Kanye West’s Taylor Swift Remark Goes Viral
Kanye West’s remark about Taylor Swift went viral prior to the rapper deleting it from his social media.
On Monday, West—who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021—took to X, formerly Twitter, to share several reasons why he claimed he was banned from the Super Bowl to his 33.3 million followers.
“I never was allowed to do the Super Bowl because of three moments. George Bush don’t care about Black people. The Taylor Swift movement moment. Wearing a MAGA hat,” he wrote, referring to the President Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” merch he’s worn on several occasions.
“How it feel to be the best living and blocked from the main stage because of being ahead of my time. (And I mean all of this was before I went full Nazi of course).”
Before removing the comment from the platform, it racked up 1.2 million views, 28,000 likes and 1,400 comments.
Newsweek reached out to West and Swift’s representatives via email for comment.
West has never headlined the Super Bowl halftime show, though he did co-headline a pre-Super Bowl concert with Rihanna in 2015.
In February, West came under fire for his Yeezy commercial during Super Bowl LIX. He directed viewers to “go to Yeezy.com,” where just one item was listed for sale: a T-shirt with an image of a swastika. The ad came days after West posted antisemitic abuse on X, including, “I love Hitler” and, “I’m a Nazi.”
West’s George Bush’s remark, meanwhile, seemingly referred to his unscripted comments on live TV during a Hurricane Katrina benefit, where he criticized then-President George W. Bush.
West and Swift’s feud dates back to 2009 when West, then 32 years old, interrupted the “Cruel Summer” singer’s acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). The “Heartless” artist joined Swift, then 19 years old, onstage as she thanked her supporters.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” West said as he took the microphone from Swift’s hand. “One of the best videos of all time!”
Following the ceremony, Swift told reporters: “I was standing onstage and I was really excited because I had just won the award, and then I was really excited because Kanye West was on the stage… and then I wasn’t so excited anymore.”
During an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno one day after the incident, West told host Jay Leno he “immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong.”
“It’s actually someone’s emotions that I stepped on,” he said. “It was very—it was rude, period. I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person.”
Years later, West mentioned Swift in his 2016 song “Famous.”
The lyrics read: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b**** famous. God****, I made that b**** famous.”
West claimed he got Swift’s permission for the lyrics, but her publicist disputed that at the time, saying, “Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account. 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 bitch famous,'” according to Rolling Stone.
West’s then-wife Kim Kardashian defended her husband in a 2016 interview with GQ, claiming Swift “totally approved that.”
The Skims co-founder added, “She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much s*** for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”
Kardashian later released a recording of the call between West and Swift via Snapchat. According to the full audio transcript, which dropped in 2020, West never mentioned the “I made that b**** famous” line. While he did tell Swift he was toying with the idea of including “I made her famous,” the “b****” aspect was not spoken about.
“Well, what am I going to do about it?” Swift asked, before West said, “Uh, like, do the hair flip?”
Swift was even reassured when she thought the word “b****” was not going to be included in the lyrics at all.
“I thought it was going to be like, ‘That stupid, dumb b****.’ But it’s not,” she told him.
There was also a discussion between the musicians about whether the “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” line would be best as “I feel like Taylor Swift might still owe me sex,” but the pop star feared that would ruffle feminist feathers—which aligned with her PR’s previous statement.
“You have to protect your relationship. Do what’s best,” Swift cautioned. “You just had a kid. You’re in the best place of your life. I wouldn’t ever advise you to f*** with that.”
Swift was named the TIME Person of the Year in 2023 and reflected on the historic pop culture moment at the VMAs.
“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. 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 the outlet. “I went down really, really hard.”
