Taylor Swift dropped her highly anticipated 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at precisely midnight with 21 songs — but Kendrick Lamar’s fan-beloved remixed version of “Bad Blood” did not make the final lineup.
However, faithful Swifties should not be worried as Swift, 33, did rerecord the duet.
“Watching @kendricklamar create and record his verses on the ‘Bad Blood’ remix was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life,” Swift wrote via Instagram on Friday, October 27, nearly eight hours after the initial rerecording dropped. “I still look back on this collaboration with so much pride and gratitude, for the ways Kendrick elevated the song and the way he treats everyone around him.”
She continued: “Every time the crowds on The Eras Tour would chant his line ‘You forgive, you forget, but you never let it… go!’ I smiled. The reality that Kendrick would go back in and re-record ‘Bad Blood’ so that I could reclaim and own this work I’m so proud of is surreal and bewildering to me. I’m overjoyed to say that the ‘Bad Blood Remix (featuring Kendrick Lamar)’ is available everywhere on the 1989 Deluxe Edition.”
Swift subsequently dropped the link to the deluxe LP via her Instagram Stories, which indicates that Lamar’s version can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or purchased from Swift’s website, iTunes and other retailers.
Swift released the original version of 1989, titled after her birth year, in 2014. One year later, she dropped a remixed version of “Bad Blood,” which featured a special duet with Lamar, now 36.
“We both was in L.A., so I came to her studio session. She had the music up and I started writing and jumped in the booth and we laid it down,” Lamar recalled of their collaboration process during a December 2017 interview on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show. “With this particular record, it was me just vibing and catching her lyrics.”
The rapper continued at the time: “I didn’t want to get into her head too crazy. I just wanted to have my own inspiration and see where it took it. Fortunately, the vibe was right and it didn’t take too many takes and we was really locked in on the chemistry and we really felt what was going on when I was in the booth.”
Lamar’s portion of the rap — which was included in the now-infamous music video for “Bad Blood” with Swift’s A-list friends — has since been a favorite among fans. Many Swifties even took it upon themselves to shout his lyrics as a concert “chant” in the middle of Swift’s live Eras Tour performance of the song.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the fourth rerecorded album that Swift has put out. She revealed in 2019 that she planned to revamp her past records after drama over her masters. Swift’s former label, Big Machine Records, had previously sold her discography to Scooter Braun for more than $300 million, with Swift getting upset that she never had the opportunity to purchase (and thus own) her work. Braun, now 42, has since sold the rights to Swift’s music catalog.
