Kanye West and Drake Feud

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Part of a series on Kanye West / Ye. [View Related Entries]

Overview

The Kanye West and Drake Feud refers to the ongoing animosity between the two rappers Kanye West and Drake. According to reports, the falling out began over the recording of the West song "Lift Yourself" and continued throughout 2018.

Background

On April 28th, 2018, rapper and producer Kanye West tweeted ^[1] a link to his website "www.kanyewest.com" and the comment "Lift Yourself." On his website, a single media file was posted with the title "Lift Yourself." The song (available below) featured only one verse with Kanye West rapping. He rapped,^[2] "Poopy-di scoop/Scoop-diddy-whoop/Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop/Poop-di-scoopty/Scoopty-whoop."

According to reports, Drake had worked on the beat for "Lift Yourself" but did not know how the song and beat would be used. Drake had planned on using the beat and "harbored ill feelings" over the song.^[3]

Developments

"The Story of Adidon"

On May 25th, 2018, Pusha T released the song "Infrared," which references Drake's supposed ghostwriter, Quentin Miller, by name. Pusha raps, "The lyric pennin’ equal the Trumps winnin’ / The bigger question is how the Russians did it / It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin." The song was produced by Kanye West.^[4]

Less than 24 hours later, Drake responded to the track with the song "Duppy Freestyle." The song is a direct response to "Infrared" and includes the lyrics "I had a microphone of yours but then the signature faded / I think that pretty much resembles what has been happening lately." He also made reference to the producer of Pusha T's album, Kanye West. He rapped, What do you really think of the n***a that’s making your beats? / I’ve done things for him I thought he never would need / Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me / I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat."

At the end of "Duppy Freestyle," Drake asks Pusha T for an invoice for the "free" album promotion the feud has given Pusha. He later posted the joke invoice on Instagram. The post (shown below) received more than 1.4 million likes in four days.

On May 29th, Pusha T released the song "The Story of Adidon." The song features a photograph of Drake in blackface as the album artwork and makes frequent references to a child Pusha T alleges to be Drake's, but Drake has not acknowledged. The photograph was taken from a 2008 photoshoot with photographer David Leyes but has since been removed from the Leyes's website.

Kanye's Tweets

On September 5th, 2018, Kayne West tweeted^[5] an apology, of sorts, to Drake for past issues. He wrote, "Sending good energy and love to Drake and family and crew💜💜💜 I haven’t seen the show in person but the images look incredible online I understand where the confusion started." The post received more than 10,000 retweets and 55,000 likes in three months (shown below).

On December 14th, 2018, West tweeted more than 125 times about his feud with Drake. In the tweets, he accrued Drake of threatening his family, paying for an assault on Pusha T and those on stage at a November concert in Toronto and escalating their feud. West also denied telling Pusha T about Drake's son, a theory that has been widely reported within the rap world (examples below).^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

That day, Kim Kardashian-West tweeted,^[10] "@drake Never threaten my husband or our family. He paved the way for there to be a Drake." The tweet received more than 13,000 retweets and 52,000 likes in 24 hours.

Drake, however, did not respond to the tweets directly. On his Instagram Story, the rapper posted five crying-laughing emojis (shown below), which many believe were in response to the tweets from Kanye West.^[11]