Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s rivalry has been one in every of the most important in music history. From the infamous 2009 VMAs incident to their short-lived friendship to Kanye’s shoutout on “Famous” and Taylor’s response on status, it’s actually been one for the history books. Taylor recently reflected on the feud and Kanye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian leaking the 2016 phone call about “Famous” in her Time “Person of the 12 months” interview.
As one in every of the longest-running rivalries in music, tons of fans revisit the drama when one in every of them do something to stir the pot. With Taylor reflecting on the phone call and her profession as a complete, look back on your entire timeline of their feud here.
The 2009 MTV VMAs
The difficulty began between Taylor and Kanye in 2009, years before Kim was in the image. Nobody will ever forget the infamous moment when Kanye stormed the stage on the 2009 Video Music Awards and interrupted Taylor while she was accepting the award for Female Video of the 12 months. He ran on-stage and announced that Beyoncé had “among the finest videos of all time.” In subsequent interviews, Taylor did reveal that Kanye had called her to apologize after the very fact.
Taylor was just 19 years old on the time, and the situation publicly humiliated her. When Bey was given the Video of the 12 months award, she welcomed Taylor back to the stage to have her moment. Within the years because the infamous incident, Taylor has referred to it on multiple occasions, including during a performance on her “Eras Tour” in August 2023.
Taylor Releases “Innocent,” and Kanye Drops “Runaway”
After the incident, the Speak Now singer responded by penning the song “Innocent” on her 2010 album and performing it at the exact same award show one 12 months after the incident. The song was not offended, and although Taylor and Kanye were removed from friends, it looked like they were putting the drama behind them.
On the 2010 award show, Kanye also made his return with the song “Runaway” from his magnum opus album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The performance not only marked the start of the promo for the album, however the song appeared a minimum of partially inspired by the backlash he received for the incident.
Taylor & Kanye Hang Out on the Grammys
In 2015, they proved that each one was cool between them by hanging out on the 2015 Grammy Awards. JAY-Z helped facilitate the reconciliation, as he was friends with each Kanye AND Taylor. In August of that 12 months, Taylor spoke concerning the two of them making up in a Vanity Fair interview. “I feel like I wasn’t able to be friends with him until I felt like he had some type of respect for me, and he wasn’t able to be friends with me until he had some type of respect for me,” she said. “Hey, I like him as an individual. And that’s a extremely good, nice first step, a pleasant place for us to be.”
Taylor Introduces Kanye on the VMAs
On the 2015 VMA Awards that August, Taylor and Kanye’s relationship got here full circle, as she presented him with the Video Vanguard Award on the show. She then stood beside Kim within the audience and watched him speak and perform. Unfortunately, the solace was short-lived.
Kanye Releases “Famous,” & Taylor Claps Back
In 2016, Kanye released his song “Famous,” which included the lyric, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, why? I made that b**** famous.” He claimed that he called Taylor to get her approval for the lyric before releasing the song, but her publicist released an announcement that told a distinct story. She admitted that Kanye did give Taylor a call, but said Taylor never approved the lyric that was within the song that the rapper released.
When Taylor won the 2016 Grammy for Album of the 12 months, she again made a dig at Kanye and the song. “I would like to say to all of the young women on the market, there are going to be people along the best way who will attempt to undercut your success or take credit on your accomplishments or your fame,” she said, via People. “f you only give attention to the work, and also you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday while you get where you’re going, you’ll go searching and you’ll know that it was you and the individuals who love you who put you there, and that shall be the best feeling on this planet.”
Kim Kardashian Calls Out Taylor & Releases Phone Call Footage
That June, Kim did an interview with GQ, and branded Taylor a liar. Then, in July, she called Taylor a ‘snake’ on X (formerly Twitter), and released illegally-recorded footage of Kanye and Taylor’s conversation about “Famous” on Snapchat.
Taylor released a scathing statement in response through a spokesperson. “Taylor doesn’t hold anything against Kim Kardashian as she recognizes the pressure Kim have to be under and that she is just repeating what she has been told by Kanye West. Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the incontrovertible fact that much of what Kim is saying is wrong. Kanye West and Taylor only spoke once on the phone while she was on vacation along with her family in January of 2016 they usually have never spoken since. Taylor has never denied that conversation took place. It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do,” they said.
Taylor Drops ‘status’
After the Midnights songwriter released her statement, she was shunned on social media, and he or she retreated from the general public eye. She didn’t address the situation again until the discharge of her 2017 song, “Look What You Made Me Do.” She subsequently released the album status, which had just a few songs that appeared to take digs at Ye, including “I Did Something Bad” and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
Taylor Opens Up About Kanye to ‘Rolling Stone’
During a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor gave a more detailed account of why she never fully trusted Kanye, even after they were friends. She shared specific instances where she felt manipulated by the rapper, including before presenting him with the Vanguard Award. “I noticed he’s so two-faced. That he desires to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he desires to look cool, stand up in front of everyone and talk s**t. And I used to be so upset. He wanted me to return seek advice from him after the event in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go,” she said.
The Whole Phone Call Is Released
The entire thing was seemingly put to bed — until the FULL version of the “Famous” phone call was leaked in 2020. Taylor released an announcement showing that she felt vindicated by the discharge. “As a substitute of answering those that are asking how I feel concerning the video footage that leaked, proving that I used to be telling the reality the entire time about *that decision* (you already know, the one which was illegally recorded, that someone edited and manipulated with a purpose to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years),” she wrote.
After Taylor’s statement, Kim clapped back at her, referring to the various people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and he or she also claimed that she “never edited” the footage. “@taylorswift13 has chosen to reignite an old exchange – that at this time limit feels very self-serving given the suffering tens of millions of real victims are facing immediately,” she wrote on X. “On the time after they spoke the song had not been fully written yet, but as everyone can see within the video, she manipulated the reality of their actual conversation in her statement when her team said she ‘declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a powerful misogynistic message.”
Kanye Guarantees to Get Taylor’s Masters Back
Since “Famous,” Taylor and Kanye have never made up, but amid her battle to regain ownership of her master recordings from Scooter Braun, the rapper did post that he was “GOING TO PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT TAYLOR SWIFT GETS HER MASTERS BACK” in a post on X in September 2020. He stood by the statement in an interview with Billboard just a few days later. “All artists have to be free and own their rights. Taylor Swift deserves that, identical to everyone else,” he said.
Kim Listens to Taylor Years After Feud
In 2021, Kim filed for divorce from Kanye. Taylor didn’t publicly comment on their split, but afterwards, the SKIMs founder did reveal some surprising musical preferences. Kim admitted that she is a fan of Taylor’s music in an interview with political commentator Bari Weiss. “They’re all super cute and catchy,” she said.
Two years later, Kim further showed that she’s a fan by dancing along along with her daughter North West in January 2023. In March, she also posted a video of herself understanding to the Lover cut “You Must Calm Down.”
Taylor Looks Back on the Infamous Phone Call in ‘Time’ Interview.
Over seven years after the “Famous” phone call was released, Taylor reflected on the situation more in her Time interview, when she was named “Person of the 12 months.” She spoke about how down she felt after everyone called her out following Kim’s leak. “That took me down psychologically to a spot I’ve never been before,” she said. “I used to be afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most individuals in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
Taylor Releases ‘thanK you aIMee’ & More From ‘TTPD’
Im April 2024, Taylor released her double album, The Tortured Poets Department, and Swifties were convinced that it included multiple jabs at Kim and Kanye. Within the track, “thanK you aIMee,” the lyrics point to a individual that bullied Taylor. Not only that, however the title even spells out Kim’s name within the three capitalized letters.
