The Full History of Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s Infamous Relationship

In 2009, 19-year-old Taylor Swift was country music’s hottest performer. She’d been performing concerts since she was 14 and had a meteoric rise, becoming the youngest artist to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. She had hosted Saturday Night Live, appeared in a couple of movies, and had successfully made the transition from country girl to pop star. Naturally, she was thrilled to be invited to the VMAs in 2009, where our feud begins!

In 2009, Kanye West was already a household name. The rapper had 3 wildly successful albums to his name and had toured with the likes of U2. His public competition with 50 Cent to see who could reach the top of the charts had cemented him as one of the world’s most formidable rappers. Kanye was a regular at awards ceremonies, and with just a few weeks to go until his tour with Lady Gaga, he rolled up to the 2009 VMAs looking sharp.

In 2009, a young Taylor Swift was nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards for best female video for her song, “You Belong with Me.” The crowd went wild when Taylor won, and she headed to the stage, dewy-eyed and blissed out to accept her award. Enter Kanye West! The rapper followed her on stage, grabbing the mic halfway through her acceptance speech to say, “Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” Swift looked shocked, and so did Beyoncé.

The fallout of the embarrassing VMA moment was incredible. Kayne West gave his side of the story to Ellen Degeneres in 2010, saying that after the event he left the country to avoid the repercussions! He said he spent some time away from music to ‘soak in all that happened.’ Apparently, his actions that night came from a place of “sincerity or alcohol.” He also called himself a “soldier of culture.” Whatever you say, Kanye, but that doesn’t make it OK!

If there’s one good thing to come out of the VMAs moment, it’s that Kayne West’s interruption became one of the most talked-about and parodied moments of all time! Comedians have been basing whole sets on the interaction between the two, and it launched a thousand memes that kept us laughing for all of 2010. In fact, “I’mma let you finish” was a crucial 30 seconds in pop culture history, and we’re still feeling the ricochet effect many years later.

According to CNN, Kayne West’s guilty conscience was weighing on him, and he apologized to Taylor Swift a few days after the event. She confirmed she had accepted. In 2010, he even decided to go public with his feelings saying, posting “I’m sorry Taylor,” to Twitter. He added that he’d written a “beautiful” song for Swift that he wanted her to have. “If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her,” he said.

It could have been over quickly, but Taylor Swift wanted to have her say. At the 2010 VMAs, a year after Kayne first torpedoed into her life, she debuted the song “Innocent,” at the 2010 VMAs. The performance began by replaying a clip of the infamous interruption. Some of her lyrics could only be about Kayne, including the line, “Thirty-two and still growin’ up now…” 32 was Kanye’s age when he stole her spotlight! Taylor wanted to show she’s not one to mess with.

Shortly after Taylor dropped the song “Innocent,” Kayne West decided that he was also not quite over the beef! The rapper decided to take back his apology live on stage at a New York concert. When Taylor goes big, Kanye goes bigger. Kanye thought that Taylor Swift had left him to handle too much heat. He said, “Taylor never came to my defense in any interview…And she rode the wave and rode it and rode it.” Well, it kinda was his fault!

Years passed, but Kanye West couldn’t let it lie! The “Jesus Walks” rapper told the New York Times that he didn’t have a single regret over what happened the night he stole Taylor Swift’s thunder at the 2009 VMAs. “If anyone’s reading this waiting for some type of full-on, flat apology for anything, they should just stop reading right now.” When the interviewer asked about his earlier apologies, Kanye said they were due to “peer pressure.” The beef was back on the grill!

This wasn’t all on Kanye though, and many people thought Taylor Swift was milking the opportunity to play the victim. After she released “Innocent,” the singer told Rolling Stone that she had a photo of the VMAs moment in a frame above her fireplace, with the caption “Life is full of little interruptions.” The phrase also appeared in the liner notes of her album Speak Now. Taylor could have let it go, and by bearing a grudge she set the stage for further drama.

A full six years after the VMAs drama, Kanye West was on top of the world following his marriage to Kim Kardashian. The celebrity power couple, nicknamed Kimye, attended the 2015 Grammy Awards together and posed for an unlikely photo. The world was shocked when Kanye and Kim posed for photos with a beaming Taylor Swift. The moment didn’t look forced, with the three all looking happy together. Was the hatchet well and truly buried? Only time would tell.

Things were looking up for Kanye and Taylor Swift’s friendship, and the rapper went on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show to announce that a collaboration could be in the pipeline, “Yeah, she wants to get in the studio and we’re definitely going to go in.” The rapped added, “Any artist with an amazing point of view, perspective, fan base, I’m down to get in the studio and work. I don’t discriminate.” Could this mean that Kanye finally viewed Swift as culturally significant?

Taylor Swift and Kanye West spent most of 2015 looking pally in photos together. The 1989 singer told Vanity Fair that it was Jay-Z that helped them put their differences aside. She said that they weren’t ready to be friends until they found mutual respect. “I became friends with Jay-Z, and I think it was important, for Jay-Z, for Kanye and I to get along… It started with both of us really liking Jay and wanting him to be happy.”

Taylor Swift and Kanye West became so friendly in 2015, that Swift even presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs that year. According to News Corp Australia, the Golddigger rapper sent Swift a gorgeous bouquet of white roses to thank her for presenting him with the award. Taylor shared a photo of the bouquet with her fans with the caption, “Awwww Kanye sent me the coolest flowers!! #BFFs.” What a difference a few years can make!

It seems that Kanye West secretly always wanted to have the last laugh. In February 2016, Kanye released his album The Life of Pablo. Fans were aghast when they heard the song “Famous,” which was a clear dig at Taylor. The lyric in question was all too clear, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**ch famous.” Why Kanye, why?! This could have ended nicely, but it seems Kanye just had to keep digging.

When questioned, Kanye claimed that Taylor Swift knew all about the track. The rapper wrote a series of Twitter posts saying that Swift knew of his plans and had told him she was cool with it. “I called Taylor and had an hour-long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings.” He said that his wife Kim K was apparently “cool with it” too. So, everything’s cool, huh, Kanye? Totally chill. Tooootally fine…

There was clearly more than meets the eye to this situation. Would Taylor Swift really approve those lyrics? Her team fiercely denied that the 1989 singer had given the OK to Kanye West’s track. According to The Guardian, Talyor’s spokesperson claimed Swift “cautioned [West] about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that b**ch famous.” Buckle up, folks, because this cold war is about to get hot!

The tabloids were having a field day with the Taylor Swift and Kanye West drama following the release of “Famous.” Never one to miss a good press opportunity, Kim Kardashian decided to get involved! In June 2016’s issue of GQ, Kim said, “She totally approved that. She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much sh*t for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”

Kim Kardashian, an aspiring attorney at the time, claimed there was a key piece of evidence that could close the case in Kanye West and Taylor Swift’s battle of he said she said. The reality TV star even revealed that she had a video of exactly how the call went down. Adding fuel to the flames, Kim also claimed that Kanye was handed a letter from Swift’s legal team demanding that the video of the call would never be made public!

Kanye loves to escalate drama. He clearly decided that the lyrics to “Famous” weren’t inflammatory enough, he had to double the effect with his music video. The video starts off with a montage that include that infamous VMA moment with Swift from 2009. The footage zooms out to a bed of naked celebrities all sleeping together. Viewers picked out Chris Brown, Ray J., Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner, Bill Cosby, George W. Bush, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and, of course, Taylor Swift.

Kanye’s “Famous” video took a whopping three months to create. Although West didn’t publically confirm which celebrities were real and which were prosthetics, it’s obvious that Taylor Swift would never have taken part in the scene. A source close to Tayor Swift told Hollywood Life that she was “livid and horrified. She didn’t know what to do when she heard about what Kanye did. She is bewildered, feels betrayed and is beyond frustrated with Kanye. It is like a complete nightmare.”

Kim Kardashian proved that she wasn’t bluffing about the video evidence in her 2016 GQ interview. In July 2016, a month after her husband Kanye’s “Famous” video dropped, she released a series of Snapchat videos of her Kanye chatting on the phone with Taylor Swift about his controversial track. Kimye followers were all over this, claiming Swift was a liar and attention-seeking. For many fans, the evidence was enough to show that Taylor was in the wrong. But was it that simple?

In the Snapchat videos, we hear a voice that sounds like Taylor saying, “I’m really glad that you had the respect to call me and tell me about your concerns about the song…” She adds, “If people ask me about it, I think it would be great for me to be like, ‘Look, he called me and told me about the line before it came out.’ Like, ‘joke’s on you guys, we’re fine.'” It looked like Kanye was vindicated!

It wasn’t a coincidence that Kim had posted the video on the same day that a KUWTK episode about West’s feud with Taylor Swift was aired. Kardashian trolled TayTay further by publishing a string of tweets aimed squarely at the singer. Kim K wrote, “Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!? They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!” She followed the post with hundreds of snake emojis. Note to self – do not mess with Kim Kardashian!

Taylor Swift was furious about Kimye’s video leak, and she raged on Instagram that the entire situation was “character assassination.” Taylor said she tried to be cool, but her emotions were too strong, “You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that b**ch’ in front of the entire world … Of course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship.”

A year after Kimye’s “character assassination” of Taylor Swift, the pop star suddenly wiped her Instagram clean. Fans were confused about what was going on, but all was to be revealed. Taylor posted the first image of her new mascot: a snake. This was a smart move for Taylor, as she capitalized on the image that Kim Kardashian had to used to try to scorn her. Taylor teased her new album with the same snake emoji!

The first look at Taylor’s new 2018 album Reputation was the video for the song “Look What You Made Me Do.” It starts with the singer declaring that the old Taylor is “dead.” In one of the 2010s spiciest clap-backs, Reputation was squarely targeted at Kanye West and Kardashian. Taylor added salt to the wound with the lyrics, “The world moves on / Another day another drama, drama / But not for me, not for me / All I think about is karma.”

Some fans think that the video for Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” also takes a swipe at Kim Kardashian’s brutal robbery at gunpoint in Paris. In the single’s video, Swift lies in a bathtub of jewels with her hand in a finger gun formation. Kardashian was gagged and thrown into a tub while robbed of her jewels, so whether it was intentional or accidental, this scene by Swift took the feud from ugly to straight-up mean.

Almost 10 years after Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s infamous VMA moment, Taylor released the new video for her single called “ME!” She hinted to fans that the video was full of easter eggs. Taylor said on YouTube, “Some you’ll find out right away and some will take a minute to reveal their meaning.” Well, the obvious one that stared everyone at the face was a pink snake! It looks like Taylor still wasn’t done with her feud with Kanye.

A month before the release of the “ME!” video, Swift was asked, yet again, how she felt about the Kimye drama. She said, “A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet… it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life.” Michelle Obama says ‘when they go low, we go high’, but it seems that neither Taylor, nor Kim, nor Kanye were willing to follow that advice!

When the “ME!” video was released, Kim Kardashian went on the defensive again and did what she does best. She threw some shade! The Keeping Up With The Kardashians celebrity posted a photo of some interesting jewelry to her Instagram. The piece in question featured a bedazzled snake, with Kim K adding the caption: “I am obsessed!!!!” This wasn’t one of Kim’s best burns, but it certainly proved that she and Kanye were still willing to reignite the drama with TayTay.

2019 was a hotbed of Taylor Swift drama, but 2020 is shaping up to be the juiciest year yet! Ever since Kimye dropped the video of the phone call, Taylor’s fans have been sleuthing away to try and find evidence to vindicate the singer. In March 2020, the Swifties returned from their quest apparently triumphant and ready to spill the tea. By the looks of things, Swift’s infamous call with Kanye West may have gone slightly differently than we were all lead to believe.

Four years have passed, by the lyrics and video to Kanye West’s “Famous” are still hot news. On March 20, 2020, Twitter user @redligion shared an explosive series of new videos from Kanye West and Taylor Swift’s 2016 phone call. In March 2020, the Swifties returned from their quest apparently triumphant and ready to spill the tea. By the looks of things, Swift’s infamous call with Kanye West may have gone slightly differently than we were all lead to believe.

So what does the video show? Well, it seems that Kanye West first asked Swift to promote his song when it dropped. Taylor wasn’t up for that, so he moved on to ask her her thoughts on a lyric about her. In March 2020, the Swifties returned from their quest apparently triumphant and ready to spill the tea. By the looks of things, Swift’s infamous call with Kanye West may have gone slightly differently than we were all lead to believe.

In the video posted in March 2020, Taylor Swift replies to Kanye, “I need to think about it, because you know, when you hear something for the first time, you just need to think about it. Because it is absolutely crazy. I’m glad it’s not mean, though.” What we understand from the clip is that Taylor didn’t actually hear the song recorded, as Kimye had claimed, West just read the words aloud. And she was glad that it wasn’t mean. Girl…

During the video, we see that Taylor Swift seems relieved that Kanye West’s lyrics weren’t harsh. She said that it was appreciated that the song didn’t call her a “stupid, dumb b***h” or anything “mean” like that. The B-word did show up in the final version of the song. Perhaps Taylor even gave him the idea! Plus, when you listen in full, there’s definitely hesitation on Swift’s end. Perhaps the songstress didn’t want to rock the boat. So who’s the snake now?

A few days after the leaked video, the question on everybody’s lips was: what now? Taylor Swift hadn’t responded to the video unless you count a few discrete Tumblr post likes. Fans believed that Kim Kardashian’s social media likes were also talking for her, pointing out that the reality star favorited a tweet that read, “The video showed nothing new. We all knew that. I’m so confused right now.” And there’s been no word yet from Kanye.

Friends and fans are being very vocal about the drop of the video though. Taylor Swift’s friend Todrick Hall, who directed and starred alongside Swift in the “ME!” video tweeted, “My heart breaks listening to that phone call.” He added, “The fact that she even picked up the phone and wasted her valuable time to listen to that nincompoop speak is just a testament to how great a human she is #KanyeWestIsOverParty.” It looks like we’ve got a new trending hashtag!

Kim Kardashian finally responded to the video this week with a string of tweets. She said, “The lie was never about the word b****. It was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation.” This seems like some serious backpedaling, with Kim trying to do some damage control for Kanye’s image. It’s telling that Kanye himself never bothered to address the video, share his thoughts, or apologize. Maybe he thinks he’s above it?

Taylor broke her silence too, to encourage her fans to focus on “what really matters” amid the coronavirus pandemic. She wrote on Instagram: “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded that somebody edited, and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years)… SWIPE UP to see what really matters.”