By any modern measure of musical popularity � YouTube views, radio airplay, ring-tone ubiquity � the single �Best I Ever Had� by Toronto rapper Drake is not only a hit but is arguably 2009�s �Song of the Summer.� Since debuting on iTunes last month, the hip-hop lust track has sold 600,000 digital downloads and topped three pop charts.

Even if you can�t summon to mind its rap-sung vocals or brassy syncopated beat, you probably have heard �Best I Ever Had� blaring out of a convertible somewhere.
Less than a year ago, Drake was unsigned and virtually unknown as a rhyme-sayer. But thanks to some out-of-the-box branding efforts by several of the best-connected marketing executives in the urban world and the institutional backing of his mentor, rap superstar Lil Wayne, Drake landed two songs in the Top 10 this month � �Best I Ever Had� as a solo artist and �Every Girl� as part of the rap group Young Money. He already had amassed a devoted fan base before he even had landed a record deal.
Drake�s breakthrough arrives as a happy accident built on plenty of high-level networking, a label bidding war and an astonishing degree of cooperation among rap world big shots. Chief among them, Drake�s career overseers: the heads of the New York management company Hip Hop Since 1978 and Cortez Bryant, Lil Wayne�s longtime manager.
�They have given me one of the greatest situations in hip-hop,� Drake, 22, said of his team.
Although already famous in his native Canada for portraying a disabled high school basketball player on the teen television drama �DeGrassi: The Next Generation,� which also airs in the U.S., Drake (government name: Aubrey Drake Graham) didn�t exactly take the music industry by storm when he self-released a mix-tape, the appropriately titled �Room for Improvement,� in 2006.
�I was recording, and the music was decent. But I was on my own. I had no team in place,� Drake said. �What you learn as you progress is this business is based on relationships in a major way.�
After a subsequent mix-tape (as such al gratis digitally downloadable music compilations are known) brought the rapper to the attention of Lil Wayne, everything changed. The rap star, whose �Tha Carter III� was the bestselling album of last year, contributed a scorching guest verse on Drake�s September underground banger �Ransom,� effectively vouching for the newcomer�s legitimacy. More important, their �collabo� compelled Bryant to sign on as Drake�s manager.
From there, Bryant entered into a managerial tandem with the heavyweight firm Hip Hop Since 1978, whose marketing prowess has resulted in two of the biggest rap releases of the decade: Kanye West�s �Graduation� and �Tha Carter III,� both of which sold around 1 million copies in their first week of release.
The company�s principles � Gee Roberson, Kyambo �Hip Hop� Joshua and Al Branch � earned their stripes working at Roc-A-Fella Records, the influential label established by rap rainmaker Jay-Z in the �90s.
The plan, going forward, was to build Drake�s �brand� in much the same way they had built up West�s. According to Roberson, the key would be �old-fashioned artist development � the kind that doesn�t exist anymore.
�Put out a record and a video and work it station by station, city by city, club by club,� said Roberson, chief executive of Hip Hop Since 1978. �With Kanye, we put out his single `Through the Wire� and had him doing spot dates, opening up for established acts. That affiliation with a marquee artist makes the battle easier. Earlier this year, we had Drake on tour opening up for (Lil) Wayne. He was selling out 5,000-seat theaters. It�s a grass-roots way to build him up.�