A leaked recording of Kanye West’s phone conversation with Taylor Swift appears to prove what the singer has claimed all along – that she didn’t approve of being called a “b**ch” on West’s track “Famous.”
The video shows that West sought Swift’s approval for the line “I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex” (which became “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex”). Swift said "That’s not mean" and added: "It doesn’t feel mean. But oh my God, the buildup you gave it, I thought it was going to be like, 'That stupid, dumb b**ch.' But it’s not. So I don’t know."
Elsewhere in their conversation, West asks: “Okay, now what if later in the song I was also to have said, uh… ‘I made her famous?’” Swift replies: “Well, what am I going to do about it?”
KIM K AND KANYE AND THE MOST DESPICABLE, GROSS AND MANIPULATIVE PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY THEY LIED ABOUT TAYLOR SWIFT IN 2016 AND THIS THREAD OF THE LEAKED PHONE CONVERSATION WILL SHOW YOU THAT. pic.twitter.com/jCw07z8Vpf
— , (@redligion) March 21, 2020
Swift publicly objected to the lyric when the song was released in 2016, prompting West’s wife Kim Kardashian to share a clip of the phone call which she claimed proved Swift approved of it. Kardashian referred to Swift as a “snake.”
In a 2019 interview, Swift admitted she was humiliated by Kardashian’s tweet, which sparked hashtags like “#TaylorSwiftIsCanceled” and “#TaylorSwiftIsASnake” – and forced her to take a break from social media.
“A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are ‘canceled’ is a very isolating experience,” Swift told Vogue. “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly.
“When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, ‘kill yourself.’”
After the phone call leaked, Swift fans have taken to social media to attack West and Kardashian.
“KIM K AND KANYE AND THE MOST DESPICABLE, GROSS AND MANIPULATIVE PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY,” tweeted one. Another
She mentioned West’s deception in a Rolling Stone interview last year: “Getting close to you, earning your trust, detonating you,” she said. “I really don’t want to talk about it anymore because I get worked up, and I don’t want to just talk about negative s**t all day.”
The bad blood between West and Swift goes back to 2009, when he interrupted her acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs to declare Beyoncé more worthy of the award.
Swift has not commented publicly on the leak of her phone conversation with West but has “liked” several Tumblr posts on the subject. One reads “And that is how you let Karma take care of itself” and another declared “everyone owes Taylor Swift an apology.”