Intern Insights: From VMAs Fallout to Podcast Praise: Is the Taylor Swift–Kanye West Feud Finally Cooling?

We all remember the infamous feud that sparked between Kanye West and Taylor Swift following the 2009 MTV VMAs when Swift was interrupted during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video from her song, “You Belong With Me”. To refresh your memory: West jumped on stage to claim that Beyoncé should have won the award for her “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” music video, not Swift. However, when Beyoncé won Video of the Year, she invited Swift back on stage to finish her speech. West faced public scrutiny and later apologized. 

The feud did not stop there. In 2016, West’s song “Famous” was released using derogatory statements towards her. He also claims he made Swift famous due to his public statement. West had claimed that Swift approved those lyrics over the phone; that claim was later proved incorrect by Swift. In an interview with Time magazine, Swift stated that the phone call was recorded illegally, then edited by Kim Kardashian, West’s ex-wife, to portray Swift as a liar.

In recent years, Swift filed a cease and desist against West for making derogatory, sexually harassing claims regarding her. She also released a song titled “thanK you aIMee” clearly noting the only capitalized letters spell out “KIM”. The song is about a mean schoolgirl named Aimee. 

Despite the feud between West and Swift, Kardashian has publicly called Swift “a super talented artist” on the January 21st episode of Khloe Kardashian’s “Khloe in Wonder Land” podcast. In the episode (scroll to 48:53 on the video below), Kardashian claims she has “always” loved Swift’s music and has some of her songs on her playlist. I can’t be the only one questioning everyone’s role in this feud… right? 

With this new development in Kardashian and Swift’s dynamic, are we expecting to see a friendship blossom, or is the damage done?