The Timeline Of Drake & Kanye West's Feud Is Filled With So Many Twists & Turns
Celebrity relationships and friendships are a rare breed. These famous faces have their lives played out in front of the masses, whether it’s the good, the bad, or the straight-up shady. In Elite Daily’s new series, It’s Complicated, we’re highlighting the biggest celebrity “feuds” that took over Hollywood and dominated our Sunday brunches for weeks on end. We’ll take a deep dive into the lives and social media feeds of our favorite stars and dissect what happened in front of the camera, what went down behind the scenes, and everything you might have missed in between.
It’s no secret that Drake and Kanye West have been feuding for quite a long time. Their mutual criticism of each other has gone off the rails at times and simmered down at others, but one simple fact remains: they’re almost never on the same page. About anything. Like, ever. Given how many twists and turns there have been throughout their longstanding feud, it can be tough to keep up with what’s going on. So, naturally, I’ve put together a comprehensive timeline of Drake and Kanye West’s feud that gives you all the info you need to know!
One thing that may surprise you is that prior to their feud, West and Drake were quite friendly and supportive of each other. Their history actually goes back to 2009 and at that time, Drake opened up to MTV News about his appreciation for West's talent and music. Apparently, Drake and his team used West as inspiration for his original music:
We searched the samples and we find out where his inspiration came from, because he has one of the best ears in music, period. He knows how to recognize great music that’s not his. He knows how to utilize great sounds and great music. So before I met him, I had the utmost respect for Kanye West. I’d even go as far as to say he’s the most influential person as far as a musician that I’d ever had in my life.
So, where did it all go wrong? How did things go from Drake looking up to West to the two rappers basically dissing each other every chance they got? Well, it’s pretty complicated. Let’s take a look at how they got here:
November 2016 - February 2017
While Drake and West had a longstanding history of throwing a bit of shade at each other here and there, things got really tricky between them in late 2016, when West suggested that DJ Khaled manipulated the radio plays of his collaboration with Drake (titled “For Free”). Here’s part of what West said during an on-stage rant in November 2016:
Khaled and Drake and radio and Doc and [Real] 92.3 and everybody. Is it just me or did you hear that song so many times 'you say you wanna play for free.' Aye, aye. You know what it is, though? Because aye, I love Drake. I love Khaled. But they set that song up, bro.
Drake, of course, took this as an insult, telling Semtex in a February 2017 interview:
I’m not really sure what he’s referring to half the time, cos in the same breath, I went from being… like working on a project with him, to him sorta publicly shitting on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much … Again me when I hear that, I just distance myself from it you know, alright if that’s what it is I don’t really even understand the point you’re trying to make but whatever it is that you’re going through, I accept it, I don’t respect it at all. You know cos I feel like me and Khaled are just good people, I’m not sure why we’re the target of your choice that you made that night.
Once Drake got that off his chest, things seemed to calm down.
May 2018 - August 2018
But in May 2018, things got complicated. That month, Pusha T released a song called "The Story of Adidon" in which he revealed that Drake had a secret son. What made the situation worse was speculation that West was the person who told Pusha T that he was a dad.
Not to mention the fact that West dissed Drake and minimized his anger over Pusha T’s constant stream of disses in his Ye track “No Mistakes.” In it, West says: “Too rich to fight you / Calm down, you light-skinned” in reference to their feud.
So, West wasn't doing much to ease the tension at what was likely a sensitive time for Drake.
Later that month, though, Drake revealed that he did have a kid in “Emotionless," a track from his Scorpion album:
I wasn’t hidin’ my kid from the world / I was hidin’ the world from my kid / From empty souls who just wake up and looked to debate / Until you starin’ at your seed, you can never relate
Then, in August 2018, West denied telling anyone that Drake had a child, especially not Pusha T. In an interview with Chicago radio station WGCI, West said he had way more important things to do than unveil all of Drake's secrets.
I’m ‘Ye. I got major things to do other than be telling him some information about Drake. I honestly don’t care that much, in all honesty… When we talk about the Drake thing, it hits me in a really sensitive place because you hang around people and they come to your house and be around your family and this and that. And then they get mad about a beat and send you purple demon emojis. We understand that he got upset about [“The Story of Adidon”]. I feel that it was insensitive for him to, in any way, stress me out in any way after TMZ, while I’m in Wyoming healing, pulling all the pieces together, working on my music.
That’s a mouthful, for sure, and West brought up some interesting points about the situation, but it just wasn’t enough for Drake.
September 2018
In September 2018, Drake released a collaboration with French Montana called “No Stylist,” in which he disses West’s brand Yeezy:
Yeah, two open seats, we flyin' at 7 and packed for the beach / Yeah, keepin' it G, I told her don't wear no 350s 'round me
The 350s in the lyrics are seemingly in reference to West’s Yeezy 350 sneakers. Yikes!
The day after the song was released, West took to Twitter to apologize to Drake for a whole bunch of stuff. Have a look:
That peace offering was retracted just a few weeks later when West ranted about Drake’s song “In My Feelings.” In now-deleted Instagram videos, West addressed rumors that the woman named Kiki referenced in the song was his wife Kim Kardashian (rumors that, it should be noted, were started and perpetuated by trolls, not Drake, since references to Kiki were largely believed to be about Canadian television personality Keshia “KeKe” Chanté or Drake's rumored former flame K’yanna Barber, not Kim Kardashian). Here's what he said:
People making rumors or thinking you f— my wife and you’re not saying nothing… that don’t sit well with my spirit. You know, if I had a girlfriend from Chicago, her name was Renita, and you was married to Rihanna, I wouldn’t make no song called ‘Riri.’ So when you’re like, ‘I don’t know where it came,’ you too smart for that bro.
At the time, Elite Daily reached out to to West and Drake's team's for comment, but did not hear back.
October 2018
In October 2018, Drake opened up about his relationship with West and how their feud was much more involved than publicly perceived. A lot of it, according to Drake, had to do with West’s decision to drop his album Ye just a few weeks before Drake had a chance to release Scorpion.
In an appearance on LeBron James’ HBO show The Shop, Drake explained that he’d had a conversation with West about his album before it was released. This is what he said:
He sold me on this whole speech of like, ‘I’m in a great place, I’m making money, and I’m a father, and I wanna be Quincy Jones and help you. But in order to do that, you’ve gotta be transparent with me, you gotta play me your music, and you gotta tell me when you’re dropping. And I know you don’t like to do things like that.’ I guess we all kind of felt a genuine vibe from it, so I played him my music and I told him when I was dropping.
So, basically, Drake felt betrayed by West for this and for the whole Pusha T situation.
December 2018
Then, in December 2018, West unleashed a slew of tweets about Drake that seemingly came out of nowhere. Apparently, someone from Drake’s team contacted West to ask if he would sign off on a clearance request for “Say What’s Real,” a Drake track that samples one of West's beats. Here are some of his tweets:
But the feud didn't end there. Just a few weeks later, on Dec. 31, West took to Twitter yet again to call Drake out for following his wife on Instagram. In a series of now deleted tweets, West posted a screenshot of an article about Drake following Kardashian and then shared his feelings about it.
"I never knew till this morning that Drake followed my wife on Instagram back in September," West tweeted. "I had to bring this up because it's the most f*cked up thing of all and I just saw it this morning. Imagine having a problem with somebody and they follow your wife on Instagram."
At the time, Elite Daily reached out to to West and Drake's team's for comment, but did not hear back.
He also asked whose idea it was for Drake to follow Kardashian, especially given the two rappers' complicated history.
“Who’s [sic] bright idea was it to tell Drake to follow my wife on Instagram? This person is not [Drake’s] friend,” he wrote. “I don’t have beef with no one. Love everyone but don’t follow my f***ing wife on Instagram.”
Drake's response? Well, he simply unfollowed Kardashian.
And that, everyone, is where this feud stands right now.
