The discussion around the leak of Kanye West and Taylor Swift’s full “Famous” phone call got much more dramatic overnight.
Hours after Swift made a statement on the matter—urging her fans to pay attention to what “really matters,” COVID-19 relief, but also touching on the call’s impact on her (“the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for the last 4 years”)—Kim Kardashian took to Twitter and posted a thread about how Swift was “actually lying,” and she was “left without a choice but to respond.”
Kardashian also apologized for writing extensively about this issue as “I know you are all dealing with more serious and important matters” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Swift has not responded to Kardashian, but her publicist Tree Paine did, pointing out that in Kardashian’s thread, the reality star “edited” Paine’s 2016 statement on the matter by omitting some parts.
It’s a lot to take in, but for background, over the weekend, full audio of the call Swift and West had discussing his controversial “Famous” song lyrics about her leaked on social media.
It did show Swift and West reviewing some lyrics, but he did not discuss calling her “that bitch” with her. Swift and her team claimed immediately after Kardashian released excerpts of that call on her Snapchat that that line—”I made that bitch famous”—was what Swift took issue with.
Swift’s reputation took a hit when the Snapchats were released, and she was attacked on social media by those who saw her as a “snake” and liar. She ended up retreating from public life for a year after and spoke later about how hard being canceled was for her mental health.
The full phone call video that leaked was seen by some fans—and Swift herself—to be vindicating for her. As Swift pointed out in her statement yesterday, the clips showed “I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call*.”
But Kardashian didn’t see it that way. In her Twitter thread, she wrote:
“@taylorswift13 has chosen to reignite an old exchange—that at this point in time feels very self-serving given the suffering millions of real victims are facing right now. I didn’t feel the need to comment a few days ago, and I’m actually really embarrassed and mortified to be doing it right now, but because she continues to speak on it, I feel I’m left without a choice but to respond because she is actually lying.
To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that “Kanye never called to ask for permission…” They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word “bitch” was used without her permission. At the time when they spoke the song had not been fully written yet, but as everyone can see in the video, she manipulated the truth of their actual conversation in her statement when her team said she “declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.”
The lie was never about the word bitch, It was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation. I never edited the footage (another lie)—I only posted a few clips on Snapchat to make my point and the full video that recently leaked doesn’t change the narrative. To add, Kanye as an artist has every right to document his musical journey and process, just like she recently did through her documentary. Kanye has documented the making of all of his albums for his personal archive, however has never released any of it for public consumption & the call between the two of them would have remained private or would have gone in the trash had she not lied & forced me to defend him.
This will be the last time I speak on this because honestly, nobody cares. Sorry to bore you all with this. I know you are all dealing with more serious and important matters.”