The scornful lyrics to “thanK you aIMee” tell the story of a high-school bully, and several signs suggest that the song might be inspired by Kim and the “snake-gate” scandal.
Thanks to a seemingly shady song on Taylor Swift’s new album, it looks like Kim Kardashian is still facing the repercussions of the infamous “snake-gate” feud all these years later.
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As a quick reminder, Taylor and Kim’s beef started in 2016, when Kim’s then-husband, Kanye West, dropped a controversial song called “Famous.” On the track, he raps the line: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have 𝓈ℯ𝓍 / Why? I made that bitch famous,” — which is a seeming reference to when he interrupted her acceptance speech at the VMAs in 2009.
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After the lyrics sparked a ton of backlash, Ye defended himself by posting on X — then called Twitter — that he’d sought Taylor’s permission for the name-drop before releasing the track. However, Taylor publicly denied that this was the case.
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“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” her spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement at the time. “She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous.’”
Hot TopicThink you’re Blondie’s biggest fan? Put your ~reputation~ to the test. See our Taylor Swift Discussions Kim then came to her husband’s defense by refuting Taylor’s version of events and subsequently releasing footage of Taylor and Ye’s phone call, which appeared to show that Taylor did approve the line after all.Twitter: @KimKardashian“Yeah. I mean, go with whatever line you think is better. It’s obviously very tongue-in-cheek either way. And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice!” Taylor could be heard saying in the now infamous phone call clip, which Kim posted on Snapchat hours after noting that it was “National Snake Day.”AdvertisementWith seeming evidence that Taylor had lied, many people on the internet swiftly turned on her as her social media accounts were flooded with snake emojis and the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty trended on X.Kevin Mazur / WireImage
As you’ll probably remember, this all prompted Taylor to go into hiding, only to resurface a year later with her Reputation album, which centered prominently around snake imagery as a nod to the whole controversy.
Three years later, the full phone call between Taylor and Ye was shared online, seemingly revealing that Taylor had never actually approved of the “that bitch” lyric.
In the years since, Taylor has referenced the feud multiple times, both in her music and interviews. Most recently, she told Time magazine that Kim and Ye’s “fully manufactured frame job” meant that her career was briefly “taken away” from her. Steve Granitz / FilmMagic
“Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me,” she told the outlet in December. “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”
“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard,” she continued. “I thought that moment of backlash was going to define me negatively for the rest of my life.”
AdvertisementAnd while Kim hasn’t discussed the scandal since, it seems Taylor’s adamant that people shouldn’t forget how things went down — from her perspective, at least.Lionel Hahn / Getty Images