Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian’s Bitter Spat - From Leaked Phone Talk to Kanye West's Behavior

The two celebrities have been involved in a feud for over ten years

In an in-depth interview with Time, Taylor Swift discussed her well-known conflict with Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband Kanye West. The singer said that the ongoing rivalry has pulled her "down psychologically" to a level she had never experienced. Beginning in 2009, the conflict resurfaced in 2016 when the rapper released his successful song Famous, the lyrics of which outraged Swift, along with the accompanying music video. Kardashian, nevertheless, said that West had permission to include Swift in the now-famous lyrics and that Swift had known about the song the whole time. The world took Kardashian's side, making the hashtag #KimExposedTaylorParty trend and bombarding Swift's account with emojis of snakes. After a year, Swift replied with the release of her critically acclaimed album Reputation, which naturally included several allusions to the drama.

1. The 2009 Video Music Awards Kanye's outburst

At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the rapper lost control and rushed onstage as country music artist Swift collected her Best Female Video award. Swift, at 17 years old, gave the mike to West, who yelled, "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!" After that, he shrugged and left the stage, leaving Beyoncé in disbelief, the crowd jeering, and a visibly uncomfortable Swift on stage, clutching the mike and clearly distressed.

2. Kanye's 2016 song Famous

When West released his song Famous in 2016, things became worse. The song's lyrics are as follows: "I feel like me and Taylor Swift might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous." Swift responded to the line in public during her album of the year award speech at the Grammys. She said, "I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame." West claimed to have discussed the lyrics with her over the phone for an hour and according to him, she gave her approval. Kardashian said in a 2016 interview with GQ that Swift had authorized the lyric beforehand. She then shared a video of the phone conversation on Snapchat, which seemed to support her allegation. Swift was promptly called a "snake" and a liar by online users.

3. Taylor retaliates

Swift maintained that the call that was released by Kardashian did not reveal the true events. As reported by People, she stated the following in a social media statement: "Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world." She further added, "While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination."

4. Taylor made a huge comeback

Swift revealed the release of her sixth studio album, Reputation, over a year after Kardashian posted the covertly recorded phone conversation. Swift used a slew of enigmatic Instagram posts featuring a snake to tease the announcement. This seemed to be her attempt to take back the snake emoji that she had used in her Instagram comments. Swift included many Easter eggs that alluded to the drama in the music video for the lead track, Look What You Made Me Do. She made further allusions to the drama after the video when she showed a row of several "versions of herself," one of whom was constantly recording videos on her phone and remarking, "I'm going to edit this later." 

5. Taylor leaked the entire call

Extended segments of the long chat between West and Swift over his Famous lyrics were released online late on March 20, 2020, four years after Kardashian revealed the edited phone call. The rapper may be heard pleading with Swift to share his newest single on her Twitter account in videos that were uploaded to the platform. He is heard saying, "So my next single, I wanted you to tweet it … so that's why I'm calling you. I wanted you to put the song out." Swift seemed apprehensive when she asked West what the lyrics were, even after he had informed her that he had inserted a "very controversial line" about her in the song. Swift seems cautious when she questions if it's "gonna be mean," and West responds that even Kardashian, his former wife, thought it was "too crazy" at first but eventually warmed up. The term "b***h*" was not used throughout the conversation. Swift pleaded with people to put the issue behind them when the whole version of their communication was made public.