Entertainment

Who Is "Taylor" In Kanye West's "Famous"?

by Kaitlin Reilly

If you're a ride or die Kanye West fan, there's a good chance that you carved out an hour on Thursday to listen to the West's brand-new album, The Life Of Pablo , via the TIDAL live stream. The album has gone through approximately a million name iterations, from So Help Me God to SWISH to WAVES to its current title, and now fans have finally gotten their very first listen to the highly anticipated — and fairly secretive — project. If you couldn't wait for the new album to drop and wanted to listen to it as soon as possible, the TIDAL live stream gave you exactly what you needed. Another bonus? Listeners on the livestream can analyze all of West's lyrics before they become emblazoned on tee shirts and reblogged on Tumblr. Right now, one song in particular is making fans question just who West could be calling out. Who is the "Taylor" in West's new track "Famous" — and could it be that Taylor?

For those not listening on Tidal, here's the (not totally safe for work) line from the song:

I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex I made that b*tch famous

While I (and, I'm sure, Kim Kardashian) hope that West is being metaphorical here, he is likely referring to some famous Taylor. The first person most people are probably suspecting the line is about is, of course, Taylor Swift, whose speech at the Video Music Awards West famously interrupted in 2009.

Could West be suggesting in "Famous" that he built Swift's career after the moment? It's possible — but doesn't seem very likely. Swift was a big household name in 2009, but she was still coming off of the country charts when she scored the Best Female Video award for "You Belong With Me." The West incident definitely put her name in headlines, but that's hardly what made or kept the pop star famous. Though the Swift connection has not been officially confirmed, plenty of Swifties are already not happy (and rightfully so — the line isn't a great one) about the possible association:

Whether "Famous" is about Swift or not, the line is pretty cringeworthy. West is reducing this mystery woman to a "b*tch" — that's not OK, obviously — and also suggesting that she owes him sex because of whatever hand he had in her career. That's pretty damn gross. And if "Famous" really is about Swift? Well, let's be real here, West: you didn't do a damn thing.