Whether you’re a pop culture aficionado or someone who just likes to vibe to Kanye or Taylor’s music, you’re well-aware that these two quite literally hate each other. The controversial artists have been making headlines for their volatile relationship for years now, becoming known for one of the biggest celebrity feuds of all time.
Kanye West and Taylor Swift aren’t exactly the best of friends. From calling each other out in song lyrics, to leaking phone call recordings, both artists have been pulling stunts against each other for years, leading to hate and resentment between the two.
They’ve been at each other’s throats for nearly two decades, making enemies of one another — but why do Kanye and Taylor hate each other so much? What actually happened between them and where did the drama all begin? Here’s a timeline clearly explaining Taylor and Kanye’s feud in detail:
A Timeline of What Happened Between Taylor and Kanye
Kanye Interrupts Taylor at the VMAs
September 2009
We all remember where we were on that day! Kanye and Taylor’s hate for one another started way back in 2009 — over a moon man. As Taylor accepted her MTV Video Music Award for ‘Best Female Video’ (for You Belong with Me), Kanye notoriously stole the limelight by interrupting her speech.
Storming the stage and grabbing the mic out of Tay’s hands, the rapper yelled, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
A then 19 year-old Taylor was left shaken up, Kanye didn’t GAF, and the infamous Kanye vs. Taylor feud officially kicked off…
Kanye (Indirectly) Apologizes to Taylor
September 2009
Soon after his VMA outburst, Kanye apologized (rare, that!) for his actions during an interview with Jay Leno. Discussing the viral incident, he admitted, “It’s actually someone’s emotions that I stepped on. It was very, it was rude, period. I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person.” He later cried when Leno asked him what his late mother would have thought of his behavior.
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Later, on Ellen, Kanye confessed that the outburst was due to a mixture of “sincerity and alcohol” and that he even escaped the U.S. for a while after acknowledging his shocking behavior.
Taylor Says She Was ‘Rattled’ by What Kanye Did
September 2009
A few days after the VMAs, Taylor appeared on The View, where she admitted that Ye had still not personally apologized to her. Although she was “rattled” by what he’d done, she added that she was open to receiving an apology from him.
At this point in time, Taylor seemed rather forgiving of the whole situation. Little did she know that they’d be rattling each other’s cages again in years to come…
Kanye Calls Taylor to Apologize, She Accepts
September 2009
After the VMAs fiasco, Taylor told ABC Radio that Kanye had finally apologized to her and that she had indeed forgiven The Life of Pablo rapper.
“Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology,” she said, before adding, “The support I got from other artists and from the fans, and so many people sticking up for me, that’s what got me to the place where I could accept that apology.”
All was good in the hood at this moment in time, and everyone was ready to put the shocking VMAs incident behind them.
Kanye Apologizes to Taylor on Twitter
September 2010
One year later, and the VMAs incident was still on Kanye’s mind. He made his apology public by firing off in a tweetstorm, writing, “I’m sorry Taylor.” Letting go of his ego for once, Kanye even told himself to “grow up” and “take responsibility” for his actions.
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Taylor Releases ‘Innocent,’ Widely Believed to be About Kanye
September 2010
Is this where the hatred really started?
A few weeks after Kanye’s Twitter apology, Taylor released her single, Innocent, and performed it at the VMAs that year. Many took the song as a dig towards Kanye, namely the detailed lyrics, “It’s all right / Just wait and see / Your string of lights is still bright to me / Who you are is not where you’ve been / You’re still an innocent / … It’s okay / Life is a tough crowd / 32 and still growing up now.”
Passive aggressive or just innocently sharing her feelings? You decide.
Kanye Takes Back His Apology to Taylor
November 2010 / June 2013
Just two months after apologizing to Taylor on social media, Kanye had a change of heart. The Gold Digger artist seemingly backtracked on his apology by telling the crowd during a performance at Bowery Ballroom in New York that “Taylor never came to my defense at any interview and rode the waves and rode it and rode it,” basically insinuating that Taylor was using the 2009 VMAs debacle to get more famous.
Jumping ahead three years later in June 2013, and Kanye’s topic of conversation was still Taylor Swift. He told The New York Times that he only apologized to Tay because of “peer pressure.” “I don’t have one regret,” he said of the VMAs fiasco.
Taylor Makes Jokes About Kanye on a Jam Bottle
August 2013
By this point, Kanye was mad at Taylor, but was Taylor mad at Kanye? No…but maybe?
It seemed she wasn’t taking the VMAs incident too seriously anymore when she humorously referenced Ye’s scandalous speech on a jam bottle sent to her friend Ed Sheeran:
Kanye and Taylor Make Up, Hug it Out at the Grammys
February 2015
2015 rolled along and the dust was seemingly settled. Kanye and Taylor’s beef was squashed and there were no signs of hatred as the two shook hands and hugged it out at the Grammy Awards.
Talking to Ryan Seacrest the following day, Kanye said, “Taylor Swift came up to me right after [Beck won the album of the year Grammy over Beyoncé], like literally afterwards, and tells me I should have went on stage. This is the irony in my life.” He also mentioned that Tay wanted to “get in the studio” and that he was “down” to work together (that clearly never came to be).
A few days later, and the pair blew everyone’s minds when they were spotted grabbing dinner together at New York’s The Spotted Pig.
Kanye and Taylor Show The World They’re Friends
August 2015
In what was a full circle moment, Taylor proved that she could forgive and forget when she presented Kanye with the Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs. Honoring the rapper and making light of their infamous feud, Taylor said,
“I first met Kanye West six years ago — at this show, actually! It seemed like everyone in the world knew about our infamous encounter at the VMAs. But something that you may not know is that Kanye West’s album College Dropout was the very first album my brother and I bought on iTunes when I was 12 years old. … I have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember because Kanye defines what it means to be a creative force in music, fashion and, well, life. So I guess I have to say to all the other winners tonight: I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time!”
In fact, Ye and Tay were so tight, that he’d even sent her a bunch of flowers, which she shared a photo of on Instagram. Funny what a six-year difference can make, right? Enemies can make the best of friends (YER RIGHT…)!
Kanye Disses Taylor In His ‘Famous’ Lyrics
February 2016
Guess we shouldn’t speak too soon, because you know, Famous happened — the song that triggered it all (to get worse at least).
Just when we thought their friendship was rekindled, the Kanye vs. Taylor war officially reignited in 2016 when Kanye referenced Taylor in his track, Famous. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, I made that bi**h famous,” he rapped.
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Kanye “Lies” About Taylor’s Approval of the Lyrics
February 2016
After some backlash, Kanye took to Twitter to insist that Taylor had given him permission to use the lyrics in an hour-long phone call with her.
Taylor’s publicist then told Billboard, “Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single Famous on her Twitter account. 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 bi**h famous.’”
While Taylor kept shtum on the whole thing, her besties (or shall we say #squad?) came to her defense, and her brother Austin even shared a video of himself throwing his Yeezys in the trash. The hate was hating!
Kanye Defends His ‘Famous’ Lyrics
February 2016
Angry at the backlash he was receiving for his song, Kanye took to Twitter in usual Ye style to defend himself. He insisted that Taylor had indeed given his controversial lyrics her “blessings,” and that she found the line “funny.” He also reassured the haters that the word “bi**h” is apparently “an endearing term in hip hop.” Okay, Ye…
Taylor Slams Kanye at the Grammys
February 2016
So, did Taylor really give her “blessings” for Kanye’s Famous lyrics? Hmm, we weren’t buying it. Bring on more awards drama in the Taylor Swift and Kanye West saga!
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Taylor waited for the right moment to criticize Kanye’s notorious lyrics: at the Grammy Awards, in front of a sympathizing audience. In what was one of Taylor’s most shocking moments, the singer accepted her award for ‘Album of the Year’ (for 1989), and gave a powerful speech about the importance of taking credit for your own accomplishments and success:
“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 your fame,” Swift said, naming absolutely no names. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be greatest feeling in the world.”
Kanye Disses Taylor in a Leaked Recording
February 2016
As if Taylor needed another reason to hate Kanye, a recording went viral online which heared the rapper throwing shade at his arch-nemesis.
The leaked audio heard Kanye ranting and raving behind the scenes of SNL, calling himself “50% more influential than any other human being,” and branding Taylor Swift a “fake ass.”
Kim Kardashian Says Taylor “Approved” the ‘Famous’ Lyrics
June / July 2016
Chaos ensued in the pop culture world when Kanye’s wife at the time, Kim Kardashian, added her own two cents into the feud.
Talking to GQ that year, Kim said, “She totally approved that…She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much sh*t for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”
Later, in July, Kim also accused Taylor of “playing the victim” during an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, adding, “It definitely got her a lot of attention the first time,” – referencing when Ye crashed the 2009 VMA stage – “I just don’t think he should be punished for it still to this day.”
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Kanye’s ‘Famous’ Video Features a Naked Taylor Swift
June 2016
Taylor’s hate for Kanye grew stronger when he released his shocking music video for Famous. The scandalous clip saw the rapper sleeping alongside several naked celebrities in bed — most noticeably with Taylor by his side. While these were all confirmed to be lifelike waxworks, fans couldn’t help but find it disturbing, especially considering Ye’s “might still have sex” lyric.
Kanye was also trolled for including Taylor among other more controversial stars such as Donald Trump and Bill Cosby. This led to her BFFs including Lena Dunham to slam the clip and dub it “sickening” and “disturbing.”
Kim Releases Footage of Kanye’s Phone Call with Taylor
July 2016
Things got real messy when Kimmie literally published a recording of a telephone call between Kanye and Taylor on Snapchat, which heard them discussing the Famous lyrics. In reference to the line, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” Tay said it’s “like a compliment,” and understood it as “very tongue-in-cheek.”
Kanye was heard telling Tay that he doesn’t want “to do rap that makes people feel bad” and feels he “had a responsibility” to her “as a friend.” He also thanked Taylor “for being like, so cool about it.”
Tay can be heard saying she “appreciates” him giving her the “heads up,” before adding, “Like I would never expect you to like tell me about a line in one of your songs.” She later continued, “If people ask me about it, look, I think it would be great for me to be like, ‘He called me and told me before it came out … Joke’s on you, guys. We’re fine.'”
Twitter immediately sided with Kim, as #KimExposedTaylorParty started trending, and Kim tweeted what was one of the most iconic tweets in history:
Taylor Defends Herself After Leaked Footage
July 2016
Things were looking pretty bleak for Taylor as people started filling her IG comments with snake emojis, implying that she was a liar. An RIP Taylor Swift mural from Melbourne even went viral and Justin Bieber even snarked on the star. The hate train against her was getting pretty intense, so it was about time she stood up for herself.
After being portrayed as a “liar,” Taylor defend herself on Twitter, insisting that she never knew Kanye would call her “that bi**h” in his song. She also claimed that Kanye never played the song for her despite promising he would. “Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination,” she added. “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”
Kanye is Relived the “Truth is Out”
July 2016
Kanye added fuel to the fire by telling the crowd at a Drake concert, “I’m so glad my wife has Snapchat, ’cause now y’all can know the truth…And can’t nobody talk sh*t about Ye no more!”, before launching into his Famous verse about Swift.
No surprise then, that Taylor was seething behind the scenes…
Taylor Releases her Album on the Anniversary of Kanye’s Mom’s Death
August 2017
Swift-haters continued to be furious with Taylor when she announced that her sixth studio album, Reputation, would be released on November 10th: the ten-year anniversary of Kanye’s mother’s death. Coincidence or not? Either way, the internet was upset, and Kanye had every reason to hate Taylor even more…
Taylor References Kanye in her New Music
November 2017
Taylor, feeling like her reputation was tarnished by Kanye and Kim, decided to pen her thoughts in her song lyrics. In Look What You Made Me Do, Taylor sang, “I don’t like your little games / Don’t like your tilted stage / The role you made me play / Of the fool / No, I don’t like you.”
While in her song, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Taylor crooned, “There I was giving you a second chance / If only you weren’t so shady / But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand / And therein lies the issue / Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on phone and mind-twist you / Forgiveness is a nice thing to do/ I can’t even say it with a straight face.”
Taylor Refers to Kim and Kanye as “Bullies”
March 2019
A whole decade after the Taylor and Kanye beef started, and the feud was still on everyone’s minds. While Kim told Andy Cohen that she and Kanye had “moved on,” the Anti-Hero singer reignited the feud by saying she’d learned to overcome the “bullies” in an interview with Elle:
“I learned that disarming someone’s petty bullying can be as simple as learning to laugh…In my experience, I’ve come to see that bullies want to be feared and taken seriously. A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet….It would be nice if we could get an apology from people who bully us, but maybe all I’ll ever get is the satisfaction of knowing I could survive it, and thrive in spite of it.”
Taylor Calls Kanye’s ‘Famous’ Clip “Revenge Porn”
June 2019
Taylor was never going to be over that Famous video clip. In fact, it still haunts us to this very day. Three years after its release, and while she was feuding with Scooter Braun, Taylor spoke against the record executive as well as Kim and Kanye on Tumblr:
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it…Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked.”
Taylor Says her Mental Health Suffered Because of Kanye
August 2019
Taylor had every reason to hate Kanye, especially considering how much her mental health was affected throughout their feud. She opened up to Vogue in 2019 about how being “cancelled” by Kim Kardashian “changed her life:”
“A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote cancelled, is a very isolating experience. 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. When you say someone is cancelled, 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.“
Taylor Calls Kanye “Two-Faced”
August 2019
While Kanye remained silent on his feud with Taylor, Swift came out with all guns blazing in 2019. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said she was done trying to make amends with the rapper after realizing “he is so two-faced,” when she “just so badly wanted that respect from him.”
Taylor claimed Kanye called her to ask her to present him with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs, but when he screamed, “MTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!”, she realized “that he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk sh*t.”
Taylor Proves to be Telling the Truth About the ‘Famous’ Lyrics
March 2020
We were served the ultimate *tea* during lockdown in 2020, as the full phone call between Taylor and Kanye leaked online. The plot thickened as the world learned that Tay was telling the truth the entire time: she didn’t hear, nor authorize Kanye’s ‘I made that bi**h famous’ lyric, and the “phone call” that Kim Kardashian had leaked four years prior was heavily edited to Kanye’s benefit.
The footage heard Kanye present Tay with his original line, ‘I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex,” to which she replied with a laugh, “That’s not mean,” and that she needed to “think about it because it is absolutely crazy.”
Kanye then ended the call with, “I’m going to send you the song and send you the exact wording and everything about it, right? And then we could sit and talk through it…”
Taylor, as she had always contended, never heard the song before its release and was never made aware of the actual lyrics, ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bi**h famous.”
As the footage circulated online, the popular star responded with this statement on Instagram:
…while Kim Kardashian tweeted this:
Taylor Says Her Feud with Kim and Kanye Was a “Career Death”
December 2023
The dust may have settled, but in 2023, Taylor wanted to share more on how the messy feud between her and Kanye and Kim made her feel. During an explosive interview with TIME magazine, Tay called the conflict a “career death” and revealed that she even moved countries because of it.
“Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me,” she said. “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.”
Tay continued, “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.”
So, is that the last we’re going to see of their messy feud? Will Kanye and Taylor hate each other forever? We think this feud might actually outlive us all!
Not sure if you agree, but Kanye and Taylor have had one of the best beefs of all time…the best beefs of all time (sorry, not sorry, it had to be done)!
Originally published in February 2016.
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