Daystar Peterson (born July 27, 1992), better known by his stage name Tory Lanez, is a Canadian recording artist, songwriter, record producer, director, fashion designer and entrepreneur from Toronto, Ontario. He received major recognition from his mixtapes, Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story (2013) and Lost Cause (2014). In 2015, he released the single, "Say It" and got signed to Mad Love Records and Interscope Records. The song peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. He is currently preparing to release his debut album, I Told You in 2016. Early life[edit] Daystar Peterson was born on July 27, 1992, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His father (Sonstar Peterson) was Bajan[1] and his mother (Luella Peterson) was of Dutch heritage from Curaçao.[2][3] He and his parents were living in Montreal, before they moved to Miami, Florida.[4][5] At the age of 9, Peterson began rapping, and he was 11 years old, when he found out that his mother was gravely ill with a rare disease and later died. Following his mother's d**h, his father began working as a ordained minister and also a missionary, which causes them to move frequently throughout the United States.[6][7] During his younger years, Peterson's father remarried and the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he met a janitor (Hakeem). Hakeem gave Peterson the name Lanez, because he would be running around the street without watching for traffic.[8] In 2006, he was sent to live with his mother's friend in New York City, because of his behavior issues. Following that, Peterson was forced to return to Toronto with his grandmother. Since she refused to take care of him, he was on his own at the age of 15. "I ended up moving downtown with these three dudes that I didn’t really know. I came into the house and I didn’t realize how things worked. From like fifteen to eighteen, I was just fighting them. It was every man for himself. That’s what made me a man, having to fend for myself and being in a situation where there is no dad, no grandma and no mom to help you. It changed the person that I am today", he says.[9] Around that time, he has been started rapping again, before calling himself as Notorious (which is a reference to the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., whom he idolized), and changed the name and adopted his new moniker "Tory Lanez". At the age of 16, Daystar dropped out of the 10th grade and began performing some songs at some outdoor concerts.[10] At the age of 17, Daystar began teaching himself to sing, which would found his interests into singing, but he never received any vocal training.[8][11] Career[edit] 2009–15: Career beginnings and mixtapes[edit] In 2009, Tory Lanez released his debut mixtape, T.L 2 T.O. While Lanez lived in South Florida, he began directing some of his music videos, and posted them on his YouTube channel. Sean Kingston was the first to see a video of Lanez freestyling over Lloyd Banks' "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley", who seemed to be really interested in his singing sk**s.[1] In February 2010, Kingston contacted Lanez, telling him to meet up with him, during Justin Bieber's tour and later got him to perform on there live.[12] In 2010, Lanez released the mixtapes, Just Landed, One Verse One Hearse, Playing for Keeps and Mr. 1 Verse k**ah. In 2011, Lanez signed a record deal with Kingston's Time is Money Entertainment and released the mixtapes, Mr. Peterson, Chixtape, and Swavey. He later left the label to be an independent artist.[13] Tory Lanez went on to release, Sincerely Tory, Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story and Chixtape II.[14][15] Tory Lanez performing in March 2014. In April 2014, Tory released two episodes of the "Public Swave Announcement", of behind the scenes of the "These Things Happen Tour" with G-Eazy and Rockie Fresh.[16][17] On June 2, 2014, Peterson released the song, "Teyana", as a tribute to singer Teyana Taylor.[18] Taylor responded with the track, "Dreams of f**in' an R&B b**h".[19] On June 6, 2014, Peterson released, "The Godfather", a song to announce that he was going to start a series called, Fargo Fridays, only releasing songs, albums, or videos on Fridays on HotNewHipHop.[20] The songs, "I'll Be There", "Talk On Road", and "Balenciagas" were released later that month.[21][22][23] After releasing a bunch of songs from the series, he released a song called, "The Mission" to celebrate his tour announcement on August 14, 2014. Peterson kicked off his first headlining tour, the "Lost Cause Tour", in conjunction with the mixtape, Lost Cause.[24] The mixtape was supposed to be released on September 29, 2014, but got pushed back to October 1st. In an interview, Tory Lanez claimed he has ghost written songs for Akon, Travis Scott, August Alsina, Meek Mill, and T.I.[25] On February 27, 2015, Tory Lanez revealed that he was going to release an collaboration EP with the WeDidIt Records producers on April 6.[26] On April 3, 2015, Tory released the single titled "In For It" for his upcoming EP.[27] On May 8, 2015, Peterson released another song, titled "Ric Flair" featuring Rory Trustory. On May 22, 2015, he released the second single for the EP, titled "Acting Like".[28] On June 19, 2015, Tory announced that the EP would be called, Cruel Intentions and released on June 26, 2015. That same day the single, "Karrueche" was released.[29] 2015–present: I Told You[edit] Lanez performing in 2015. On July 31, 2015, Tory Lanez released the first single off his debut album, titled "Say It". It was also revealed that he signed to Benny Blanco's Mad Love Records and Interscope Records. On September 18, 2015, Lanez released the single, "B.L.O.W.".[30] December 25, 2015, Lanez released the two mixtapes, Chixtape III and The New Toronto. On January 18, 2016, "LA Confidential" was released as the second single for the album.[31] On January 28, 2016, Tory Lanez made a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! by performing "Say It".[32] A month later, Lanez released a remix of Madeintyo's "Uber Everywhere".[33] On March 4, 2016, Lanez released the song, "Tim Duncan" as apart of his Fargo Fridays series.[34] He released the song, "Real Addresses" the next week.[35] On April 1, 2016, ASAP Ferg and Tory Lanez announced "The Level Up Tour".[36] On April 5, 2016, it was revealed that Tory Lanez would perform at Summer Jam and Pemberton Music Festival in the summer of 2016.[37][38] On April 8, 2016, Tory Lanez and ASAP Ferg collaborated on the song, "Line Up the Flex" to promote their "Level Up" tour.[39] On April 18, Tory Lanez refused to be on the 2016 XXL Freshmen cover because he felt he was in a higher league musically than the other artists being considered.[40][41] On May 6, 2016, Lanez released two songs, "For Real" and "Unforgetful" as apart of the Fargo Friday series.[42][43] On June 10, 2016, Lanez released the official second single "Luv" on iTunes. He also has revealed that his album title is I Told You, no official date has been given other than that it will be released in the summer.[44] Musical style[edit] In an interview on Nice Kicks with Ian Stonebook, Peterson described his own personal style he calls, Swavey: "Swavey is a two-adjective word. A lot of people use it as an attribute, but the real definition of swavey is a genre of music. The genre of music is the genre of fusing more than one together. I know it sounds strange, but if you ask an artist what they do they're going to say that they rap, they sing, they do rock-a lot of people are multi-talented. They get looked at confused, but I don't think that they're confused. I feel that they're just talented, swavey artists. Labels want to put you in one lane, but I feel like there are so many people are more than that and they're swavey artists."[45] Legal issues[edit] On March 26, 2016, a Tory Lanez concert in Midland, Texas had a conflict with security. He then told the crowd to "f** sh** up", which incited a riot and forced police to shut down the show. Multiple people were arrested. The venue and concert promoters are considering legal actions against Lanez.[46] Feuds[edit] In February 2016, Jacquees tweeted, "Chris [Brown] my idol/big bro he don't count never will but you other guys im at yo throat #f**HowYouFeel". The tweet meant that Jacquees is in a fierce competition with every R&B artist in the game, except for Chris Brown, who he says is his idol. The tweet wasn't convincing to Lanez, who responded to Jacquees with two choice emojis. Jacquees took Lanez' emoji response as an a**ault, and he went on to call Lanez a "peasant" and "watermelon head a**". Jacquees did, however, take the time to compliment Lanez' penmanship, though he implied that Lanez' vocal talents are not up to par with his own. Lanez still hasn't responded to Jacquees, but tells his fans to "advise that boy"[47] The two later squashed their beef at South by Southwest.[48] In 2010, Lanez posted video on YouTube, challenging a fellow Canadian rapper Drake, to whom he was rumored to be related. The video features him denying these rumors and announcing the $10,000 challenge. While showing Drake respect, Lanez again challenged him, but only if Drake would listen to some of his tracks from his second mixtape Playing for Keeps. Peterson also claimed that if Drake didn't like it, he would personally give to him $10,000.[49][50] In August 2015, while appearing on the "Sway in the Morning" radio show on Shade 45, Lanez had taken a shot at fellow Torontonian rapper Drake, alluding to the infamous freestyle he had performed on Hot 97 six years prior whereas he had read lyrics from his Blackberry. In October 2015, Lanez created additional tension with the rapper when he expressed his dislike of the use of "the 6", a nickname for Toronto, and one that had, of course, been popularized by Drake.[51] In the lyrics of his 2016 single "Summer Sixteen", Drake appears to make a subliminal diss at Lanez, rapping: "All you boys in the new Toronto want to be me a little." Many took this, and the ensuing lines, to be something off a shot taken towards Tory Lanez. Drake also took aim at Meek Mill who, in the midst of their ongoing feud, called out Drake for dissing Lanez on the song, "War Pain": "Tory from the 6, you hatin’ on him, Lord knows!"[52] In an interview with Revolt, Tory was asked about the perceived shot. He was skeptical about whether it was aimed at him at all, he a**ured the press that he wouldn't be responding even if it was. "Drake could diss me 20,000 times, and I’d never diss him. I’m a fan... I have no negativity on my side. All blessings to that man."[53] When Tory released his version of, "Uber Everywhere", he raps, "p**y boy, smack that smile clean off your face / You don’t know no trap n***as, you don’t be around this way / You some actor n***a boy, I used to see you on the screen". Many people thought Tory was taking shots at Drake. Tory disses Drake again in the song, "Line Up the Flex" with ASAP Ferg. Lanez rapped " I was never gang, gang, gang, gang/ I was One Umbrella Mob", in a response to Drake's shot at him on "Summer Sixteen".[41] Drake fired back in the song, "Still Here" on the album, Views.[54] In an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, Drake spoke on Tory: "I encourage anybody to go out there and do the most damage that you possibly can. Do you things. Get all the fruits. Get everything. Become the biggest artist you can possibly be. Just don't get up there finally and start talking down on me, especially when we have no interaction."[55] Tory takes shots at Drake again in the song, "For Real"