Did Taylor Swift diss Kim Kardashian on The Tortured Poets Department album?

Taylor Swift has released her newest album “The Tortured Poets Department” at midnight and surprised fans two hours later by releasing double the songs for a total of 31 new songs. While many of the songs are about romances as is typical for Swift, there is one song (maybe two?) which fans are saying is definitely a diss track aimed at reality star Kim Kardashian, with whom Swift has had her share of drama.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, here’s a reminder. Back in 2009 when Swift won a VMA for Best Female Video, Kardashian’s eventual husband Kanye West interrupted her speech and said the famous words, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Later in 2014, it seemed like the dust had settled when Swift presented Kanye with the Vangard Award at the VMAs. Later, however, she said that she was far from over what happened, as Kanye said on stage that Swift was just asked to present “for ratings”.

“I’m standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body,” Swift said. “I realized he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk s**t. And I was so upset. He wanted me to come talk to him after the event in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go.”

Things got worse when he released his song “Famous” with these lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor Swift might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous.” The song created backlash, but eventually Kanye defended himself saying that he spoke with Swift about the line and that she “thought it was funny and gave her blessings”, something that Swift denied. Her representative said that Kanye only called to ask her to release his single on her Twitter. This is where Kim finally comes in.

Kim released a video of the supposed phonecall with Swift where he seems to ask permission to include lyrics about her. She responds saying, “I know, it’s like a compliment, kind of. Yeah, I mean, what’s dope about the line is it’s very tongue in cheek either way. And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice.”

That then sparked backlash on Swift instead, with many calling her a snake. Swift still stood by the fact that she never approved those lyrics, writing a statement on social media:

“That moment when Kanye West secretly records your phone call, then Kim posts it on the Internet. Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that b****’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that b****’ in front of the entire world. He promised to play the song for me, but he never did. While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”

That’s when Swift disappeared from the music scene for about a year, and came back with a single in 2017 called “Look What You Made Me Do”, which along with the music video makes references to all those who’d called her a snake. In the video, “Et tu Brute” is carved into the throne she sits in surrounded by snakes, a reference to being betrayed by Kim Kardashian.

On which track did Taylor Swift diss Kim Kardashian?

It seems the feud is still ongoing, as it looks like Swift may have added a diss track on “The Tortured Poets Department”...maybe even two.

Track number 24 is the most clear, titled “thanK you aIMee”, with the letters K, I, and M capitalized. The song seems to be about getting bullied in an unfair fight that killed her spirit. When Swift took her break from the music scene, she said that she’d never been so low in her life.

“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar,” said Swift. “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. I went down really, really hard.”

There are many lines in “thanK you aIMee” that seem aimed at Kim, one that talks about a “bronze spray-tanned statue” that sits in her hometown and “threatens” her. There is another, which indicates the name “Aimee” in the title can’t be trusted:

“I changed your name and any real defining clues. And one day, your kid comes home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”

In the song, she also speaks about healing from the conflict. Since all that drama, Swift has seen success like never before.

Full lyrics to “thanK you aIMee”

Is “Cassandra” about Kim Kardashian too?

In Swifts song “Cassandra”, the 27th song on the album, there are several references to snakes. In Greek mythology, the goddess Cassandra is given the gift of prophecy by the god Apollo, who was in love with her. She, however, rejected him, and he decided to curse her with the gift of prophecy, but that no one would believe her.

The chorus to Swift’s song “Cassandra” is this: “When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screaming. In the streets, there’s a raging riot. When it’s ‘Burn the bitch’, they’re shrieking. When the truth comes out, it’s quiet.”

This could be a reference to the scorn and hate that Swift herself faced when many people took Kim’s side after she released the video of the phone call with Kanye. Another line in Swift’s song seems to reference the fact that many people didn’t believe her side of the story, though it eventually came out that Swift had been telling the truth the whole time. The time she spent secluding, however, was damaging to the singer. The song also makes reference to snakes.

“Tried to tell the town, so they filled my cell with snakes. I regret to say, do you believe me now? I was in my tower weaving nightmares, twisting all my smiles into snarls. They say, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you aware’. What happens if it becomes who you are?”

Full lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Cassandra”