There’s a longer video of Kanye West & Taylor Swift’s ‘Famous’ 2016 phone call
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Last year was the 10-year anniversary of Kanye West drunkenly stage-rushing Taylor Swift at the VMAs. The infamous Imma Let You Finish moment. The moment that defined so much of what came afterwards for both Taylor and Kanye. Taylor spent years afterward winning nearly every award she was up for, all while embracing her victimhood status to great effect and great profit. For Kanye, the decade saw a massive public shaming, followed by bursts of creativity, terrible public statements and ridiculousness.
In that decade, Taylor and Kanye also had years where they were on bad terms, then they were on good terms, then they had another spectacular falling out. The last (and final?) falling out was in 2016, when Kanye dropped an album (The Life of Pablo) which included the song “Famous,” which had these lyrics: “For all my Southside n–gas that know me best/I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous.” Taylor ended up winning a slew of Grammys right around that time and she made a big deal about how Kanye was taking credit for making her famous and that he was a misogynist too. In the immediate wake of “Famous” being released, Kanye said that he got permission from Taylor to name-check her in the song. But Taylor denied it and said for months that Kanye had done that without her knowledge.
Months later, Kim Kardashian released – on Snapchat – parts of a phone conversation between Kanye and Taylor where they were discussing the lyrics to “Famous.” It became clear that Taylor had a lot of knowledge about what Kanye was going to say. Suddenly, Taylor’s argument became that she had no knowledge of the “bitch” line specifically, and that alone was her beef. Nevermind the fact that the call revealed that Kanye was being generally solicitous and wanting her permission, and that Kanye and Taylor spoke for some time about the lyrics. He called her because, in his mind at that moment, he wanted to talk to her artist-to-artist, and he wanted to see if she would be cool with *some variation* of the lyrics he ultimately used. Do I think that if Taylor had said, in that moment, on that call, “please don’t say any of that, none of that is okay with me,” Kanye still would have done it? For sure. He still would have used those lyrics. And if that had been the situation, the conversation would have been a lot different around all of this. But the fact is… Taylor did not say that.
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So, a new video from that 2016 conversation has been released. The Snake Fam is amplifying it like this proves that Taylor was right all along. It’s true that Kanye didn’t ask Taylor about the use of “bitch.” But… as he tosses out variations of the lyrics he ultimately uses, it’s clear that Taylor is quite aware of most of the final-version lyrics and the sentiments behind them. Which, guess what, was the point of the Snapchats from Kim Kardashian back in 2016. In case you still want to relitigate all of this – which the Snake Fam still seems eager to do, because I guess they’re bored during the quarantine – you can see the transcript from the call here at People Magazine, and I’m including the video below.
I’m not Team Swift or Team Kanye at this point, honestly. I cancelled Kanye years ago, and I only cover him occasionally when he’s doing something terrible, newsworthy or gossip-worthy. He’s a MAGA idiot and he’s trying to be a fake Evangelical scammer these days. Taylor isn’t cancelled at all and has done some admirable things. I actually enjoy covering her most of the time, but I just wish she and her fans would move on from all of this. Taylor was still trying to relitigate this in her September 2019 Rolling Stone cover story too. Please let it go.
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