Morgan Wallen on How Drake Changed the Way He Writes About Break-Ups: “I Try to Place the Blame on Both Parties”

Morgan Wallen has established himself as one of the most musically open-minded artists in modern country, with the Sneedville native regularly incorporating elements from Hip-Hop, R&B and more across his expansive, eclectic discography.

And judging by his recent comments about Drake, it seems these trap-inspired 808s and rattling hi-hats aren't the only things he's brought into his music from the rap world.

Via an episode of Morgan Wallen Radio, Wallen explains how listening to Drake's early mixtapes and albums helped to alter the way in which he writes about relationships.

Wallen credits Drake with opening his eyes as to how country songs often only portray one side of a break-up and put the blame onto one party, whereas the ‘God's Plan’ hitmaker, by contrast, generally depicts contrasting perspectives in a break-up.

The ‘Love Somebody’ singer-songwriter begins, “I've been listening to Drake since...he was putting out mixtapes, so late 2000’s, something like that?...I would most certainly say that [Drake] has influenced the way I try to write, the emotions I try to evoke”.

Wallen goes on, “You know, I think I've said this before, but a lot of times - to me at least - something I've noticed in country music is people really like to paint one side of a relationship picture in their music. And I've never really understood that”.

The Sneedville native concludes, “I try to place the blame on both parties, because in my experience, that's the way it is. I feel like Drake, the way that I listen to his music and the things that he made me feel with those songs, helped impact that”.

It's something you can hear throughout Wallen's catalogue, but most notably on his latest album, I'm the Problem, on songs like the title-track, ‘Smile’ and ‘Lies Lies Lies’.

Similarly, Drake famously paints three-dimensional portraits of his relationships, epitomised by classics like ‘Jaded’, ‘Polar Opposites’ and ‘CN TOWER’ with PARTYNEXTDOOR, where he croons wistfully across cushioning, hazy instrumentals.

But inevitably, you have to admit that both Wallen and Drake's storytelling is always skewed in favour of the narrator, with most of the blame usually landing on the other person. Even so, it's refreshing to hear two of the biggest artists on the planet making a concerted effort to explore every facet of a break-up and see things from both perspectives, rather than simply focussing solely on own viewpoint.

And perhaps this is one of the reason why Wallen and Drake have become two of the most popular artists in the modern musical landscape, with their shared willingness to delve a little deeper then their contemporaries into the weeds of their relationships and break-ups helping to engender a sense of vulnerability and accessibility.

This is also one of the many reasons why fans have been clamouring for years now for a collaboration between these two chart titans. They've each teased a joint song on countless occasions, with Wallen appearing in the music video for Drake's ‘You Broke My Heart’ back in 2023, before Drizzy joined Wallen for his Houston walk-out last summer. Then, of course, came the Wallen name-drop on Drake's ‘White Bone’, one of the many stand-outs from his 2026 studio album, HABIBTI.

It seems we'll have to wait a little longer before we get this highly anticipated collaboration. But with Drake remixing Ella Langley's ‘Choosin’ Texas’ with Don Toliver for ‘Solar Eclipse’, it's clear the Toronto rapper's love affair with country music is far from over.

We're hoping that, once Drake's very public fallout with Universal Music Group - a label that works with Wallen - is all done and dusted, we'll finally get this generational link-up.

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