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 representative for the rap star said he was "freaked out" and required "heavy security outside" his home, according to public records reviewed by CBC News. 

In September 2019, the city granted Drake an exemption to have extra tall fences built around his property in the posh Bridle Path neighbourhood. City officials were told that despite multiple calls to police, security was being "left in his hands."

A shooting outside the mansion early Tuesday morning — which left a security guard seriously wounded — has brought the global superstar's home security arrangements into focus. 

The man who was attacked 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 rapper's security.

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

Provincial company records obtained by CBC show Jungle Lion Security was incorporated 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 obtained an exemption from the City of Toronto to have a taller-than-standard fence installed around his newly-built mansion. The application included 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 Ferris Rafauli Architectural Design Build Group, told Toronto'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 significant."

He said police were frequently called to the property 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 Toronto's Little Italy. The following year, he told the New York Times that he felt "unsafe" in the city "at all times."

It's not clear whether Jungle Lion Security employed the unidentified security guard who police said was injured early Tuesday morning in an apparent drive-by shooting.