Tory Lanez: Biography

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Tory Lanez.Image via Wikimedia Commons

Who Is Tory Lanez?

Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson (born July 27, 1992), known professionally as Tory Lanez, is a Canadian singer and rapper. Known for his versatility and blending R&B and hip-hop in his music, he was first discovered by Sean Kingston. He came to initial recognition with his mixtape Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story, released in August 2013. In 2015, Lanez signed with record producer Benny Blanco's Mad Love Records, an imprint of Interscope Records.

Lanez's debut studio album, I Told You (2016) explored alternative R&B and was commercially successful. Its two lead singles, "Say It" and "Luv", peaked at numbers 23 and 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Both released in 2018, Lanez's second and third albums, Memories Don't Die and Love Me Now? delved further into hip-hop and were met with continued commercial success despite mixed reviews; the former became his first album to peak atop the Canadian Albums Chart, while the latter spawned the double platinum-certified single "Talk to Me" (with Rich the Kid). His fourth album and final major label release, Chixtape 5 (2019) peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200, while his fifth album, Daystar (2020), peaked at number ten. He then released his 1980s-inspired sixth album, Alone at Prom (2021), followed by his seventh, Sorry 4 What (2022) until his incarceration. His eighth album, Peterson (2025), entered the Billboard 200 at number 25.

On August 8, 2023, Lanez was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. He was found guilty of first-degree assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and having a concealed firearm in a vehicle.

Early life

Early Life: Where Is Tory Lanez From?

Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson was born on July 27, 1992, in Brampton, Ontario, to a Bajan father, Sonstar, and a mother from Curaçao, Luella. The family was based in Montreal, before moving to Miami, Florida; Lanez is the youngest of six siblings. At the age of eleven his mother died of anemia; following this, his father began working as an ordained minister and missionary, causing them both to move frequently throughout the United States. Lanez's father later remarried and the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Lanez met his friend Hakeem, who at the time was a janitor. The nickname "Lanez" was given to him by Hakeem, as a comment on Lanez's thrill-seeking tendencies, that sometimes saw him mucking around in the street, not looking for traffic and playing in the lanes.

In 2006, Lanez was sent to live with his cousins Dahir Abib, Orane Forrest, in Jamaica, Queens, New York because of his behavior issues. Lanez was then forced to move 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.

Lanez started rapping again, giving himself a nickname, Notorious, which is a reference to the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., whom he idolized, and adopted into his new moniker "Tory Lanez". At the age of 16, Lanez dropped out of the tenth grade, and he would begin performing songs at the outdoor concerts. At the age of 17, Lanez began singing, which he found an interest in. However, he had never received any vocal training.

2009–2015: Career beginnings

Tory Lanez's Career and Major Works

In 2009, Lanez released his debut mixtape T.L 2 T.O. While living in South Florida, he began directing some of his music videos, and posted them on his YouTube channel. Sean Kingston was interested in Lanez after seeing a video of him freestyling over Lloyd Banks's "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley". In February 2010, Kingston contacted Lanez requesting a meetup while on tour with Justin Bieber, resulting in Lanez performing on the tour. In 2010, Lanez released the mixtapes, Just Landed, One Verse One Hearse, Playing for Keeps and Mr. 1 Verse Killah. In 2011, Lanez signed a record deal with Kingston's Time is Money Entertainment and released a trio of mixtapes: Mr. Peterson, Chixtape, and Swavey. He later left the label to be an independent artist.

In the following three years, he released additional mixtapes: Sincerely Tory (2012), Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story (2013), and Chixtape II (2014). In April 2014, Lanez released two episodes of the "Public Swave Announcement", of behind the scenes of the "These Things Happen Tour" with G-Eazy and Rockie Fresh. On June 2, 2014, Lanez released the song, "Teyana", as a tribute to singer Teyana Taylor. Taylor responded with the track, "Dreams of Fuckin' an R&B Bitch". On June 6, 2014, Lanez 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. The songs, "I'll Be There", "Talk On Road", and "Balenciagas" were released later that month.

After releasing a number of songs from the series, he released a song called "The Mission" to celebrate his tour announcement on August 14, 2014. Lanez kicked off his first headlining tour, the "Lost Cause Tour", in conjunction with the mixtape Lost Cause. The mixtape was supposed to be released on September 29, 2014, but got pushed back to October 1. In an interview, Lanez claimed he has ghost-written songs for artists such as Akon ("Been Gettin' Money" with Jeezy), Casey Veggies ("Actin' Up"), August Alsina ("My Niggas" with Meek Mill), as well as T.I. and Travis Scott. On February 27, 2015, Lanez revealed that he was going to release a collaboration EP with the WeDidIt Records producers on April 6.

On April 3, 2015, Lanez released the single titled "In For It" for his upcoming EP. On May 8, 2015, Lanez released another song, titled "Ric Flair" featuring Rory Trustory. On May 22, 2015, he released the second single for the EP, titled "Acting Like". On June 19, 2015, Lanez announced that the EP would be called, Cruel Intentions and released on June 26, 2015. That same day the single "Karrueche" was released.

Tory Lanez's Personal Life and Relationships

2015–2020: Album releases and growing popularity

On July 15, 2015, Lanez released the first single off his debut album, titled "Say It", and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. 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, "BLOW", which isn't part of the debut album. 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. On January 28, 2016, Lanez made a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! performing "Say It". He performed the song with the popular 90s R&B group Brownstone, whose hit "If You Love Me" was sampled on 'Say It'. A month later, Lanez released a remix of MadeinTYO's "Uber Everywhere". On March 4, 2016, Lanez released the song, "Tim Duncan" as a part of his Fargo Fridays series. He released the song, "Real Addresses" the next week.

On April 1, 2016, ASAP Ferg and Lanez announced "The Level Up Tour". On April 5, 2016, it was revealed that Lanez would perform at Summer Jam and Pemberton Music Festival in the summer of 2016. On April 8, 2016, Lanez and ASAP Ferg collaborated on the song, "Line Up the Flex" to promote their "Level Up" tour. On April 18, 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. On May 6, 2016, Lanez released two songs, "For Real" and "Unforgetful" as a part of the Fargo Friday series. On July 29, 2016, Lanez released the official second single "Luv" on iTunes. Luv was Lanez's most popular single to date, as it performed better than Say It, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also revealed that his album title would be I Told You.

I Told You was released on August 19, 2016. On July 5, Lanez released two remixes for Drake's "Controlla" and DJ Khaled's "I Got the Keys". On July 20, Lanez announced the I Told You tour to promote the album.

Where Is Tory Lanez Now? Recent Years

On March 2, 2018, Lanez released his second studio album Memories Don't Die. Within the same year, he also released an album titled Love Me Now? on October 26, 2018, an album titled Chixtape 5 on November 15, 2019. The album includes production from Papi Yerr, who contributed to multiple tracks including "Jerry Sprunger", "Love Sounds", and "The Take".

In 2019, Tory Lanez began complaining about his major label, Interscope Records, publicly threatening the company to "expose what's really going on in that f*****g building!". By February 2020, he announced his departure from Interscope, not publicly stating the reason behind it. He released a hip-hop mixtape titled The New Toronto 3 on April 10, 2020, marking his final release with Interscope Records.

On March 20, 2020, Lanez teamed up with Jamaican dancehall artist Buju Banton for a remix of "Trust". During the quarantine lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lanez hosted "Quarantine Radio" on his Instagram Live starting on March 24. "Quarantine Radio" went on to have surprise appearances from Bryson Tiller, Justin Bieber, and Drake which had 310,000 viewers during the rappers appearance. He later set a record for the platform with 360,000 viewers live. On May 14, 2020, Lanez released the single "Temperature Rising", via his own One Umbrella imprint, marking his first release as an independent artist, following his departure from Interscope Records. On July 10, Lanez released three singles, "Simple Things, with DJDS and Rema, "Staccato", and "392", with his label signee VV$ Ken. The latter two tracks was released as an EP called VVS Capsule.

2020–present: Independent albums and incarceration

Tory Lanez's Legacy and Impact

On September 25, 2020, Lanez surprise-released his fifth album, Daystar, his first project since departing Interscope earlier that year. On the album, he defends himself in multiple songs against claims that he shot rapper Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.

The following months he announced the release of "capsules" that would contain separate different types of music from him, then releasing the hip-hop commercial mixtape Loner on December 22, 2020, the R&B commercial mixtape Playboy on March 5, 2021, and his sixth studio album Alone at Prom, on December 10, 2021, which is an 80's inspired synth-pop project. The following year Sorry 4 What marked Lanez's last studio album being released before his 2022 conviction of three felonies in relation to his shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, being later sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in prison.

While incarcerated, Lanez's track "The Color Violet", contained in the Alone at Prom album, experienced a boost in popularity thanks to popular social media app TikTok. In 2023, the singer released the deluxe edition of his 2021 album Alone at Prom, featuring 10 additional tracks, marking his first official release following his incarceration.

Beginning in July 2024, tracks began to release under the Lost Tapes and Prison Tapes monikers, consisting of tracks recorded from 2015 to 2020 and tracks recorded from within prison, respectively. Tracks would be released in pairs, and would release on Fridays, similar to his 'Fargo Fridays' moniker. Towards the end of August 2024, tracks began to release under the Twitch Tapes moniker, consisting of songs recorded live on streaming platform Twitch, and were intended to release as a full project prior to his incarceration. Two of the notable prison tapes, "Wish I Never Met You" and "Know What You Need" peaked at number 33 and number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

In 2025, he released Peterson, which was recorded entirely while he was in prison and used artificial intelligence technology to enhance the recordings. Lanez described it as the "first ever in-real-time prison album". The album reached number 25 on the US Billboard 200. On May 12, 2025, Lanez was hospitalized after being stabbed in his prison cell by another inmate.

On January 28, 2026, Lanez released an extended play called Slutty Bass from prison. The EP contains two songs called "S.L.I.D.E" and "Planet Bass / NBLYB". He also expressed the EP being a "new genre" mixing miami bass with alternative R&B.

On July 17, 2026, Lanez released his tenth studio album called Made You Think I Was Gone ...But. The album is divided into two discs, with Disc 1, Fargo’s Revenge, focused on rap and Disc 2, Fargo’s Heartbreak, focused on R&B. This marks Lanez's third album released in the previous 12 months.

Musical style

Tory Lanez's music is usually R&B and hip-hop, blending both styles, occasionally on the same song. His vocal performances feature both singing and rapping, with a frequent usage of autotune. In an interview on "Nice Kicks" with Ian Stonebook, Lanez described his own...

Tory Lanez's career continues to be documented by reputable media; the facts above are drawn from Wikipedia's biography and public records.

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