Kanye West and Taylor Swift just can’t quit each other.
Following Mr. West’s triumphant listening session and fashion show on Thursday at Madison Square Garden, the famous frenemies have traded public statements regarding a hard-to-overlook line about the pop singer on Mr. West’s new album, “The Life of Pablo.” (While the music has yet to be released commercially, its debut was broadcast worldwide via video stream. Friday morning, Mr. West posted online a new song, “30 Hours,” that he hadn’t debuted with the album, and announced he had added additional tracks to the LP.)
On “Famous,” a button-pushing rap featuring a chorus from Rihanna, Mr. West begins by saying, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” As if anticipating an outcry, he then asks “Why?” before pushing further and declaring that he made her famous, presumably when he interrupted her acceptance speech for best female video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Soon after the song’s premiere, anonymous sources told the gossip website TMZ that Ms. Swift had approved the joke and the song.
A video Ms. Swift’s brother posted to Instagram that showed him throwing his Kanye-designed Yeezy sneakers in the trash indicated otherwise, and about an hour later, a spokeswoman for Ms. Swift denied the report.
“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” said Tree Paine, a representative for the Ms. Swift. “She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.” She added, “Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that [expletive] famous.’”
On Friday morning, Mr. West couldn’t help but respond on his free-form Twitter account. “I did not diss Taylor Swift and I’ve never dissed her,” he wrote. “First thing is I’m an artist and as an artist I will express how I feel with no censorship.”
Mr. West added that the idea for the line was “actually something Taylor came up with,” having told a mutual friend, “I can’t be mad at Kanye because he made me famous!” He punctuated the message “#FACTS.” (Ms. Swift has not responded.)
Only months ago it seemed the two musicians had come to a general understanding. In an interview with GQ, Ms. Swift said that “to now be in a place where Kanye and I respect each other — that’s one of my favorite things that has happened in my career.” In August, she even presented Mr. West with a lifetime achievement award at the 2015 edition of the MTV award show where the two initially crossed paths.
On stage there, Mr. West insisted that his earlier run-in with Ms. Swift had been exaggerated and exploited by the celebrity media. “You know how many times MTV ran that footage again?” he said. “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award ’cause it got them more ratings?”
– New York Times
