Taylor Swift’s Feud With Kim Kardashian and Kanye West: A Timeline

Since 2009, Taylor Swift and Kanye West have been locked in one of many tensest battles in celeb historical past. They largely stayed out of one another’s methods after their first, notorious, televised second collectively till a public reconciliation in 2015 made it seem to be all of that was simply water below the bridge. However who knew the worst was but to come back?

Issues between Swift and West wouldn’t solely worsen immensely in 2016, after West launched his tune “Well-known,” however their internet would quickly entangle Kim Kardashian, Scooter Braun, and even Justin Bieber.

After the discharge of Swift’s eleventh album The Tortured Poets Division, it’s clear the wound stays open as she seems to take an especially thinly veiled shot at Kardashian’s involvement in what she as soon as known as a “profession loss of life.”

Have a look again at all the pieces that transpired since West interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech on the VMAs 15 years in the past.

September 13, 2009: Kanye Interrupts Taylor’s VMAs Speech

In 2009, Taylor Swift was a 19-year-old nation star whose album, Fearless, was additionally a success with mainstream pop followers. Her video for “You Belong With Me” beat out Beyoncé’s “Single Women (Put a Ring on It)” for Finest Feminine Video, and he or she went to the stage to simply accept the award. Thus far, so good.

Then Kanye, as all of us keep in mind, jumped onstage, grabbed the mic, and mentioned, “Yo, Taylor, I’m actually glad for you and I’mma allow you to end, however Beyoncé had the most effective movies of all time. Among the finest movies of all time!”

Kanye was booed, and celebrities rapidly rallied behind Swift, together with the President of america himself (“He’s a jackass,” Barack Obama shrugged) and Beyoncé herself, who invited Swift onstage together with her when accepting her Video of the 12 months award later that evening.

West wrote an apologetic weblog submit, which he yanked, then wrote one other, then lastly categorical his remorse on The Jay Leno Present, saying he was ashamed. He later contacted Swift to apologize by telephone.

However by this level, “interrupting Kanye” and his “I’mma allow you to end” had been web memes and the incident had grow to be one of the crucial parodied awards present moments, as Kanye would possibly say, of all time. Of all time.

November 7, 2009: Taylor Hosts SNL and References VMA Incident

Two months after the VMA second, Swift hosted Saturday Evening Reside and addressed the incident with West with a joking line in her “Monologue Tune.”

“You is perhaps anticipating me to say/One thing unhealthy about Kanye/And the way he ran up on the stage/And ruined my VMA monologue,” Swift mentioned on the Nov. 7, 2009 present.  “However there’s nothing extra to say/’Trigger all the pieces’s OK/I’ve obtained safety lining the stage/It’s my SNL monologue.”

September 2010: Kanye Apologizes on Twitter, Taylor Debuts “Harmless”

A 12 months later, Kanye fired off a prolonged, apologetic tweet storm, saying he’d written her a tune that he’d file himself if she didn’t need it, and he concluded with a easy “I’m sorry Taylor.” However Swift had a tune of her personal that appeared to handle the controversy, “Harmless,” which she premiered at that 12 months’s VMAs.

“Harmless,” which walked a high-quality line between forgiving and condescending, would additionally seem on Swift’s album, Converse Now. (Cynics would possibly word that this feud flares up when there’s an award present on the horizon, or one of many artists in query has a brand new album to advertise.)

November 5, 2010: Kanye Backtracks on Apology

The controversy appeared to have died down after that, however in an interview with Entry Hollywood in October 2010, West listed Swift’s Fearless amongst latest albums that ought to not have gained the Grammy for Album of the 12 months. And as interviewers stored mentioning the VMA incident, West struggled to clarify and typically defend it.

On Minnesota radio station KDWB in November, he claimed his actions weren’t “conceited” however “selfless.” He additionally claimed that the occasion benefitted Swift, saying that he helped her “have 100 journal covers and promote one million [her] first week.”

August 2015: Taylor Presents Kanye With Video Vanguard Award at VMAs

In Might 2011, Kanye West and Taylor Swift met on the purple carpet on the Costume Institute Gala — with out incident. The 2 exchanged a down-low hand slap. The hatchet appeared completely buried when Swift was tapped to current the Michael Jackson Video Award to West on the 2015 VMAs.

Her speech concluded, “All the opposite winners, I’m actually glad for you, I’m going to allow you to end, however Kanye West has had one of many best careers of all time.” West’s acceptance was heartfelt however rambling, suggesting his points with awards exhibits had been removed from settled.

February 11, 2016: Kanye Mentions Taylor in New Tune “Well-known”

To premiere his newest album, The Lifetime of Pablo, West took over Madison Sq. Backyard and livesteamed a lavish occasion dubbed Yeezy Season 3. The spectacle obtained a variety of responses, however everybody shook their head at one set of lyrics in his new tune “Well-known:” “I really feel like me and Taylor would possibly nonetheless have intercourse/Why? I made that bitch well-known/Goddamn, I made that bitch well-known.”

Kanye later mentioned he’d gotten Taylor’s permission to drop that line, however a press release from Swift’s PR folks disputed that: “Kanye didn’t name for approval, however to ask Taylor to launch his single ‘Well-known’ on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a tune with such a robust misogynistic message. Taylor was by no means made conscious of the particular lyric, ‘I made that bitch well-known.’”

Kanye took to Twitter, as he does, the place he caught to his story that Swift authorized of the traces.

February 15, 2016: Taylor Shades Kanye Throughout Grammys Speech

The ball was in Swift’s courtroom, then, when 1989 gained the Grammy for Album of the 12 months. Her response was impassioned and as clearly directed at West because it could possibly be with out mentioning his title.

“As the primary girl to win Album of the 12 months on the Grammys twice, I need to say to all of the younger ladies on the market: there are going to be folks alongside the best way who will attempt to undercut your success or take credit score on your accomplishments or your fame,” Swift mentioned onstage.

However that was hardly the tip of the battle.

February 17, 2016: Kanye Calls Taylor “Pretend Ass” in Leaked Saturday Evening Reside Rant

And the meat rages on. Particulars concerning the supply and the precise context are nonetheless sketchy, however two days after Swift’s Grammy win, Web page Six posted audio of an enraged West apparently venting backstage at SNL on Feb. 13.

The clip is basically an prolonged “Have you learnt who I’m?” tirade — during which the rapper likens himself to Stanley Kubrick, Pablo Picasso, and different icons — however West could be heard throwing in a fast Swift diss as effectively, labeling the singer-songwriter “pretend ass.”

June 2016: Kim Joins the Battle and West Drops “Well-known” Video with Nude Taylor Reproduction

The squabbling over “Well-known” had largely died down till an incendiary quote appeared in a GQ profile of Kim Kardashian.

In accordance with Kim, Kanye not solely known as Taylor for approval of the road, however their name was captured on video — and Swift, Kardashian mentioned, knew about this footage. (In response, a Swift consultant said, “Taylor can not perceive why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, is not going to simply go away her alone.”)

It might need appeared like an offhand comment. However a star as publicity savvy as Kim Kardashian doesn’t make offhand remarks.

Then, on June 24, West debuted a nine-minute video for “Well-known” at an unique Tidal occasion on the Discussion board in Los Angeles that featured Kanye and Kim in mattress, surrounded by nude replicas of quite a few celebrities.

On the place of honor, to Ye’s proper, was a totally undressed Taylor Swift facsimile. West insisted the video had nothing to say concerning the people represented, however was simply “a touch upon fame.” Then he tweeted: “Can someone sue me already #I’llwait.”

July 2016: Kim Snapchats Video of Taylor Approving Controversial “Well-known” Lyric; Taylor Calls Transfer “Character Assassination”

Up till this level, the feud over Kanye’s crass “Well-known” lyric — “For all my Southside n—as that know me greatest/I really feel like me and Taylor would possibly nonetheless have intercourse” — has been a basic case of he-said-she-said.

However on a July Sunday evening, Kim Kardashian launched a key, extremely damning piece of proof into the courtroom of public opinion. She vented her frustration on Maintaining Up With the Kardashians; “I’ve had it with folks blatantly treating my husband a sure method and making him look a sure method; I’m gonna say how I really feel.” Then, she took to Snapchat to disclose the smoking-gun video she teased in GQ, which clearly exhibits Swift approving the supposedly controversial lyric.

“What’s dope concerning the line is it’s very tongue-in-cheek both method,” the pop star says after West reads her the road. “And I actually admire you telling me about it, that’s very nice.”

After the video reveal, Swift rapidly fired again, taking subject with being known as a “bitch” within the tune and indicating that West by no means performed her the complete monitor previous to launch as he promised: “Being falsely painted as a liar after I was by no means given the complete story or performed any a part of the tune is character assassination,” she wrote on Instagram.

Virtually seven years after “I’mma allow you to end,” this epic beef has seemingly reached a brand new apex.

August 24, 2017: Taylor Releases “Look What You Made Me Do”

After an extended hiatus, Swift releases “Look What You Made Me Do,” the feisty lead single off her forthcoming new album Repute.

With vengeful lyrics like “I don’t like your little video games/ I don’t like your tilted stage,/ I don’t such as you,” plus an impact that sounds as if she’s singing by means of a telephone, the monitor appears to allude to her lengthy, public feud with West.

November 2017: Taylor Releases Repute With Extra Photographs at Kimye

Though she’s by no means confirmed that her lyrics are about her Kimye feud, followers have lengthy speculated that a number of of the tracks on her LP Repute are geared toward West and Kardashian.

On “I Did One thing Unhealthy,” she sang each lyrics “I by no means belief a narcissist, however they love me,” and later, “If a person talks shit, then I owe him nothin’, I don’t remorse it one bit ’trigger he had it coming.”

Then on “That is Why We Can’t Have Good Issues,” Swift alluded to her friendship-rekindling with West and the way she felt tricked and bamboozled by the rap star after she misled her following the 2015 VMAs. She described the rapper as “shady” and referenced how West has misplaced a number of different buddies due to his antics.

“It was so good being buddies once more / There I used to be providing you with a second probability / However you stabbed me within the again whereas shaking my hand,” Swift sings. “And therein lies the problem / Buddies don’t attempt to trick you / Get you on the telephone and mind-twist you / And so I took an axe to a mended fence.”

And naturally, the fan-favorite line: “And right here’s to you / ‘Trigger forgiveness is a pleasant factor to do / Hahaha, I can’t even say it with a straight face.”

Early 2019: Kim Declares Feud Is Over, However Taylor Claims There’s Been No Apology

The Kimye-Taylor beef seemingly took a pause in January 2019 when Kardashian visited Andy Cohen’s What What Occurs Reside and informed the host that she was “over” her household’s struggle with Swift.

“I really feel like we’d all moved on,” Kardashian mentioned, earlier than stating she’d quite be caught in an elevator with Swift over Drake in a “Would You Quite” recreation.

However then in March, Swift appeared on the quilt of Elle and alluded to the truth that the couple had but to apologize for his or her remedy to her.

“I realized that disarming somebody’s petty bullying could be so simple as studying to snigger,” Swift wrote in Elle. “In my expertise, I’ve come to see that bullies need to be feared and brought severely. A number of years in the past, somebody began a web-based hate marketing campaign by calling me a snake on the web.”

“It might be good if we might get an apology from individuals who bully us, however possibly all I’ll ever get is the satisfaction of figuring out I might survive it, and thrive despite it,” she added.

Summer time 2019: Taylor Calls “Well-known” Video “Revenge Porn”

Amid the Scooter Braun-Massive Machine Data debacle about him proudly owning her masters (Right here’s a breakdown of that beef), Swift immediately addressed her emotions surrounding the “Well-known” music video, which noticed a pretend Swift nude laying in the identical mattress as quite a few different celebs, together with Donald Trump.

In a Tumblr submit in June 2019, she described the incident as a “revenge porn music video which strips my physique bare.”

Swift’s submit included a screenshot from Justin Bieber’s Instagram of the pop star FaceTiming West and Braun, and captioned it “Hiya Taylor Swift.” In her Tumblr submit, Swift described how the supervisor and her shopper was “bullying me on social media after I was at my lowest level.” 

September 2019: Taylor Particulars Her Facet of Notorious Cellphone Name with Kanye

Throughout a Rolling Stone cowl story in September 2019, the singer spoke at nice size concerning the 2016 telephone name between herself and West concerning “Well-known” and the way “the world didn’t perceive… the occasions that led as much as it.”

“Nothing ever simply occurs like that with out some lead-up,” she began to clarify. “Some occasions befell to trigger me to be pissed off when he known as me a bitch. That was not only a singular occasion. Principally, I obtained actually sick of the dynamic between he and I. And that wasn’t simply based mostly on what occurred on that telephone name and with that tune — it was form of a sequence response of issues.”

Swift defined that she thought she and West had began to reconnect after he requested her to current him with the 2015 VMA Vanguard Award. However then, onstage, he claimed that it was all executed for scores.

“I’m standing within the viewers with my arm round his spouse, and this chill ran by means of my physique. I noticed he’s so two-faced,” Swift mentioned. “That he desires to be good to me behind the scenes, however then he desires to look cool, stand up in entrance of everybody and discuss shit. And I used to be so upset. He wished me to come back discuss to him after the occasion in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go. So then he despatched this large, large factor of flowers the following day to apologize.”

Then, the telephone name concerning the “Well-known” lyric occurred, and he or she claims she was misled by the rapper from the get-go.

“Once I heard the tune, I used to be like, ‘I’m executed with this. If you wish to be on unhealthy phrases, let’s be on unhealthy phrases, however simply be actual about it,’” she defined, later explaining his ways: “Getting near you, incomes your belief, detonating you. I actually don’t need to speak about it anymore as a result of I get labored up, and I don’t need to simply speak about destructive shit all day, nevertheless it’s the identical factor.”

January 31, 2020: Taylor Particulars Reminiscence of Crowd “Booing” After Kanye Interrupted Her

Swift appeared again on the notorious VMA second with West in her Miss Americana documentary.

“It was so echeoy in there. On the time, I didn’t know they had been booing him doing him doing that,” she mentioned in the documentary. “On the time, I assumed they had been booing me.” 

“For somebody who has constructed their complete perception system on getting folks to clap for you, the entire crowd booing is a fairly formative expertise,” she added.

March 2020: The “Well-known” Cellphone Name Leaks in Full, Taylor and Kim Each Reply 

It took 4 years for the complete telephone name between West and Swift to leak on-line. In movies posted to Twitter, Swift and West could possibly be heard conversing concerning the “Well-known” lyrics, even revealing that West wished Swift “to tweet it.”

“So it says, ‘To all my Southside n—as that know me greatest/ I really feel like Taylor Swift would possibly owe me intercourse,” West informed the singer. “That’s not imply,” responded Swift within the clip leaked on March 20, 2020.

Within the clip, Swift additionally shared her reduction after studying that she was not “that silly dumb bitch” that West raps about within the tune. Although she informed him, she’d must “give it some thought as a result of it’s completely loopy.”

“I’m going to ship you the tune and ship you the precise wording and all the pieces about it, proper? After which we might sit and discuss by means of it,” West tells her.

Three days later, Swift addressed the leak stating she was “telling the reality the entire” and that that proved it.

“As an alternative of answering those that are asking how I really feel concerning the video footage that leaked, proving that I used to be telling the reality the entire time about *that decision* (you understand, the one which was illegally recorded, that someone edited and manipulated to be able to body me and put me, my household and followers by means of hell for 4 years)…SWIPE UP to see what actually issues,” wrote Swift, a hyperlink to the World Well being Group days after it declared the Covid-19 pandemic.

The next day, Kardashian defended herself and her husband saying the problem Swift initially had was that he had “by no means known as to ask for permission.”

“To be clear, the one subject I ever had across the state of affairs was that Taylor lied by means of her publicist who said that ‘Kanye by no means known as to ask for permission,’” she wrote on X. “They clearly spoke so I allow you to all see that. No one ever denied the phrase ‘bitch’ was used with out her permission.”

December 2023: Taylor refers to feud as “profession loss of life,” calls out Kim

Swift was named Individual of the 12 months by Time in 2023 after the large success of her Eras Tour. She gave her first sit down journal interview in a number of years due to this honor, and in it, she recalled the rekindled feud as a “profession loss of life.”

“Make no mistake — my profession was taken away from me,” she mentioned within the interview, referring to the backlash she obtained after Kardashian leaked the telephone name.  

“You might have a totally manufactured body job, in an illegally recorded telephone name, which Kim Kardashian edited after which put out to say to everybody that I used to be a liar,” she continued. “That took me down psychologically to a spot I’ve by no means been earlier than. I moved to a international nation. I didn’t go away a rental home for a 12 months. I used to be afraid to get on telephone calls. I pushed away most individuals in my life as a result of I didn’t belief anybody anymore. I went down actually, actually laborious.”

February 15, 2024: Kanye says he’s been useful to Taylor’s profession

After the Tremendous Bowl, rumors circulated that Swift had West kicked out from the occasion. West later denied the rumors but in addition tried to atone with Swift and her followers. (As is now recognized, Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce was not solely taking part in however gained the massive recreation.)

“To all Taylor Swift followers I’m not your enemy. Uuum I’m not your buddy both although LOL,” he wrote in a since-deleted submit.

“I’m positive I’ve been much more useful to Taylor Swift’s profession than dangerous,” West wrote, after calling her and Beyoncé “large inspirations” to different musicians. “Keep in mind I used to be on Taylor’s facet when Scooter purchased her masters behind her again.”

Elsewhere within the submit, West provided a proof for why Swift is name-checked in his latest tune “Carnival.”

“Once I mentioned that I’m the brand new Jesus bitch I wasn’t even fascinated by Taylor Swift,” West wrote. “That was an entire line earlier than however I admire the free promo. Lil Wayne really mentions Travis [Kelce] on Vultures 2. This album is definitely tremendous optimistic and enjoyable it’s all about triumphant.”

April 19, 2024: Taylor releases “thanK you aIMee”

Eight years after the Kardashian leaked the telephone name between West and Swift on her Snapchat, Swift had some extra alternative phrases for the truth star. 

In a surprise-released batch of 15 songs that had been a part of her eleventh album The Tortured Poets Division, Swift included a tune known as “thanK you aIMee,” which has the letters KIM capitalized.