Drake vs Kanye West explained: Your full guide to the hip hop heavyweight beef

From Meek Mill to Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Drake are two artists that have had their fair share of famous feuds.

Now the pair have reignited some old beef, thanks to a series of savage tweets by West claiming Drake had “threatened” him.

West unleashed a tirade of over 100 tweets, mostly about the Canadian rapper. In one he wrote: “Drake called trying to threaten me,” adding “you threaten the safety of me and my family.”

Drake appeared to make light of the situation, responding on his Instagram story with a series of laughing crying face emojis.

West’s attack is the latest development in the pair’s turbulent relationship, which goes back nearly a decade.

Here, we take a look back at the highs, lows and diss tracks in the Kanye/Drake feud:

When did Kanye West and Drake meet?

The two reportedly met for the first time in Hawaii in 2009, before a little-known Drake was about to release his debut album, Thank Me Later.

As Drake’s career skyrocketed, he credited West’s influence on his artistry. “Kanye West shaped a lot of what I do,” the Toronto rapper told MTV in 2009.

“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.”

They went on to collaborate with each other on the remix of Jamie Foxx’s Digital Girl and Drake’s hit success Forever, which also featured verses from Lil Wayne and Eminem.

When did their feud start?

Now here’s where things start to go south.

In 2010, West removed Drake’s verse from his track All of the Lights, originally called Ghetto University.

Drake appeared to throw shade at West a few months later, taking aim at his The Throne project with Jay-Z.

“We still got to do that album,” he said, referencing his project with Lil Wayne, on Capital XTRA.

“I heard some other guys are coming out with an album, too. There’s two other rappers that are coming out with an album together…I don’t know where they got that idea.”

Despite the raised eyebrows, things appeared to be on the mend when, during an interview with Billboard in 2013, Drake said on his relationship with West: “Me and Ye just fell into this thing where we hadn’t actually talked to each other in so long that all this stuff got built up.

“Sometimes you just have to find the opportunity to tell someone that you really like and respect them. After that, everything can move forward. Hopefully we give the world what they want, because I know they want it. I know me and Ye could do some crazy sh*t together.”

West even claimed to be working on a joint album with Drake on The Breakfast Club programme in February 2015. “We’re gonna do an album together,” he said.

“It might happen…but he’s probably going to be mad that I mentioned it on your show.”

Why are they fighting now? And how is Pusha-T involved?

All seemed to be stable between the pair until a track by Quentin Miller that had originally been recorded for Drake surfaced in 2015, proof of Meek Mill’s earlier claims that Drake used a ghostwriter.

To add further fuel to the fire, Pusha-T came for Drake on Infrared, the final track on his critically acclaimed album DAYTONA, rapping: “It was written like Nas, but it came from Quentin." West was heavily involved in the production of Pusha-T’s album.

Drake fired back with Duppy Freestyle, which elaborated on his and Miller’s relationship.

“And as for Q, man I changed his life a couple times/ N**** was at Kroger working double time/ Y’all acting like he made the boy when I was trying to help the guy,” he rapped.

In one of the most shocking revelations in hip-hop this year, Pusha-T released The Story of Adidon, in which he outed Drake’s secret child.

Drake didn’t respond with a diss-track at the time, but said he was sitting on a “career-ending” song.

In early September, Kanye appeared to diffuse the argument by apologising to the rapper on Twitter for announcing his G.O.O.D Music releases at the same time Drake dropped Scorpion.

He wrote: “Sending good energy and love to Drake and family and crew…I understand where the confusion started. Let me start by apologising for stepping on your release date in the first place…We were building a bond and working on music together including squashing the issues with [Kid] Cudi at our office.”

The tweets came hours after Drake teased track No Stylist with French Montana, in which he raps: “I told her don’t wear no 350s ‘round me.” The line references West’s line of Adidas trainers, Yeezy 350s.

To make matters worse, some fans think that Drake’s hit track, In My Feelings, references an affair between him and Kim Kardashian West. The track namechecks “KiKi,” which is the Kardashian’s family nickname for Kim.

Now, Drake is the subject of West’s latest Twitter rant.

“There would never be a drake without a Kanye west so never come out of your mouth with a threat,” he wrote.

His wife came to his defence, tweeting: “My husband is the most brilliant person, the most genius person that I know. He has broken so many boundaries, everything from music, stage design, fashion and culture and will continue to change the world.”

She added: “@drake never threaten my husband or our family. He paved the way for there to be a Drake.”

While the feud between the two has turned bitter, it’s nothing if not entertaining.

How will Drake respond? Another diss-track perhaps? Watch this space…