TORONTO -- Drake kept his 31st birthday close to home this year by holding a celebration with family, friends and basketball.

The Toronto rapper stormed through the city on Saturday night, hitting a Raptors game before having dinner at the historic Casa Loma.

It was a relatively subdued affair compared to last year when he marked 30 by popping bottles in Los Angeles with Taylor Swift, John Mayer and Katy Pery, and cutting a cake to promote his upcoming album.

Those pop superstars were nowhere to be found this year, though some of Drake's closest friends on his OVO record label and the Toronto Raptors were there.

The evening began with Drake's usual court-side seats at the Raptors game, a 128-94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He briefly took over the TV broadcast on Sportsnet.

"Let me ask you guys a question," Drake said to the network's announcers Leo Rautins and Matt Devlin, holding a plastic cup of one of his favourite drinks.

"When's the last time you put on one of these headsets and also had a pinot grigio in your hand?"

"You're the only one allowed to do that, Drake, and you know that," laughed Devlin.

Drake then carried the party over to Casa Loma's new BlueBlood Steakhouse, where he posted Instagram pictures with his mom as well as Raptors players Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.

Other videos on Instagram showed him partying to Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" and his record label's own artists, including Baka Not Nice's "Money in the Bank."

He also showed off a few paintings of himself portrayed as the centrepiece of Andy Warhol's art. Two of them included Drake as Warhol's Michael Jackson and Muhammad Ali.

 

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