I remember back in 2016, reading some articles concluding how one of my favourite lyricists, artists and celebrities in the whole world, was a two-faced liar.
I recall, as a fan, being confused and divided in heart, because I didn’t really understand the allegations being made against this celebrity nor the severity of the backlash against her. All I know is the writers wrote with enough conviction and posed damning rhetorical questions that almost messed (even if for mere minutes) with the beautiful thoughts and image I had of my beloved celebrity.
This celebrity is Taylor Swift. And the perpetrators that had given merciless journalists the freedom to ajudge were non other than Award show interrupting rapper Kanye West and staunch co-bully wife, Kim Kardashian.
Before I get to the heart of my two-cents, let me take you guys through a quickish rundown of the whole history shared amongst these people. Bear with me. Some know it all. But some don’t. I don’t want to take a risk. It’s extremely crucial to our narrative here. By the time I’m done, you’ll see why context is so paramount and why a lack of it can cause long, fatal blows.
DISCLAIMER: Before any of the events below happened, Taylor Swift sold 7 million of her sophomore album – Fearless. This album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart and reigned there for 11 non-consecutive weeks.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2009
• It’s the 2009 MTV video music awards and Taylor Swift is just awarded Best Female Video Music Award. But from nowhere, Grammy award winning 32 year old Rapper Kanye West, in all complacence and a druken-like perceived sense of justness, interrupts Taylor’s speech and proclaims that Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time and thus, should be awarded instead. 19 year-old Taylor is standing awkwardly on stage, lost and shocked. The live audience (Beyonce included) and the watching world is agape and in serious cringe-mode.
• On his blog, after being ushered out of the show, Kanye West “apologizes” to Taylor Swift and the world. He says he was just being real and speaking his truth, insisting that although Taylor is talented, Beyonce was the G.O.A.T. in that category she lost.
For the record: Beyonce won Video of the Year that night. And with beautiful grace, summoned Taylor to come have her moment.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
• Kanye West cries on The Jay Leno Show apologising again to Taylor, admitting that he was rude and that his actions had no justification. He says he had only wanted to help people and not bog down talented people.
• Speaking with ABC Radio, Taylor Swift tells us that Kanye sincerely apologized and assures that she is now alright with him.
JUNE 11, 2013
• In an interview with The New York Times, Kanye goes back on his apology and insinuates he was forced into it.
“I don’t have one regret,” he said. “If anyone’s reading this waiting for some type of full-on, flat apology for anything, they should just stop reading right now.”
AUGUST 30, 2015
• It’s the 2015 MTVs. Kanye is being awarded the Michael Jackson vanguard award. He calls Taylor and tell her it would mean so much to him, if she presents him the award. Taylor gaily honours with a nicely written speech. But the first thing Kanye utters as he gets up stage is that MTV got Taylor to present his award for Ratings.
Taylor would later reveal in her 2019 Rolling Stone interview that that was when she realized his chameleon-like personality. She said she stood with her arms around his wife’s, feeling a chill run down her spine.
FEBRUARY 11, 2016
• Kanye drops the song Famous, containing the lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that Bitch Famous.”
• The world fires up at Kanye. An obviously expected uproar on his part. So he tells us to chill because he called Taylor and she gave her “approval”. Geez.
FEBRUARY 12, 2016
• Taylor Swift’s publicist issues a statement:
FEBRUARY 16, 2016
Taylor Swift gives a perfect response to Kanye West in her Album of the Year Grammy awards acceptance speech:
“As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there, 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 fame, but you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, you would know that it was you and the people who love you that put you there. And that would be the greatest feeling in the world.”
April 10, 2016
• Kanye tells his audience, as he performs Famous on stage:
“If I get in trouble for saying the truth, what’s being said the rest of the time? And I had to fight every day of my life, with the whole world turned against me, for saying out loud what everyone else felt. But that’s the job of an artist, of a true artist: not to be controlled by their finances, not to be controlled by perceptions, but only to be controlled by their truth.”
Hmmm. What everyone else felt? Wow. I guess mind-reading powers are actually real.
June 16, 2016
• In Kim’s Kardashian’s GQ cover story, she supports her husband, saying he gets so much shit when he actually took time to call Taylor and ask for permission.
June 17, 2016
• Kim Kardashian calls Taylor Swift a snake on Social Media and it caught on.
Taylor’s social media handles are flooded with the snake emojis. Headlines dragged her “fake nice girl persona” in the mud.
July 1, 2016
• Kanye West releases Famous music video and it has a wax naked figure of Taylor Swift and his wife, Kim, lying in bed with him right at both of his sides.
July 18, 2016
• Kim Kardashian uploads snippets of the phone call kanye had with Taylor, conveniently supporting that he had “indeed” sought approval. Taylor was heard laughing, appearing cool with the whole thing. Even appreciating that Kanye was nice enough to tell her about the song. And Baam. The ice breaks. Taylor is the town’s newest villain.
• Taylor Swift defends herself:
Note that: The unapproved referral to her as a “Bitch” and the fact that she was never played the actual lyrics is the bone of contention here.
THE HIATUS
Taylor takes a year long break away from the spotlight and returns in November 2017 with the Reputation album. She creatively owns the snaky and villianous image haters had carved for her and badassly mocked the media.
At one of her first concerts in support of the album, she reveals to her 55,000 fans in attendance:
“You might be wondering why there are so many snakes everywhere, huh?” She continues, “A couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on. Then a lot of people were calling me a lot of things on social media. And I went through some really low times for a while because of it. I went through some times when I didn’t know if I was going to get to do this anymore.”
MARCH 21, 2020
• That infamous phone call is leaked in its unedited entirety of 20 minutes. It is revealed that indeed what Taylor fought for had been nothing but the truth. Nothing like *that bitch* was ever mentioned throughout the call. Taylor’s laughter, seeming approval and jovialty with Kanye had only been taken out of the full context and Kanye indeed never called for “approval” nor did he ever send her the whole song for a listen as he had assured. He had only wanted her to help him release, on her own platform, a song that was blatantly sexually harassing her and undercutting her hard earned success. Check out the full transcript of the phone call here. Or Watch the full video here.
MARCH 23, 2020
• Taylor Swift responds in the eloquent, classy way true to her fashion. She puts up a link urging people to rather donate to a Coronavirus relief cause instead of asking her how she felt now that she had been vindicated of an incident that put she, her fans and her family through hell for 4 years.
• And of course, in wifey Kim’s shabby spokesperson fashion, she went on a Twitter tirade; unrepentant, insistent and intentionally ignorant about the full phone call clearly changing the narrative she had staged to back up her and her hubby’s claims.
MY TWO CENTS
P.S – By now, I hope you’ve either read the full transcript of the call or watched the video itself. It’s really imperative in understanding my thoughts below.
ON KANYE WEST
Honestly, at this point, it feels like a waste talking about this man’s juvenile antics. But I will still talk about him. He lives for this kind of attention anyways but this is on behalf of Taylor Swift and my furious nerves.
First off, to Kanye’s fans and the media outlets that ravaged and cancelled Swift then:
Did you even stop to ask why Kanye recorded the phone call in the first place? If yes, it is okay that he ever recorded that phone call? Because, really, what was the intent behind it? What did he need the scheming for? For God’s sake, he claimed to care about her during that call!
Kanye totally knew that Taylor was going to be unhappy about the profane and demeaning lyrics but helpless and powerless about it anyways. So he pretended to sound concerned and goodnatured to get her to play cool and record her being friendly in response.
Cue in MANIPULATION.
Thankfully, we got to see that her official statements which were used to tag her a liar, were indeed the truth. In the video, we hear her respectfully decline to release the song on her own platform, advising against the backlash that might follow. We all got to see that the “bitch” part was never mentioned to her and that Kanye knew she was unhappy with the “I made her famous” line.
We even also get to hear her say she needed time to think about the sex part lyrics.
Taylor had only been ultimately patient, (to his oh-my-God, long ass rant, that girl was unbelievably patient!) friendly, pretend-cool and resigned to his indulgent artistic liberty.
How pissing…and sad.
Without yet another heads up, in Famous music video, Kanye went ahead to create a wax naked figure of Taylor lying in bed with him and that of many other controversial celebs like his wife, Bill Cosby, Chris Brown, Donald Trump and Ray- J.
What…what on earth? How do you even describe this abusive behaviour all in the name of art and speaking some truth? How? This is beyond me.
Kanye West. I’m talking to you now. What has Taylor ever done to offend you? What? She never asked MTV to give her that VMAs in 2009. They gave it to her because they deemed her worthy. She never asked to be featured in your song. You sat down all by yourself, marveling at how much that same girl you had nonchalantly embarrassed at a live event in the past was making it big time all on her own and thought wow, I should take the credits. Again. Not just on behalf of Beyonce this time around.
Just like how your wife should thank Ray J for that infamous sex tape? Huh? Since you particularly mentioned it was sex she owed you?
How sick.
And since you deluded yourself into thinking you made Taylor famous (I swear to God, I never knew anyone named Kanye in my life when I was busy falling head over heels in love with Swift’s music), why on earth did you ask her in private, with pathetic stutters, to help you release your braggadocio infamous song on her Twitter handle to her country of “2 billion people” before launching into some incoherent slur about how broke you were and how your wife had to pay off some of your debts?
The irony of it all is hilarious. Any remotely sensible person could see who the real famous and influential person was.
Or…geez…was he just trying to get Taylor herself to validate the song and prove to Taylor’s fans and the world that he was the Alpha male?
No dude. Taylor, though meek, is way too smart for you.
ON TAYLOR SWIFT
It hurts to see that Taylor was just a young woman who strived to make peace with a man that had downgraded her publicly before. A man that was no doubt an intimidating player in his field and beyond her fragile femininity. Taylor’s goodnaturedness, innocence, vulnerability, fear, and helplessness were used fluidly against her.
I almost cried, listening to how nice and desperate Taylor sounded to someone anyone of us in her position would never have been happy with. I remember now, her 2019 interview with Rolling Stone where Taylor confessed: “I just wanted so badly wanted that respect from him” after their VMA clash. She continued, “I hate that about myself. That I was like, this guy who is antagonizing me, I just want his approval. But that’s where I was.”
Let’s be human. Let’s be very honest for a second.
Which publicly untainted, clean imaged lady, would ever be pleased to hear that someone she strived to be friendly with thinks she owes him sex for humiliating, sorry, making her “famous” on live TV, right in the middle of her being “awarded”?
Which one? God. Especially when they did work through it and totally earned their success on their own?
But because Taylor was intimidated, because she wanted to be on good terms, she wanted to be grown up and move on for fear of being bashed by the world for holding on to old feuds, she played the nice sweet girl that she actually is and allowed herself swallow up and play cool to bugging words from a laughing, knowing narcissist.
To think that one of Taylor’s explicitly expressed apprehensions when Kanye first told her the song contained some controversial lyrics were that words like “stupid, dumb bitch” could have been used, only for Kanye to assure her brotherly that nothing like that was ever mentioned and then go ahead to refer to her using that same feared “Bitchy” word for the world to hear. Speechless.
Taylor Swift did have her faults. Agreed. And they definitely backfired way unfairly.
In her vogue interview, she opened up a lot on the hate she received: “A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,” she says. “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly.” She adds: “When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, Kill yourself.”
She should never have pretended to find the “Me and Taylor might still have sex” part “tongue-in-cheek”. She only gave more room to be taken advantage of and schemed against. She should never have pretended to sound cool with it. She should never have pretended to anticipate the song. But this girl is human. She had to please the almighty, preying, pseudo-nice sounding Kanye. And of course, see the road it led her down.
Not that her explicit disagreement could have changed anything. I mean, even the Bitch part she was most upfront about, Kanye disregarded. But it could have salvaged her reputation. No husband and wife duo would have had anything to alter or edit to paint her a liar and susbstantiate their false story.
But well. Sure it took 4 years for Karma to strike but it definitely did strike. And while it doesn’t make up for the nightmarish bullying she was put through, I imagine it being a very, very relieving start for Taylor. The world is finally rescinding their negative opinions of her. And for that, I’m feeling very much relieved too.
ON KIM KARDASHIAN
To put into words my thoughts on the role this woman played in destroying Taylor for a very good while, is quite a restraining act for me. I want to keep it classy. So I would do all my best to. But not without fully making my points.
To start with, in her 2016, GQ cover story (which by the way, was proudly a naked shoot) she says: “Kanye has called me a bitch in his songs, just like what they say. I never once think, What a derogatory word! How dare he?”
Okay. I get it sis. Keep heralding your hubby’s name for you. Boo, he ain’t wrong at all there. You know that. In fact, you most likely enjoy the tag.
But for Taylor who never worked for such reputation or solicited such tag:
How dare you and your husband?
Kanye claimed in his call (you know, during all that attempt to gaslight Taylor) that his wife was initially not really okay with the “Taylor might owe me sex” he first used but was “way more into” the “me and Taylor might still have sex part” (don’t even really understand what the difference is, hahaha). Which wife in her right mind would ever even stand anything slightly along those lines from her husband? Wait, is Kanye’s brainwashing at play here? Or did she just agree with the lyrics because hello, Kanye has allowed her flaunt her full nakedness to the public times without number? Case in point: that Break the internet Paper magazine shoot.
Obviously those lines were nothing to her compared to the nakedness Kanye has no qualms allowing her share with the world. What did hell was she going to disagree with him for? She had no case at all.
They both share an unbridled creative and professional freedom that can never be curbed. Not even if an unwilling good girl is dragged along their mud.
We have the wax naked Taylor Thingy in the music video too. Tell me, would Kim be bothered? Of course not. I mean, she has an obscene sex tape that made rounds in 2007. The leaked tape she thoroughly milked millions from and earned her “fame” through. So her hubby’s explicit show featuring an innocent lady with a reputation at stake should be nothing right? Plus, this is also Kanye’s perceived creativity at play right?
I can’t gag enough.
It doesn’t end there. It turns plain horrific. Kim, in 200% support of her hubby who has interestingly stayed quiet since causing a stir with those lyrics in 2016, dragged another woman down. Whether to save her career, her husband’s or prove pure solidarity, who knows? Kim went all out and made Taylor into one widely acclaimed villain. She lent her ingenious efforts in bullying a young, helpless woman and subjected her to the harsh scrutiny of the public. Then still tagged Taylor a self-serving victim after the full context she had edited to suit her narrative is leaked, unadulterated, 4 years later.
Peeps, guess who the shame’s on now. Guess who keeps deleting the savage rat emojis and comments her socials are being flooded with. Guess whose #partyisover. You have two daughters Kim. I want you to sit back, think and convince yourself that you would allow your precious girls go through exactly what you made Taylor go through. I’m not asking you to apologise because Taylor doesn’t need it anymore and you are too bloated in ego to do that. But please, just think about Taylor…
And then, your daughters.
TO TAYLOR
I apologise Taylor. Though I never doubted your genuine good heart, those articles definitely messed with your image in my head for a second. Just a second. I promise. I was always on your side. Still, I apologise. I never fully understood or even knew how bad you had it. Sorry you had to go through all that. I couldn’t be more proud of the strength, resilience, confidence and thick skin you have since emerged with.
TO THE WORLD AND FANS
Never be quick to judge. Always ponder over underlying issues. Don’t be so taken in by the genius of a celebrity to the extent that any of their questionable moral codes isn’t your business or they are something you become party to. Remember, celebrities are humans first before their genius music, acting, dancing, fashion and whatnot. And you are human first, before a diehard fan.
Finally, stop overlooking women being bullied and harassed by men in the name of their perpetrators being themselves, speaking their truth or creating art. Especially when it was never solicited by the victims.
I rest my long long, but much needed yarn with this 2017 Taylor Swift lyric every Swiftie probably thought of when the full call leaked.
“The world moves on, another day, another drama drama, but not for me, not for me. All I think about is Karma. And then the world moves on, but one thing’s for sure, maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours”.
Taylor. They are getting it. And God knows, I want more.
