Drake & Charlamagne Tha God's Complicated History: A Timeline

For more than a decade now, Drake and Charlamagne Tha God have made headlines with their long-standing beef. The pair’s volatile relationship became a part of pop culture as tensions rose. When things first went sour between the two in 2011, it’s unlikely that anybody expected it to last this long. However, their beef is now over 10 years strong, and they still don’t hesitate to throw verbal jabs at each other. 

It should be mentioned though, that Charlamagne is often the one who kicks up dust. Following the release of Drake’s single with SZA “Slime You Out,” Charlamagne Tha God came at the rapper yet again. Soon after, Drake responded via Instagram stories. He accused Charlamagne of being obsessed, and calling the radio host an “off-brand Morris Chestnut.” So even if they were slowly getting back to being cordial, that’s definitely not the case anymore. With their feud dating all the way back to 2011, the question remains: what could make them squash the beef?

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On an episode of The Breakfast Club in January 2011, Charlamagne Tha God called Drake some choice words. While discussing the rapper, Charlamagne called him “a pretty albino girl,” and a “princess boy.” The radio host also said Drake “displayed suspect behavior," leading many to believe that he was taking shots at the rapper's sexuality.

Subsequently, in an interview with Tim Westwood, Drizzy called out Charlamagne for his comments. “Why are you using your job to tear me down?” the rapper asked, “you’re just a real f***ing loser.” After the interview aired later that month, Charlamagne Tha God clapped back at Drake on another episode of The Breakfast Club. He said he never called Drake gay, but that “he does display suspect behavior.” Additionally, Charlamagne stated, “he acts like an emotional 12-year-old girl, and he proved it by going on Tim Westwood’s show talking like that.” Nothing was the same between the two after these indirect exchanges.

Drake’s third album, Nothing Was The Same, was released on September 24, 2013. However, before it dropped, the rapper put out two singles, one of which was “Hold On, We’re Going Home.” Upon its release, the single became an instant hit. Charlamagne Tha God, however, was not very pleased with Drake’s pivot to R&B.

He had very strong opinions about the track that he shared in an interview with VladTV in September of that year. When asked what he thought of “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” Charlamagne said, “I hate that s*it.” He went on to speak extensively on why he thought Drake should stick to his rap lane, asking: “if you can be the next Jay-Z, why would you want to be the next Miguel?”

In November 2013, during another interview with VladTV, Charlamagne Tha God made a poor joke about Drake’s sexuality. The TV personality said “I always say it’s three sexual orientations out here, it’s gay, straight, and Drake. Drake is a whole different type of breed.”

Read More: Charlamagne Tha God Defends Drake Amid “For All The Dogs” Backlash

By 2015, their relationship hadn't gotten better. That is, until, the release of "Back To Back," the diss song that earned Drake a Grammy nomination. On “Back To Back,” he mentioned the tension between him and Charlamagne, rapping, “You gon’ make me buy bottles for Charlamagne." Surprisingly, he made good on his promise.

In a post shared on Instagram on July 29, 2015, the Breakfast Club host revealed that Drake really sent him a very expensive gift: six bottles of vintage 2004 Dom Perignon champagne. The bottles were also accompanied by a note written by Drake that read, “let’s be friends.” In the post’s caption, Charlamagne Tha God quoted the infamous line from “Back to Back” and further stated, “Drake living his raps.” This interaction marked the beginning of a short-lived truce between Drake and Charlamagne Tha God.

In 2018, Charlamagne Tha God got yet another shoutout from Drake on Scorpion. However, this mention did not seem to be as friendly as the one on 2015’s “Back to Back.” On “Sandra’s Rose,” Drake references the bleaching rumor about Charlamagne that had been circulating online. The rapper wasn’t very subtle about it either, coolly rapping, “Like Charlamagne, I see the light and see the darkest patches.”

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A few days after Scorpion, Charlamagne appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. During the appearance, Cohen asked Charlamagne what went wrong after the two squashed their beef. “I really don’t know, I think me and Drake will always have a love/hate relationship," Charlamagne responded. "Even though he’s great, I’ll never have anything too good to say about him.”

In much the same way he disliked Drake singing, Charlamagne was not a fan of the rapper following trends. “Toosie Slide” was released to worldwide commercial success in 2020. However, while the world danced with Drake, Charlemagne Tha God was not impressed. In his usual fashion, he confidently aired his opinion about the song on an episode of his Brilliant Idiots podcast in April.

He stated, “I think it’s wack, and I think it’s beneath Drake. When you’re the biggest rapper in the world, I don’t like to see you chasing trends.” In December, Charlamagne Tha God boldly claimed the world had left the “Drake era” behind. “I don’t think we’ve been in the 'Drake era' for the last two or three years,” he said.

On The Breakfast Club in March 2021, the radio host joked about Drake’s influence on the Billboard charts. Drizzy had just become the first artist to debut three tracks in the top three spots on the Hot 100 chart with the release of Scary Hours 2. Charlamagne Tha God said he detected foul play, jokingly accusing Drake of cheating. “Don’t let the heart cut in the head fool you. Aubrey Graham is a demon who doesn’t play fair. He cheated. I can’t prove it. This might be pure hate," Charlamagne said." I’m not standing on nothing with this. I just think he cheated."

Drake’s house-inspired 2022 album Honestly, Nevermind, was also, unsurprisingly, not Charlamagne’s cup of tea. In yet another Breakfast Club episode, he called the album “elevator music.” Furthermore, Drizzy’s last single before his most recent album was “Slime You Out” featuring SZA. Yet again, Charlamagne slammed the track. He claimed that nobody cared about it since he hadn’t seen people talk about it days after it dropped. 

It appears that Charlamagne's latest commentary got under Drake's skin. The rapper evidently had enough and unleashed a scathing response on his Instagram Story. “Are you ok Leonard?? You kinda weirding me out g. Like you really obsessed with me or something for years like you look in the mirror and wish you saw my reflection type shit. Whatever you gotta do to let it out I’m sure your 435 loyal fans will stand by you ya fucking goof," Drake wrote on his IG Story. He also put up a picture of the Hell Of A Week host on his Instagram story, and captioned it “In deep thought about how you the off brand Morris Chestnut.”

Addressing Drake’s stories, Charlamagne joked that he was a part of the rollout plan for Drake's new album. “I’m part of the album rollout. He drops a record. I critique it. It brings more attention to the record, more attention to the project,” he said. He further stated, “I keep telling Drake he doesn’t need me to do that—he’s Drake. But for whatever reason, he wants me to do it so I oblige.”

[via]