The uneasy truce between Kanye West and Taylor Swift has seemingly been broken again after the pop star accused the rapper of attacking her with “misogynistic” lyrics in his new song, while West fired back, claiming Swift came up with the offending lyrics herself.
West unveiled his new album, The Life of Pablo, at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at Madison Square Garden Thursday evening.
On the song “Famous,” the outspoken West raps: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that b–ch famous.”
In a statement to Billboard, a rep for Swift said that contrary to West’s claims, the singer did not know about the offending lyrics and that the rapper did not call to ask for her approval, as he claimed he had.
“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” Swift’s rep said. “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 b–ch famous.'”
But in the first of what ultimately became a 15-tweet outburst, West said he “did not diss Taylor Swift” and had “never dissed her.” The rapper wrote that Swift herself was the inspiration for the lyrics, after she allegedly told a friend at dinner that she couldn’t be mad at him because he made her famous.
West also defended his use of the word “b–ch,” calling it “an endearing term in hip-hop, like the word N—a.”
West was seemingly backed up by a TMZ report on Thursday in which sources close to Swift said that the rapper had indeed called her last month to give her warning about the lyrics. West reportedly informed her that the lyrics were a joke, and Swift reportedly gave her approval.
Swift’s friends and family rushed to stick up for her. Model Gigi Hadid, a member of Swift’s “Girlsquad” who attended West’s Thursday evening fashion show/album listening party, took to Twitter to say that even though she was at the event, “my friends know of my loyalty.”
Swift’s brother Austin went one step further, posting a video to Instagram showing him throwing a pair of $950 Yeezy sneakers in the trash, captioning the video: “Getting a head start on some spring cleaning. Here we go again.”
The feud between West and Swift dates back to the 2009 MTV VMA Awards, when the rapper infamously took the stage while Swift accepted her award for Best Video to declare that Beyoncé had put out the best music video that year.
West revealed Friday morning that he was mastering adding more tracks to his new album and that it would be released later that day.