The world is no stranger to Kanye West throwing shade at Taylor Swift, ever since that infamous VMA moment a few years ago when he interrupted her acceptance speech to tell the audience that he thought Taylor didn’t deserve the award and that Beyonce did. The next year both wrote and released songs about it, her lyrics showing how she forgives Kanye and hopes other people would too, and proving there was no Bad blood between them!
But last year it seemed that the pair had kissed and made up, after they were papped talking at an award show, then later having dinner together. After the 2015 VMA’s, where Taylor presented Kanye with the video vanguard award, she posted a photograph on Instagram of a giant bunch of flowers that Kanye had sent to her and it became one of the most liked Instagram posts of the entire year, proving once and for all that the pair were definitely on good terms…until now!
Earlier today Kanye debuted his track “Famous” which references Swift, in an unflattering way with the lyrics “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/I made that bitch famous”.
Taylor, who was already a multi-platinum selling artist with a string of international hits during the infamous Kanye stage invasion, has yet to comment at all on the matter, but that hasn’t stopped some of her peers and her brother leaping to her defence.
Taylors younger brother Austin took to Instagram to post the below video, in which he seems to be throwing a pair of Yeezys, shoes designed by Kanye, in to a trashcan.
Taylors BFF and Good For You hit maker Selena Gomez was quick to like the video, her boyfriend Calvin Harris soon after commenting “LOOOOOOOOOOL” on Austins post, and actress Jaime King, whose son is Taylors godson, was quick to remove all traces of her attendance at the Yeezy season 3 launch from her Instagram and her Twitter. Once she’d done that, Jaime tweeted “I’m so sad right now & disappointed right now. I stand by my sister. Always” seemingly in reference to the event.
Amongst others leaping to her defence was her publicist Tree Payne, who used her Twitter likes to point out that Taylor had sold 7 million copies of her second album Fearless before she’d even met Kanye, that her lowest selling album had still sold more than his highest selling album despite being released 3 years before the VMA incident, and that Taylor was already headlining her own Arena tour at the time too!
Of course, Taylor is known for not holding back in her own lyrics and is proud to say they were, like Kanye’s, inspired and in reference to real people she’s met along the way, so she might not raise many complaints herself, but critics suggest that it is the sexist undertones of a woman owing a man sex that is the cause of the controversy.
It’s not just Taylor he took swipes at in “Famous” either, with him using his music to take aim at his brother-in-Law Rob Kardashian and his rumoured girlfriend Blac Chyna, referencing Rob’s weight problems, and musician Ray J, known for his sex tape with Wests wife Kim Kardashian, who had previously released a not so subtle diss track “I Hit it First”.
After a controversial week for Kanye, which saw him suffer major backlash after he tweeted “BILL COSBY INNOCENT” to his 18 million followers on Tuesday night, and saw him change the name of his album for the fourth time just 2 days before it’s release, it doesn’t look like it’s going to quieten down for Kanye any time soon.
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