Drake and Kris Jenner: A Brief History of Their Unlikely Friendship

Kanye West and Drake’s current beef is probably the first rap feud to feature a 63-year-old Calabasas mother of six as a major player, but Kris Jenner knows no bounds. The Kardashian-Jenner matriarch was rocketed into the middle of the public feud last night when, in the midst of a Twitter rant, Kanye accused Drake of texting Jenner instead of trying to deal with him directly. “How you gone text Kriss [sic] but not speak to me,” tweeted West at one point. “You sneak dissing on trav records and texting Kris talking bout how’s the family,” he wrote in another.

West’s connection to Jenner is obvious: She’s his mother-in-law and is about as close to West’s inner circle as you can get (all mothers-in-law in good standing know more about their sons-in-law than perhaps those men would like to admit). Though the question remains: How did Drake become text buddies with Jenner in the first place? Well, that’s slightly harder to answer.

Here, our best attempt at tracing the origin of the unlikely friendship (or perhaps former friendship) between October’s Very Own and Hollywood’s reining “not a regular mom” mom.

August 2013: Drake performs at Kylie Jenner’s Sweet 16.

If you thought Kylie’s recent 21st birthday was a bacchanal, then clearly you don’t remember her sweet 16. She assembled a who’s who of young Hollywood at the AT&T Center in Los Angeles to enjoy surprise appearances by Big Sean and—you guessed it—Drake. West had been dating Kim Kardashian since 2012, but it was the first public connection of Drake to any of the Jenners.

September 2013: Kris shows up at Drake’s album release party, and nothing was the same.

Apparently the check cleared for his performance at Kylie’s bash, and Kris made her way onto the guest list for the album release party of Drake’s Nothing Was the Same. “Congratulations Drake!! Celebrating The Album Release… What A Great Night!!” she wrote in an Instagram caption. Some outlets snarked that it looked like Drake was getting “handsy” with Jenner, but even back in 2013 some places would write anything for clicks.

September 2013: Drake calls Kris “the queen of it all.”

E! News noticed a burgeoning friendship between Drake and members of their own network’s first family, so, obviously, they decided to ask him about it.

“I’m just a friend. I really like Kylie Jenner a lot, I really like Kendall Jenner. Everybody’s really nice. Khloé [Kardashian]’s really nice,” he said. “And obviously, you know, the queen of it all—Kris Jenner—she’s my favorite. She’s the boss. She’s actually in town tonight, I was trying to get her to come through. She might fall through and play a little FIFA, you know?”

October 2013: Rumors surface that Kris is trying to set up Khloé and Drake.

Taking advantage of the recent Drake-Jenner friendship, InTouch magazine purported that Kris was trying to set Drake up with her daughter Khloé, still dealing with the fallout from her marriage to Lamar Odom. However, a Kardashian source told RumorFix that the rumor wasn’t true, and, obviously, the pair never got together.

December 2015: Drake stops by Kris’s Christmas party for a photobomb.

Drake remained close enough to the family to not only snag an invite to Kris’s exclusive Christmas bash but also photobomb a family photobooth moment.

April, 2017: Rumors arise again, except now Kris is trying to set up Kylie and Drake.

Yes, after Kylie broke up with Tyga, the tabloids just dusted off an old rumor and replaced the name of the daughter being set up. “Kris thinks Kylie should give Drake a chance, she wants them to date,” a source supposedly told Hollywood Life. Who doesn’t want to set their youngest daughter up with the man who performed at their 16th birthday party? This also appears to have been bunk. The pair never dated, and Jenner wound up with Travis Scott instead. Indeed, Drake’s recent appearance on a Travis Scott song is at the center of Kanye’s recent fuming.

And now we’re here.

Kim Kardashian West has backed up her husband in the matter and warned Drake to stay away from her family.

No word on whether that includes Kris as well.