Fans Cheer as Taylor Swift Continues to Prevent Kanye West From Grabbing #1 Spot on Charts

For the fourteenth week in a row, Taylor Swift's album The Tortured Poets Department ranked at the top of the Billboard 200 list. As per Us Weekly, Swift maintained her winning streak by collecting 142,000 equivalent album unit sales, surpassing Kanye West's most recent project with Ty Dolla $ign. The Donda rapper has so far achieved 11 No. 1s; however, this time Vultures 2 debuted at No. 2 on the chart with 107,000 equivalent album unit sales, making it Ye's 13th album to enter the top two.

In another subtle blow, the Blank Space hitmaker dropped a title change of the original thanK you aIMee track, which previously referenced West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, to thank You aimEe, now alluding to Ye. As per Billboard, Swift recorded the new version of the song in London's Wembley Stadium on June 22, the same day she debuted it as a mash-up with the 2011 Speak Now single, Mean, during her acoustic set. Swift's website revealed the arrival of two brand-new, digital limited-edition copies of her most recent album — The Prophecy (Long Story Short – Live From Lyon) and thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London). 

Swifties soon caught the gist of the calculated name change and flocked to social media to express their amusement. A fan tweeted, "Doing this right after blocking his album from number one…Taylor Swift the legend that you are!" “We love a shady queen,” an X user wrote in support while another fan penned, "Oh she petty, dragging them both as she should." 

In a similar vein, a person quipped, "And even when she’s being shady, she uses his preferred name. Very demure, very mindful." A fan agreed, "See how she didn't cause a scene, didn't make drama...she was very mindful, very cutesy, [and] very demure." As the comments continued to pour in, a netizen chimed, "Taylor changing the letters in thank you aimee from ‘Kim’ to ‘Ye’ is a very rep coded thing for her to do."

According to People, the song's new title was added as Swifties anxiously awaited the release of Reputation (Taylor's Version), her 2017 album remastered following the bitter feud with the former pair. According to the UK Mirror, the Love Story singer had broken down in tears while recalling the trauma she endured in her documentary, Miss Americana.

Journalist Brittany Spanos, who was featured in the docuseries, Taylor Swift Vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood on Discovery+, highlighted Swift's realization of the damage the West controversy had done to her reputation. “I’m just tired of the…just feels like it’s more than music now at this point. And just, most days I’m like, okay, but then sometimes I’m just like…it just gets loud sometimes,” Swift shared.