A Brief History Of Drake And Future’s Friendship
Exactly how two greats became friends, across four years.
A joint project from Drake and Future, called What A Time To Be Alive, will premiere on Sunday at 6 p.m. EST on Apple Music's OVO Sound Radio. To celebrate, we've traced the four-year friendship of the two rap titans, from bumpy beginnings through fruitful collaborations and beyond.
November 2011 — Future calls Drake's non-appearance in the "Tony Montana" video a "slap in my face"
In an interview with The Source, Future thanked Drake for remixing "Tony Montana," but expressed disappointment that Drake hadn't participated in the song's official video, which was filmed in the Dominican Republic. "I salute [Drake] for even just getting on the record, that shows a lot about his character...and just to shed more light on the record," Future said. Then: "So many people from Atlanta wanted to get on this record, and for me, it's basically a slap in my face because so many people from Atlanta say 'You should've did it with someone who was going to be in the video, who wanted to be a part of the video."
February 2013 — Drake and Future help make Lil Wayne's "Love Me" a hit
Producer Mike WiLL Made-It continued a streak of chart domination with this Lil Wayne and Drake cut, on which Future flexed his hitmaking hook abilities.
August 2013 — Future says he inspired Drake's hit "Started From The Bottom"
"I was in the studio when [Drake] was making the record, I had the record 'Chosen One'...I always tell my engineer 'start it from the bottom,'" Future told the LA Leakers. "[Drake] thought I was talking about a song...So when I played 'Chosen One' he was waiting for me to say 'started from the bottom'... He bought me a bottle of Louis XIII that I've never opened up because of this story. I'm like man, I don't want a bottle, I need publishing...Drake, that's the homie, and he was like "Start it from the bottom" it stayed on my mind...I just started saying "Started from the bottom now we here."
December 2013 — Drake remixes Future's "Sh!t"
Drake adds a verse to an official remix of Future's Mike WiLL Made-It-produced track, which the two often performed together on tour. Drake's verse features some subliminal jabs, which fans hypothesize are aimed at Kendrick Lamar: I hear you talk about your city like you run that / And I brought my tour to your city, you my son there nigga.
August 2014 — Future and Drake both appear on OVO affiliate P. Reign's "DnF"
Future helped give P. Reign's mixtape a boost, plus, the Scarborough rapper got to go to the beach! Everything nice.
November 2014 — Mike WiLL Made-It leaks the full version of "Never Satisfied"
100 retweets was all it took for fans to hear the full version of "Never Satisfied." On the unabridged version, a new verse from Drake has this line: Me and that boy Future could probably start a group, On some K-Ci and JoJo shit, have these bitches loose.
July 2015 — Drake is the only feature on Future's album DS2
Future's hugely successful second album DS2 was handled solely by the Atlanta rapper, with the exception of one verse from Drake on "Where Ya At." In a July interview with Power 105's The Breakfast Club, Future says that it was Drake who insisted on getting on the album: “I wasn’t planning on having any features. [Drake] called the day I was about to turn the album in. I was like, ‘I gotta turn the album in in the morning.’ He was like, ‘Dirty Sprite 2? That’s legend, I loved Dirty Sprite, I wanna be a part of this.'"
July 2015 — Future declares he and Drake never had beef
In case anyone was unsure, Future clarified that he and Drake were certainly not thinking about any lawsuits, or who said their music was better than whose. “We resolved the issue, we way past that," he told The Breakfast Club. "Back on the road, back doing music, shooting videos, OVO Fest on the way.”
August 3, 2015 — Future performs at OVO Fest
Shortly after Future joined Drake at his annual festival to perform "Trap Niggas," "March Madness," and "Where Ya At," speculation that the two had a mixtape in the works began.
August 18, 2015 — Future takes Drake to Magic City.
After OVO Fest, Drake joined Future in Atlanta for a night on the town.
September 2015 — Drake and Future confirm joint project, What A Time To Be Alive
Fake tracklists, countdowns, and cover art emerged before Drake and Future confirmed the project with Instagram posts on Saturday, September 19.