Phone call between Kanye West, Taylor Swift again roils internet
Taylor Swift may have ended her feud with Katy Perry, but the one with Kanye West seems simply not to want to die. A newly leaked recording of the entire four-year-old phone call between the rapper and pop superstar about his controversial song “Famous” has been posted online and further complicates the picture of what happened. In “Famous,” West raps: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, Why? I made that (expletive) famous.” Upon its release in 2016, West was condemned by many for the line. He insisted Swift had given her blessing to the lyric. But she denied ever hearing the last part of the lyric. The new clips seem to corroborate Swift’s claims that West didn’t tell her the full lyrics of the song. But they also show West repeatedly asking Taylor for her approval of the sex lyric, and she does tell him she thinks it’s funny, just as the rapper said when the song first was released. “I never would have expected you to tell me about a line in one of your songs,” Swift tells him. “That’s really nice that you did.” This new footage was posted online from an unknown source late Friday night and rapidly spread across social media. Unlike other videos previously posted of the call, it shows all 25 minutes, albeit chopped up.
Representatives for the artists did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The release of the footage has added a new twist to the drama: While West was heavily criticized when it was initially released, and Swift made it clear she was unhappy with it, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, seemed to vindicate her husband months later by releasing snippets of the call where Swift appeared to approve the lyrics.
That led to a major backlash for Swift, who has described that time as low point in her life and career.
In the newly released video clips, West tells Swift he’s working on a song and wants to use the lyric: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” But he hasn’t ever been captured telling her the line, “I made that (expletive) famous.”
In response, Swift is heard saying: “I’m glad it’s not mean though. It doesn’t feel mean, but like, oh my God, the build-up you gave it. I thought it was gonna be like that stupid dumb (expletive), like, but it’s not.”