Taylor Swift and Kanye West's infamous 2016 phone call is now online. The fallout has been dramatic, to say the least. | Image: ROB KIM and LISA O'CONNOR / various sources / AFP
Rewind to 2016, and the world was going crazy over the reignited beef between Kanye West and America’s Sweetheart, Taylor Swift.
The two icons famously clashed years ago when the rapper grabbed the mic from the young starlet at the MTV movie awards, but that was just the beginning.
The A-listers seemingly kissed and made up after Ye stormed the stage in 2009 to belittle Tay, but the worst was yet to come. In 2016, Kanye dropped the track “Famous.” The song ruffled Taylor’s feathers for the derogatory lyrics which – among other things – dubbed Swift a b****.
What came next was a public battle of wills made even worse by West’s wife, Kim Kardashian.
Kim and Kanye claimed that Taylor knew all about the lyrics and that West had purposely reached out for approval before the song’s release. This instantly divided the camps.
While Kanye mostly stayed quiet, reality TV queen Kim got out the receipts and posted a snippet from the call to Snapchat. It certainly sounded like Taylor gave the rapper the go-ahead, but if only we knew then what we know now.
The “Shake It Off” singer was subsequently dragged through the mud by West’s fans, with Kim leading the charge.
On Friday, the full, unedited call exploded onto the internet and now – at long last – Taylor has got her sweet revenge.
West does tell Taylor a lyric, but it’s not the lyric that he used in the final edit. It’s vastly different. The “Stronger” hitmaker told Swift that he wanted to use the line,
To all my Southside n***as that know me best / I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex.
What he used was:
I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b**** famous.
The clip Kim released suspiciously left this part out. As #KanyWestIsOverParty trends on Twitter , are we surprised?
All this goes to show is that we should’ve known better. Kim Kardashian is an extremely shrewd businesswoman that has built an empire on manipulating the masses. To her, the entire clash between Kanye and Taylor was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Why wouldn’t she use the situation to her advantage?
While Kim and Kanye were busy pointing the finger at Taylor and calling her attention-seeking, they were carefully leaking just enough information to drive their narrative forward. Why? Because it’s what Kim does best. She has built a career on stepping on toes and causing drama. Frankly, slow news days aren’t in her best interest.
Now that the entire story is out there for the world to see, Kanye and Kim might find themselves battling to save what little reputation they have left. If this has taught us anything, it’s just a reminder of what we learned from the OJ Simpson trial. Never trust a Kardashian.