“It’s been literally years.”
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If it feels like you’ve stepped out of a time machine this week, it’s probably because Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, has reignited some eight-year-old drama between her and Kim Kardashian.
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For a quick reminder, Taylor and Kim’s feud began way back in 2016 with the release of Kanye West’s song, “Famous,” which included the controversial line: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.”
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The lyric seemingly references when Ye interrupted Taylor’s acceptance speech at the VMAs in 2009.
Even though Ye claimed that he got Taylor’s permission for the line, a spokesperson for the singer hit back and denied this was the case, describing the song as “misogynistic.”
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“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” Taylor’s representative 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.’”
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At this point, Kim entered the chat to defend her then-husband. After telling GQ that Taylor “totally approved” the line, she took things to the next level by releasing footage of the actual phone call between Ye and Taylor, in which she can be heard giving him the go-ahead.
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“Yeah. I mean, go with whatever line you think is better. It’s obviously very tongue-in-cheek either way,” Taylor could be heard saying in the now infamous clip. “And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice!” she added.
Memorably, Kim shared the footage hours after noting that it was “National Snake Day” — which is where the “snake-gate” name originates.
As the story goes, the phone call clip appeared to serve as evidence that Taylor had lied, and as a result, a large portion of the internet turned on her, prompting her to go into hiding.
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At the height of the scandal, people flooded Taylor’s social media pages with snake emojis, and when she returned a year later, she reclaimed the snake imagery by putting it at the forefront of her comeback album, Reputation.
In 2020, the full phone call between Taylor and Ye surfaced online and seemingly revealed that Taylor had never actually approved of the “that bitch” lyric after all.
And while Kim seems to have put the drama behind her, having never mentioned it since, it appears Taylor’s more reluctant to let it go.
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In the past eight years, Taylor has unpacked the “snake-gate” drama on multiple occasions — in songs, acceptance speeches, her Netflix documentary, and in interviews.
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Even as recently as December, she name-dropped Kim directly during an interview with Time magazine, claiming that her career was temporarily “taken away” from her due to a “fully manufactured frame job” by Kim and Ye.
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“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before,” she said, looking back to 2016. “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. I thought that moment of backlash was going to define me negatively for the rest of my life.”
So, after “snake-gate” seemingly inspired tracks on Reputation (2017), Evermore (2020), and Midnights (2022), Taylor appears to be dwelling on the past once again on The Tortured Poets Department, with a song that many have interpreted as a shady “diss track” toward Kim.
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In case you’ve not heard it yet, Taylor’s “thanK you aIMee” tells the story of a high-school bully, named Aimee. Of course, the biggest hint that this song is inspired by Kim is the fact that the capitalized letters in the track title spell out her name.
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Taylor opens the song with a reference to a “bronze spray-tanned statue” of a person who caused her “searing pain” in the public eye. “All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin' / And I can't forgive the way you made me feel,” she sings, looking back at the conflict.
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The chorus centers around Taylor’s disdain for the bully in question as she recalls screaming “f*ck you, Aimee” into “the night sky.”
In the second verse, Taylor grapples with mocking “headlines,” recalling that “Aimee” “stomped across [her] grave.” She later indicates that she’s still haunted by what this person did to her, singing: “Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman / But she used to say she wished that you were dead / I pushed each boulder up the hill / Your words are still just ringing in my head.”
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Of the apparent hints that the song is about Kim, none garnered quite as much attention as a line that many fans believe is a reference to Kim’s daughter, North, whereby Taylor sings: “And one day, your kid comes home singin' / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”
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For context, North sparked an online frenzy by posting a TikTok video of her and her mom dancing and singing along to Taylor’s song, “Shake It Off.”
Needless to say, it didn’t take long for fans to start describing “thanK you aIMee” as a Kim K “diss track,” with many wondering how the reality star might be feeling about the song.
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And now, with their 2016 feud being rehashed once again, an insider claims that Kim has moved past the drama — and wants Taylor to do the same.
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“She’s over it and thinks Taylor should move on,” a source told People magazine on Tuesday, adding that Kim “doesn’t get why [Taylor] keeps harping on it.”
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“It’s been literally years,” the insider added.
Kim hasn’t personally addressed the “diss track,” though the Skims founder appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday and told the host that “life is good.”
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