figured out how I didn't close my chapter of following through."

Drake concluded his speech by dedicating his new diploma to his mum, "because she's a retired teacher and always wanted me to graduate," he said. "I think I'll sleep a little better tonight knowing that I found a way to follow through."

The former TV actor had previously posted his exam results to fans on Twitter, and told his followers that he had met his target by getting "97% on my final exam. 88% in the course".

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