Taylor Swift is biting back. The 27-year-old singer addresses her longtime feud with Kanye West on her new album, Reputation, on the aptly titled song “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
Swift appears to call out her rocky relationship with the 40-year-old rapper, who infamously interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, in the second verse of the track. “It was so nice being friends again,” she sings. “There I was, giving you a second chance / But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand.”
The pop star then tells her side of the story about her social media feud with West’s wife, Kim Kardashian. (As a refresher, Kardashian released snippets of a phone call between Swift and West on Snapchat in July 2016. The musicians discussed the “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” lyric from his song “Famous,” but he apparently failed to mention the controversial “I made that bitch famous” line. Swift later wrote on Instagram that she was a victim of “character assassination,” and Kardashian accused her of being a snake.)
On “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” Swift sings, “Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you / And so I took an axe to a mended fence.”
The “Shake It Off” singer also appears to reference West’s recently strained relationship with fellow rapper Jay-Z. “I’m not the only friend you’ve lost lately,” she sings. “If only you weren’t so shady.”
During the bridge of the song, she takes aim at all of the haters: “Here’s a toast to my real friends / They don’t care about that he said, she said / And here’s to my baby / He ain’t readin’ what they call me lately / And here’s to my mama / Had to listen to all this drama / And here’s to you / ‘Cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do.”
Fans previously speculated that Swift addressed her spat with the “Gold Digger” MC on Reputation’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do.” She sang, “I don’t like your tilted stage,” which many people assumed was a reference to the floating platform on which West performed during his 2016 Saint Pablo tour.
Prior to the release of Reputation on Friday, November 10, Us Weekly exclusively revealed that the “I Knew You Were Trouble” songstress would chronicle her feuds in her new music. A source told Us, “It will be across multiple songs, somewhat cryptically, but also obvious.”
