Is there a chance that Taylor Swift, on her new album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, alludes to her conflict with Kim Kardashian?
Swift, 34, shocked her fans in the wee hours of April 19 when she revealed that her most recent body of work was really a double album with fifteen bonus tracks. Among these were the songs “Cassandra” and “thanK you aIMee,” the latter of which gets its name from the letters K, I, and M being capped.
The chorus of the song “thanK you aIMee,” which refers to “Aimee” as a bully in school, describes her attacks on Swift.
When you were punching me, I was building something, and I can never forget how you made me feel. I screamed, “F— you, Aimee,” to the night sky while the blood was gushing.But I will never forget how you helped me get better.”
The line “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? ” was added by Kardashian’s ex-husband Kanye West in 2016. In his song “Famous,” he claimed the singer of “Blank Space” had given his OK. “I made that bitch famous,” he sang. Soon later, Swift disputed through a spokesman that she had ever heard the line “I made that bitch famous.”
Amid the controversy, Kardashian, 43, posted altered video of a purported phone conversation between West and Swift about the song on her Snapchat. According to numerous individuals who spoke with PEOPLE at the time, Swift was unaware that the call was being taped.
Swift says that “Aimee” could have “reframed” the harm she inflicted in the song “thanK you aIMee,” hinting to the possibility that she has concealed her actual identity from the listener.
“Maybe you’ve also reworded it. Besides, you never thought of me as totally vanquished.You haven’t changed all that much, in my opinion. I altered your name and any other very important clues as a result,” she exclaims.
Soon after the song’s release, fans took to social media to discuss who and what they felt the song was about. Many of them immediately pointed the finger at Kardashian.
Not long after the double album’s release, a fan posted on X, “Taylor swift just made a diss track about kim kardashian in 2024 #TSTTPD.”
Another fan said, in part, on X (previously Twitter) on April 19: “Not #thanKyouaIMee being an entire song by Taylor Swift thanking Kim Kardashian because there ‘wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you.”
The fan also conjectured in the X post that a segment of the song, which mentions Swift’s mother, Andrea Swift, and divulges her mother’s feelings toward “Aimee,” is also about Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian after hearing “thanK you aIMee” by Taylor swift:
pic.twitter.com/RfMUSIVFEx
— 🧢1⃣0⃣ (@CapXSid) April 19, 2024Taylor sings, “My mother used to remark that she hoped you were dead, even though everyone knows she is a holy woman,” in the song.
There are other Tortured Poets Departments than “thanK you aIMee”: The song “Cassandra” from the Anthology seems to be connected to Kardashian, as it alludes to the Greek goddess of the same name. According to the website of the Brooklyn Museum, “The god Apollo, enamored of, granted her the power of foresight but, when she rejected him, ruined that power with a curse that no one would believe her predictions.”
“They filled my cell with snakes, I regret to inform you, and killed Cassandra first since she was afraid of the worst and attempted to alert the community. Do you believe me now?” In the new song, Taylor sings and seems to make reference to the snake emoji from her argument with the reality TV star.
In the midst of the drama involving her ex-husband and Taylor, Kardashian famously sent snake emojis, alleging that the singer had given false information about having approved the song. Taylor’s social media accounts were then deluged with images of snakes by trolls at the time.
The pop artist, who was chosen the outlet’s 2023 Person of the Year in December, previously discussed her rivalry with Kardashian in her cover interview with TIME.
She described how the incident and the response from the public “took [her] down psychologically to a place [she’d] never been before” and felt like “a career death.”
“Believe me or not—my career was stolen from me,” the “Cruel Summer” singer declared.
Recalling the illegally taped phone call, she said, “You have a fully manufactured frame job, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”
Now that we know the background, let’s look at the hints that point to Kim Kardashian as the true subject of “thanK you aIMee.”
Clue No. 1: The song’s title is “KIM” spelled out
The stylization of the song title, which includes a capital K, I, and M spelling out Kardashian’s first name, is the first hint that “thanK you aIMee,” written by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner, would be a diss track about Kim Kardashian. The official lyrics of the song consistently employ this stylization, and as fans are aware, Swift has previously used this coding technique to encrypt communications.
Clue No. 2: Swift has previously called Kardashian a “bully” in public and songs about bullies
In a famous piece written by Swift to celebrate turning 30, Elle published it and called Kardashian a “bully.” Based on my observations, it appears that bullies like to be viewed with fear and with gravity. Referring to Kardashian, who used snake emojis to allude to Swift during their mid-feud, Swift tweeted, “A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet.”
Swift said, “I cannot express how difficult it was for me to contain my laughter each time my 63-foot inflatable cobra, Karyn, made an appearance on stage in front of 60,000 yelling fans. The fact that so many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life.” “It’s the Stadium Tour version of saying ‘lol’ in response to a cruel Instagram comment from a troll. Although it would be good if those that harass us would apologize, perhaps all I will ever gain is the knowledge that I was able to endure it and even prosper in spite of it.
Clue No. 3: Taylor Swift appears to refer to North-West
Swift may be making references to two Kardashians in this passage. Kardashian is first “reframing” her assessment of Swift. Kardashian described Swift’s music as “cute and catchy” on a late 2021 episode of the podcast Honestly With Bari Weis. Fans were perplexed when she added at the time, “I really like a lot of her songs.” The second incident appears to be about North West, the daughter of Kim Kardashian, who had her dance to “Shake It Off” in a video that was later removed from their shared TikTok account.
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