Drake calls The Weeknd’s album a 'dud' in allegedly leaked DMs

Drake seemingly took shots at The Weeknd, his former collaborator turned foe, in an alleged text message thread that leaked on social media on March 19, 2025. The messages were apparently sent to DJ Akademiks, as the screenshots were posted on the media personality's Instagram Story.

The alleged text thread was on Instagram, with Drake texting from his profile @champagnepapi. In response to a message about fellow Canadian artist Tory Lanez, Drake allegedly wrote that it was a "shame" other Canadian artists couldn’t set aside their egos to "lift the city up together," seemingly referring to The Weeknd, who is also Canadian.

In a follow-up message, he allegedly referred to The Weeknd's 2022 album, Dawn FM, as a "dud," writing:

"It's all bless tho f**k it we rolling. It's a shame we can't just lift the city up together. But they can't let that ego die. Yeah for sure Dawn FM was a Christopher DUDdus I swear."

A tweet showing the alleged text (Image via X/@burner_cp2)

Drake has not confirmed if the messages were from him at the time of writing this article.

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Exploring the feud between Drake and The Weeknd

The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, was one of the many artists Drake dissed during his 2024 rap battle with Kendrick Lamar. However, the feud between these two Toronto-based artists dates back to 2012. At the time, The Weeknd signed with Republic Records instead of Drizzy's OVO Sound, despite the Hotline Bling rapper co-signing him in 2010 when he was a newcomer.

Drake and The Weeknd also collaborated on Crew Love from the former's 2011 album, Take Care. Yet their rapport didn't prevent the singer from signing with Republic Records, which seemingly irked Drake, leading to a cryptic tweet that read:

"You won't get away with just a thank you...you owe me a favor," he wrote.

However, the two seemingly made up and collaborated in 2013, with the rapper featuring on The Weeknd's song, Live For. The singer also joined Drizzy during his Would You Like a Tour? in Europe. Their relationship faced another challenge when The Weeknd claimed he wrote several songs for the Take Care album during a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone.

“I gave up almost half of my album. It’s hard. I will always be thankful—if it wasn’t for the light he shined on me, who knows where I’d be. And everything happens for a reason. You never know what I would say if this success wasn’t in front of me now,” he said.

According to Hot New Hip Hop, this revelation came at the time Drizzy was facing ghostwriting allegations. Nevertheless, the two were seen together again in 2017, appearing as guests on each other's tours that year. However, tensions between them escalated later that same year following rumors of Drake dating model Bella Hadid, The Weeknd's ex-girlfriend, which Hadid denied at the time.

In November 2017, Drizzy shared the tracklist of his Take Care album on Instagram to celebrate its sixth anniversary, which prompted a comment claiming The Weeknd deserved credit for writing most of the songs. Drake responded to the comment with:

“Abel Tesfaye CO WROTE on ‘Shot For Me’ and ‘Practice,’ obviously was featured on ‘Crew Love’ and ‘The Ride’ and that’s it. There’s 20 songs on that album … don’t try me.”

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Drake supported The Weeknd when he criticized the Grammys in 2020

In 2019, The Weeknd released Lost in the Fire, which sparked a debate about whether the singer was dissing Drake after Pusha T revealed that the Canadian rapper had a secret son in The Story of Adidon during their rap feud. The lyrics in question from The Weeknd's song were,

"And I just want a baby with the right one / 'Cause I would never be the one to hide one."

However, Drake seemingly squashed rumors of a beef between the two in his December 2019 song War, where he rapped:

“And the boy that sound like he sang on ‘Thriller,’ / You know that's been my n***a, yeah / We just had to fix things, family, 6 tings, we can't split up,”

The Canadian rapper also supported The Weeknd after he criticized the Grammys for snubbing his 2020 album, After Hours, which received no nominations that year. In a lengthy statement on Instagram Story in November 2020, Drizzy emphasized the "disconnect between impactful music and these awards," adding:

“The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way.”

Although the two seemed to be on good terms in the following years, their feud reignited after The Weeknd appeared on Metro Boomin and Future's album We Still Don't Trust You in 2024. He featured on the track All to Myself, where he sang:

"Ooh, look at how we movin’, baby (Movin’, baby) / They could never diss my brothers, baby (Future) / When they got leaks in they operation / I thank God that I never signed my life away / And we never do the big talk (No, no, no, no, no) / They shooters makin’ TikToks."

While he didn't name Drake directly, many speculated that the lyrics were aimed at the Canadian rapper. Drake seemingly reached the same conclusion, insulting The Weeknd on his track Push Ups, which is his first diss track in his feud with Kendrick Lamar, responding to Lamar's verse in Like That.

"Claim the 6 and boys ain't even come from it / And when you boys got rich you had to run from it / Cash blowin' Abel bread, out here trickin' / S**t we do for b***hes he doing for n***as,” Drake rapped.

The 6 God also dissed The Weekend in his next diss song, Family Matters, with the lines,

"Knew it was smoke when Abel hit us with the serenade/ N***a said, "Uh, uh"/ Almost started reachin' for my waist," and "Abel, run your f**kin' bread, need to buy some more chains for some more guys."

As of the time of this article, The Weeknd has not responded to Drizzy's diss tracks.