Taylor Swift vs. Kimye: Where Did it Start?

After Kim Kardashian West teased that her Twitter followers should start following her on Snapchat, the internet went into a frenzy after being greeted with a video that exposes Taylor Swift’s prior knowledge of the use of her name on Kanye West’s recent track, Famous. Twitter quickly exploded with posts under #KimExposedTaylorParty and #GoToSleepSelena, leaving many wondering just what created “bad blood” between the two stars, and how other celebrities managed to get involved. In order to get a better understanding of the situation, we’re going to take it all the way back to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

2009

At the 2009 VMA’s Taylor accepted the award for Best Female Video for her Grammy Award winning song, You Belong With Me. During her speech, Kanye West jumped onto stage, grabbed the microphone and famously stated, “Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Despite being cut short, Beyoncé later invited Swift on stage to finish her speech after accepting her award for Video of the Year.

Months, and several interviews later, Taylor expressed that she felt wronged in the situation. Kanye used his air time to publicly apologize and indicate that he understands his actions were wrong and uncalled for.

2010

Kanye West takes to the up-and-coming app, Twitter, to once again apologize to Swift for his behavior at the 2009 VMA’s.

Just two months later, West takes back his various apologies, saying that Taylor did not deserve to win the award, and painted himself as a hero. He felt that Swift blew things out of proportion in order to gain publicity and never came to his defense in any interviews.

2013

In an interview with The New York Times, Kanye states that his true motivation for public apology was peer pressure. He claimed to not have a single regret in regards to his previous actions.

2014

Rumors surround West and a possible “break” that he may be taking from the music business.

In May of this year, Kanye West marries Kim Kardashian.

2015

Rumors of a collaboration between Swift and West began to circulate, leaving fans of both wondering if the pair had called a truce.

Taylor presents Kanye with the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs this year.

2016

Kanye’s track, Famous, makes its official appearance to the general public. Questions arise around a few of the lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have s*x / Why? I made that b*tch famous.” Although West states that he had Taylor’s approval on the lyrics, Taylor’s team of publicists denied this claim.

Taylor remains silent on the situation until the Grammy Awards, where she takes home the prize for Album of the Year for her album 1989. Although she didn’t direct this speech at anyone in particular, we can assume that, “there are going to be people along the way who are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame,” was directed at West.

In an interview with GQ Magazine, Kim Kardashian West is questioned about the supposed “feud” with Taylor. She stands by her husband in saying that Taylor did give her blessing on the lyrics, but for some reason later backtracked to play the victim. She felt that Kanye went to an extreme that no other rapper would in calling the subject of their lyrics for approval. She also went on to claim that they had receipts of the entire conversation where Taylor approved of the lyrics, and that they were sent an attorney’s letter asking that the pair do nothing with the footage, except for destroying it.

Just a week later, the video for Famous airs, featuring a naked Taylor Swift sleeping next to Kim and Kanye. Swift was not the only celebrity featured in the video, all confirmed to be lifelike wax figures. Taylor and her team did not respond to the video, but a member of Swift’s squad, Lena Dunham, posts a Facebook rant, criticizing the video for appropriating rape culture.

Less than a month later, things got even more interesting. Kim Kardashian West coughed up the receipts she mentioned in GQ and posts a video of a secret recording of the conversation between Taylor and Kanye. Taylor seems to approve of Kanye’s use of her name in the song and says that he has to tell the story as it happened to him. He obviously didn’t know who she was before the 2009 VMA’s, so it makes sense that he uses a line about making Taylor famous. Kanye expresses that he felt that it was his duty, as an artist and as a friend to Taylor, to get approval before going through with the lyrics. Taylor makes it clear that she has a lot of respect for Kanye’s action in calling her first, and thinks overall that it’s really cool. However, after social media blew up over the posting of the video, Taylor took to Instagram to express her dismay and irritation with being painted as a complete liar. “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’,” part of the paragraph reads. She states that Kanye promised to play the song for her, but never did, and that it is impossible to approve of a song you haven’t heard.

Many celebrities close with Swift chose to remain silent on social media over the topic, due to ties with the Kardashian family, such as Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne. However, not every member of the “Swiftie Squad” stayed quiet. Selena Gomez chose to reflect on how the “last thing we need right now is hate, in any form.” She expressed that people should be using their influential voices on topics that really matter. Gomez was faced with tweets asking why she and Taylor haven’t spoken on #BlackLivesMatter or gun control, as Kardashian West has. Selena responded by saying, “oh lol so that means if I hashtag something I save lives? No,” and that she doesn’t care about sides, in a few harsher words. After #SelenaGomezIsOver quickly rose in popularity, Selena deleted her tweets on the subject.

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