While Taylor was accepting her VMA for Best Female Video in 2009, Kanye (who now goes by “Ye”) stormed the stage and took the microphone from her with the infamous line, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time.” It seemed as if the feud had simmered down after Taylor, Ye, and Kim Kardashian, Ye’s then-new wife, were pictured together at the 2015 Grammys. And their friendship seem to be on solid ground when Taylor presented Ye with the Vanguard Award at the VMAs later that same year. But things were not that solid: In 2016, Ye dropped his song “Famous,” which had the line, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.” He claimed that he had Taylor’s permission, which she denied, also explaining that she “cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.” However, Kim stepped in to defend Ye by telling GQ that Taylor “totally approved that,” and then went a step further by releasing a video of a phone call between Taylor and Ye in which you can hear them discussing the song in question. The call seemingly showed that Taylor was fine with the explicit line, which contradicted her earlier statements. However, in 2020, it was revealed that the video Kim had posted was edited, and Ye never played Taylor the song or mentioned the hurtful lyric. Taylor then broke her silence about the video through an Instagram story where she lightly shaded Kim by writing that she was “telling the truth the whole time” and that “somebody edited and manipulated it” to frame her. She then asked her fans to donate to organizations in need. The two sides have not spoken about this incident since.
