Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Getty Images (2)
‘Cause baby we’ve always got bad blood when it comes to Taylor Swift and Kanye West.
The duo’s decades-long feud first began in 2009, when West shockingly ambushed Swift as she was receiving the award for Best Female Video during the MTV Video Music Awards. As she began her acceptance speech for “You Belong With Me,” West stormed the stage to grab the microphone, claiming that Beyoncé should have won for “Single Ladies” which he called “one of the best music videos of all time.”
While West stole Swift’s big moment, Beyoncé quickly attempted to right the wrong by letting Swift give her speech when “Single Ladies” won later in the night for Video of the Year.
In the weeks following the ceremony, West received massive backlash for his actions, for which he subsequently apologized. In return, Swift wrote the song “Innocent” for her 2010 album, Speak Now. in honor of West, offering him forgiveness.
While all was peaceful for a few years — Swift even presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs — things took a turn when West dropped The Life of Pablo in 2016. On the track “Famous,” the rapper called Swift a “bitch” who he “made famous.” He later claimed via X that he had an “hour long convo with [Swift] about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings.” (It would later be revealed that during their phone call, Swift only approved the line “I feel like Taylor and I might still have sex.”)
However, Swift denied that the conversation happened that way, claiming that West never followed up on promises to send her the whole track. This prompted West’s then-wife, Kim Kardashian, to release a video of West and Swift on the phone discussing the song and dubbing Swift a “snake.” Swift broke her silence on the situation days later as she accepted the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1989.
“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,” she said at the time. “But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
Backlash against Swift continued, causing the pop star to essentially disappear for a year before returning with her 2017 album Reputation, which dedicated multiple songs to the ongoing feud. A full length version of her phone call with West was later released, revealing that Swift had, in fact, never been told about the rapper’s plan to call her a “bitch” who he made famous.
While the duo laid off referencing each other in their music for a few years, they both seemingly returned to the drama for their 2024 records, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and West’s album with Ty Dolla Sign, Vultures 1.
Keep scrolling for every reference Swift and West have made about their longstanding feud:
‘Innocent’
Swift’s 2010 entirely self-written album, Speak Now, featured a song dedicated to West. “Innocent,” which sits at track No. 11 on the record, was a surprisingly kind perspective from Swift after the events at the VMAs.
In the song’s first verse, Swift admits West, who faced backlash for his comments, “really did it this time,” pontificating that he let himself in his own “warpath” and lost “balance on a tightrope.”
“Did some things you can’t speak of / But at night you live it all again,” she sings on the ballad. “You wouldn’t be shattered on the floor now / If only you had seen what you know now then.”
Despite his mistakes, Swift’s chorus offers forgiveness — and even words of wisdom — for West in the chorus.
“It’s alright, just wait and see / Your string of lights is still bright to me / Oh, who you are is not where you’ve been / You’re still an innocent,” she promises.
‘Famous’
More like infamous, “Famous,” off West’s 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, was the song that reignited the contention between him and Swift for years to come.
“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” West says in the verse, which is the lyric Swift approved, before adding the line that changed everything: “Why? I made that bitch famous.”
West later added fuel to the fire when he featured a lifelike naked wax figure of Swift in the song’s music video.
‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’
Any friendly undertones in Swift’s music disappeared on her 2017 record Reputation, where multiple songs were dedicated to revisiting her contentious dynamic with the rapper. In “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” — an upbeat bop that resembles kids confronting each other on a playground — Swift breaks down how she gave West a “second chance” after the VMAs only to be betrayed.
“But you stabbed me in the back while shakin’ my hand / And therein lies the issue, friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you,” she explains, seemingly referencing the infamous phone call between the duo. “And so I took an axe to a mended fence.”
“But I’m not the only friend you’ve lost lately,” she reminds him in the pre-chorus. “If only you weren’t so shady.”
‘Look What You Made Me Do’
Swift’s first single from Reputation, which marked her comeback after avoiding the spotlight for more than a year following the fallout with West and Kardashian, “Look What You Made Me Do,” was seemingly filled with shade toward West.
“I don’t like your little games / Don’t like your tilted stage,” Swift says as she opens the song, appearing to reference West’s famous tilting stage during his Saint Pablo Tour. “The role you made me play of the fool / No, I don’t like you.”
Swift goes on to vaguely recall what went down between them. “I don’t like your perfect crime / How you laugh when you lie,” she says. In Kardashian’s footage of the phone call, West could be seen smiling and laughing during the conversation.
“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time / Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time,” she sings in the chorus, announcing her return to the music game. “I got a list of names, and yours is in red, underlined . I check it once, then I check it twice, oh!”
In the chorus, Swift promises that while “the world moves on, another day another drama,” all she thinks about is “karma.”
“Maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours,” she warns.
‘I Did Something Bad’
In fairness, Swift’s third track off Reputation could be about multiple men — West, her exes Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, or others. However, the lyrics do fit in with the other references to revenge made throughout “LWYMMD” and “TIWWCHNT,” so it’s earned a spot on this list.
“I can feel the flames on my skin Crimson red paint on my lips If a man talks s—t, then I owe him nothing / I don’t regret it one bit, ’cause he had it coming,” she sings in the pre-chorus.
Swift once again seemingly references her 2016 “takedown” in the bridge, singing, “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one / They got their pitchforks and proof / Their receipts and reasons.”
‘I Forgot That You Existed’
Swift’s Lover era was a stark departure from that of Reputation, and the 2019 album traded dark themes and snakes for pastels and butterflies (literally seen in her “Me!” music video). Swift opens the record, however, declaring that those who once wronged her are no longer on her bad side — she simply cannot be bothered to think of them at all.
“How many days did I spent thinking / ‘Bout how you did me wrong, wrong, wrong? / Lived in the shade you were throwing / ‘Til all of my sunshine was gone, gone, gone,” Swift croons in the upbeat first track, possibly referencing West. “And I couldn’t get away from you . In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah / Your name on my lips, tongue-tied / Free rent, living in my mind.”
The hate consumed her, she explains, until she learned to let it go. “But then something happened one magical night / I forgot that you existed,” the chorus declares. “And I thought that it would kill me, but it didn’t.”
‘thank You aimEe’
Swift seemingly laid against any heavy-handed metaphors or descriptions of her feud with West on Folklore, Evermore and Midnights — she had other fish to fry concerning her master dispute with Scooter Braun and Scott Borschettea. Things changed with her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.
The song is actually about West’s now ex-wife, Kardashian — descriptions like “a bronze spray-tanned statue” make that clear — with all the letters in the title being lowercase except for the ones that spell out “KIM.” However, months after the record hit shelves, Swift released a live version of the song, changing the capital letters to spell out “YE” (the name West now often goes by) instead.
Taylor Swift has not only made headlines for her chart-topping music over the years, but also her several high-profile celebrity feuds. In January 2022, Swift got into a social media argument with musician Damon Albarn after he claimed she shouldn’t call herself a songwriter if she isn’t the only creative credited on a track. “I […]
“All that time you were throwing punches / I was building something / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel,” Swift sings in the chorus. “Screamed, ‘F—k you, Aimee’ to the night sky / As the blood was gushing / But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.”
Swift recalls the feud not being a “fair fight” or a “clean kill” — Kardashian and West edited the video footage of their phone conversation before releasing it — noting that “Aimee” would be “laughing at each baby step I’d take.”
When Swift released the bonus track, she effectively prevented West’s album Vultures 2 from reaching No. 1 on the charts.
‘Carnival’
West and Ty Dolla Sign released the debut album for their ¥$ group, Vultures 1, in February 2024. The 12th track on the record, which also features Playboi Carti and Rich The Kid, sees West name dropping Swift for the first time since “Famous.”
“Then she say she ain’t sucked my d—k / She gon’ take it up the ass, like a ventriloquist / I mean since Taylor Swift, since I had the Rollie on the wrist I’m the new Jesus, bitch, I turn water to Cris’,” he raps.
‘Lifestyle (Demo)’
An track from Vultures 2, released in August 2024, once again features West rapping about Swift — even taking note of her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce,” he raps, presumably a play on his NFL position.
