When Kanye West premiered his “Famous” music video at The Forum in Los Angeles on June 24, 2016, the energy in the room was electric. Nearly everyone in the $25-a-head crowd sang along to the track — and the notoriously temperamental West even flashed an occasional smile while surrounded by his wife, Kim Kardashian, her family and fellow rappers Travis Scott, Desiigner and French Montana.
Outside the famed arena, though, a storm was already brewing. As Tidal simultaneously live-streamed the video, the world tuned in to a shockingly voyeuristic scene depicting lifelike naked wax sculptures of West and 11 other celebrities and public figures sleeping in bed. Donald Trump and Bill Cosby were among those featured, but all eyes were on West, who lay in the center, and the two people on either side of him: Kardashian and his longtime nemesis Taylor Swift.
Special effects artist Michael Dinetz, who worked on the sculptures, thought Caitlyn Jenner would spark the biggest reaction, given that the Olympian (and West’s in-law) had come out as transgender the year before. “She was really controversial at the time, so the fact that she was on the build list was the most talked about,” Dinetz exclusively recalls to Us. However, the internet zeroed in on Swift. “I don’t think anybody in the effects world really gave a s*** about Taylor,” Dinetz bluntly admits. “Most of the people working on it never even knew that a feud happened.”
The blowback was, uh, swift. “Famous” got more “dislikes” than “likes” on YouTube, and one of Swift’s closest friends, Lena Dunham, described the video as “disturbing.” The song, which West debuted at a Madison Square Garden listening party in New York City that February, had already generated plenty of controversy. Swift’s rep issued a statement saying that the pop superstar had privately “cautioned” the rapper against releasing a track with “misogynistic” lyrics like “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.” West claimed to have received Swift’s blessing, but she insisted he never gave her a heads-up about the “bitch” line.
The back-and-forth came to a head on July 14 when Kardashian took to Snapchat to post clips of a phone call between West and Swift. The “Shake It Off” singer was heard telling the Yeezy founder that the “sex” lyric could be seen as a “compliment,” though, as she had previously pointed out, he never mentioned the word “bitch.” As Kardashian tweeted snake emojis, and the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty trended, Swift posted an instantly iconic statement that read in part: “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”
West and Swift’s feud began when he stormed the stage during her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to declare that Beyoncé should have won Best Female Video instead. Eventually, the pair managed to put their differences aside, and Swift even presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs. But the “Famous” debacle ultimately marked a breaking point for the “Bad Blood” singer.
These days, Swift has no communication with West or Kardashian, who divorced in 2022. “Kim and Taylor don’t have a relationship,” a source tells Us. “They have both moved on. It’s not this active, lingering drama anymore, but they’re not in touch or anything like that. If they saw each other in passing, they would be cordial.” (Us has reached out to reps for Swift and Kardashian for comment.)
Still, the damage persists. Swift — whose struggle to regain her footing inspired her 2017 album, Reputation — called West’s “Famous” video “revenge porn” in 2019 and described the public fallout as a “career death” in 2023. “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,” she told Time.
However, in 2020, Swift was vindicated when her full 25-minute call with West leaked online, supporting her side of the story that he had never informed her of his plans to call her a “bitch” in his song. In fact, she even stated at one point, “I’m glad it’s not mean. … I thought it was going to be like, ‘That stupid, dumb bitch.’ But it’s not.” Kardashian responded to the leak in a series of tweets at the time, doubling down on her defense of West and criticism of Swift rather than apologizing. “This will be the last time I speak on this because honestly, nobody cares,” the Kardashians star declared.
Despite the uproar, Dinetz remains proud of the work he created for West. “It’s a music video for what would be considered, in terms of status, a high-ranking artist,” the makeup and effects artist reasons. “It would be no different than when I worked on a Marvel movie. On a résumé, it’s great.”
Kardashian, meanwhile, has largely moved on from the controversy. “Kim really hasn’t given much thought or energy to this situation in years because so much has happened in her life since then,” the source tells Us, adding that while the Skims cofounder “doesn’t necessarily regret inserting herself,” she does look back with 20/20 hindsight. “Jumping in just made it turn into something much bigger. At the time, she really felt like she was sticking up for her husband and their family, but it spiraled way more than she expected.” (In August 2016, Kardashian faced renewed backlash when she visited an art exhibition displaying West’s “Famous” wax figures and even snapped a photo of Swift’s sculpture, which she later posted on Instagram and has since deleted.)
If the same thing happened today, the source says Kardashian would handle it differently: “Kim has grown a lot since then, and it’s not in her nature to be so reactionary anymore. Back then, her instinct was to jump in and say something, but now she’s a lot more careful about what she gives energy to. She’s learned no one really wins in a public feud like that. It just keeps going and going, and everyone gets dragged.”
