Drake Said the ‘Last Way’ He Wanted Fame Was in Connection to Chris Brown and Rihanna
In the early 2010s, Drake and Chris Brown feuded over Rihanna. When Brown and Rihanna broke up after he assaulted her, she was linked to Drake. Eventually, however, Brown and Rihanna reunited, albeit briefly. Drake said he didn’t like any association with the couple.
Drake found it embarrassing that he and Chris Brown competed for Rihanna’s attention
In 2009, Brown and Rihanna broke up after he assaulted her. They reunited in 2012 for several months. Drake began feuding with Brown during this time. The pair even got into a physical altercation at a New York City nightclub.
“I hear he has everything he could want now,” Drake told GQ, alluding to Brown and Rihanna’s reunion, adding, “I don’t want my name to be synonymous with that guy’s name. I really don’t.”
He said he wished he could talk things through with Brown, but didn’t think that was a possibility.
“I wish we could sit down, just like you and me are right now, and talk it out man-to-man. But that’s not going to happen,” he said. “I’m not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I’m not going to back down.”
He added that he found the clash embarrassing, but he would remain at odds with Brown.
“It’s embarrassing, the amount of media coverage,” he said. “Two rappers fighting over the woman. He’s not even a rapper, but still, it’s the last way you want your name out there. It distracts from the music. But he’s made me the enemy, and that’s the way it’s gonna stay, I guess.”
Drake once said he felt ‘used’ by Rihanna
Before his feud with Brown, Drake took several shots at Rihanna. He said he felt she used him after her split from Brown.
“I was a pawn,” Drake told The New York Times (via Billboard). “You know what she was doing to me? She was doing exactly what I’ve done to so many women throughout my life, which is show them quality time, then disappear. I was like, ‘Wow, this feels terrible.’”
He later walked back his comments, saying he didn’t want to be “negative.”
“I’m at one of the greatest places in my life — I’m on top of the world,” he told MTV News. “I’m extremely confident, so it’s very rare that anybody, let alone a woman that I like, makes me feel nervous or makes me feel small.”
He said he thought of Rihanna as an “overwhelming and incredible person.”
Chris Brown said they’ve moved past their feud
In later years, Brown denied ever fighting with Drake in the nightclub.
“That wasn’t even between me and him to be real, we wasn’t nowhere near each other when the s*** happened,” he said on Drink Champs (via Revolt), adding, “It was just a whole bunch of extra commotion, on God. It was never no ‘Hey bro, meet me outside.’ It was never that. It was just a misunderstanding on both ends.”
They have put their feud to rest. Brown even appeared on stage with Drake during his 2020 tour.
“I think just some years went past. He actually had a show out here, he had brought me out to the show,” he said. “A lot of us have mutual friends so, ‘Hey, bro, they wanna squash, they wanna talk.’ So when I got on the phone, it was cool … I’m glad we got past it because it was a time I wanted to kill your a**, but we got past it.”
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
