Taylor Swift released the song “thanK you aIMee” off her new album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ and the strategic capitalization indicates it’s a direct hit at Kim Kardashian. Swift is wildly known for holding an eternal grudge, and since Hell hath no fury like Taylor Swift scorned, Swift has once again come for Kim in the form of a song. If only Kim Kardashian had taken her mother’s advice years ago…
In the video below you will see momager Kris Jenner advising her daughter, Kim Kardashian, to call Taylor Swift to make amends.
Kim did not take her mother/manager’s advice and instead went nuclear — by releasing what Kim considered to be cold hard “evidence” of Swift being caught red handed giving Kanye West permission to mention her in his song with the lyric, “I made that bit#h famous.” According to Kim, she was righting a wrong on behalf of her then husband. Kim claimed Swift gave Kanye permission for the lyric, later denied having done so, and then bashed Kanye at every turn. The only problem? Kim’s cold, hard evidence was only a snippet of a much larger, rambling conversation with Kanye in which he exhausted Swift into placating him so she could get off the phone. Swift asked for a preview of the Kanye song through a clear sigh, and when she finally hung up even I was confused at what just occurred.
According to Swift via her interview with Time for Person of the Year, “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. 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.”
Kim came very close to ruining Swift’s overall reputation as a result, and she never apologized. Pure talent is only reason Swift came back from the dead. As adept as Swift’s PR team is — even a magician can’t resurrect a dead body. Talent will always rise to the top. But Swift cannot and will not ever let this go, and as a grudge holder myself, I’m here for it. If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it is ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER.
Update: I contemplated deleting this awful post, but then I’d be hiding the evidence of my ignorance. Shame on me for not understanding “as a lawyer and former debater” that the phone call between Kanye West (who we now know as a disgusting antiSemite) and the genius that is Taylor Swift was editing, chopped up, and recorded illegally to make her look like a villainous hypocrite. I’ve not heard the entire phone call that effectively cancelled her at the time and once again — SHAME.ON.ME. If word of my update ever makes its way to team Taylor, I send my sincerest apologies.
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Taylor Swift
Photograph by by Erik Madigan Heck for Rolling Stone
As long as Taylor Swift is going to parse out her Kanye West feud point-for-point, so is The Dishmaster, because as a current lawyer and former debater, I know how to read between the lines — and Taylor Swift’s lines are actually circles.
Let’s review. Swift and West’s feud began at the MTV Video Music Awards when West interrupted her speech to boldly proclaim that Beyonce should have won. They briefly reconciled, but their new love took a left turn when West wrote a song about Swift, with the lyrics, “I made that bitch famous” and “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” When West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, came to her husband’s defense, Swift’s team attempted to demoralize her with a cutting, sexist quote, saying:
“Taylor does not hold anything against Kim Kardashian as she recognizes the pressure Kim must be under and that she is only repeating what she has been told by Kanye West. However, that does not change the fact that much of what Kim is saying is incorrect. Kanye West and Taylor only spoke once on the phone while she was on vacation with her family in January of 2016 and they have never spoken since. Taylor has never denied that conversation took place. It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do. Kanye West never told Taylor he was going to use the term ‘that bitch’ in referencing her. A song cannot be approved if it was never heard. Kanye West never played the song for Taylor Swift. Taylor heard it for the first time when everyone else did and was humiliated. Kim Kardashian’s claim that Taylor and her team were aware of being recorded is not true, and Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone.”
Swift doubled down when she accepted the GRAMMY Award saying, “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” Team West/Kardashian finally had enough and released the actual footage of Swift gleefully consenting to West’s use of the song. In the leaked footage, Swift can be heard calling West “awesome” for being “outspoken” in declaring that the VMA incident “made her famous.”
I suspect Swift was not aware she was being recorded, as there’s no way in hell her team would release the above quote if they had knowledge that it could be disproved in an instant. Furthermore, it’s illegal. California is a two-party state, which means that it is illegal for West to record anything without Swift’s permission or knowledge. West/Kardashian obviously knew that a lawsuit would serve to further soil Swift’s reputation, so they took the risk in releasing it.
When Swift got word of the release, her entire argument hinged on West NOT asking to use the words “that bitch,” saying ” You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world.” Though we don’t get to “control” her emotional response, we do get to judge whether its genuine. And the evidence suggests it is not genuine. She did not object to West declaring that he made her famous (yet Swift took aim at this line during her GRAMMY speech) and she did not object to a line involving the two having sex. On the leaked footage she is heard saying that the sex lyric is actually “tongue in cheek.” If she didn’t object to both those lines, it stands to reason she would also not object to being called “that bitch.” But a busted person gets desperate — and she did the best she could to remove the red paint from her hands.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Swift resurrected the feud, claiming Kanye is two-faced. Swift recounts being asked by West to present him with the Vanguard Award only to say on stage, “MTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!” But Rolling Stone fact-checked her claim, and West’s EXACT quote is, “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award ’cause it got them more ratings?” The difference between those two sentences is MASSIVE. Swift’s claim implies West baited her to present the award and then made it look like it was solely MTV’s decision. His actual quote implies that HE wanted her to present the award but it was MTV who capitalized on the kind gesture between friends for ratings. While it’s possible she does not understand the difference between those two quotes, it’s also possible that this is once again a desperate attempt to revive her reputation.
For the life of me I do not understand why Swift won’t let this die. Part of me wants to believe she thinks she’s right and doesn’t understand the facts. But then I remember her sexist quote about Kim Kardashian and her deplorable GRAMMY speech and it hit me — she doesn’t think she’s right, she wants to win.
When Kim Kardashian announced she was studying to become a lawyer in an interview with Vogue Magazine, I was immediately impressed and elated. That might surprise some, given my love/hate relationship with the Kardashians and the fact that I myself am a licensed attorney. In the past, I’ve taken issue with some of their business choices, particularly the alleged copy of other independant designers for their own product lines and their hawking of ridiculous products on Instagram. That being said, I take absolutely no issue with Kim Kardashian studying to become a lawyer. In fact, I embrace it. Continue reading “Kim Kardashian Studying to Become a Lawyer — My Thoughts”
The Kardashians might be the only reality television family that become MORE authentic in the spotlight. If you watch season one of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, you’ll notice a very fame-hungry family, but as time marches on, they seem to be settled in what’s become a platform to promote their brand. And speaking of brands, hearing that Tristan Thompson cheated on Khloe Kardashian just days before giving birth, certainly didn’t help promote a family unit. But leave it to Kim Kardashian to beautifully summarize the debacle, by simply saying, “It’s so f*cked up.” Watch below.
It’s been a long Labor Day vacation filled with Distillery tours, The Cliffs of Insanity/Moher (see The Princess Bride), a valuable history lesson on Northern Ireland, and an odd story about a giant disguised as a baby (Giant’s Causeway). Plus, some killer Irish pub music featuring a fiddle. As I journey back home and think of my friends and family currently battling IRMAgeddon, I feel it my duty to post the most superficial reprieve possible, which involves my tabloid gossip reel. So what did I miss? Click the links to discover who’s shtupping who, fame-driven feuds, and more.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s supermodel obsession has reached new heights. The Sun
Kristen Bell saved Josh Gad’s family from hurricane Irma. E Online
Kirk Cameron thinks hurricane Irma is God’s punishment. Us Weekly
Sharon Osborne called Kim Kardashian a non-feminist “ho”, and Kim responded. Buzzfeed
John Mayer hit on Nicki Minaj, and he might have a shot. EW
Mindy Kaling revealed the sex of her baby. Vanity Fair
Kendall Jenner and Blake Griffin are a thing. Mirror
Tyrese Gibson and Dwayne Johnson have a feud brewing. Wonderwall
Amber Tamblyn put James Woods creepy past on blast. Page Six
Larsa and Scottie Pippen just derailed their divorce. TMZ
Kim Kardashian and Sharon Osbourne don’t like each other. Radar Online
If you’re Taylor Swift, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do. For starters, she landed in a fight with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian after she bashed Kanye’s song lyrics during her Grammy speech, only to later have her very clear approval exposed via Kim’s snapchat. The act was itself illegal, given that Swift was allegedly recorded by Kanye without her permission and did not give consent for its release, but team Kimye is smart enough to know that any subsequent lawsuit would further damage the Swift brand, so they’re in the clear. Plus, a pissing match with rich people is pointless. Kimye is also tough to take down given that their image has so little to do with propriety. If you entered the public arena via a sex tape, it’s pretty challenging to soil your brand.
It’s clear that Taylor Swift’s song “Look What You Made Me Do” is a direct hit on the Kimye debacle and the lyrics are brilliantly and strategically crafted. She’s mad, she doesn’t like Kanye’s dumb “tilted stage” and has risen up “from the dead.” Also, if she got her karma, then everyone else will to.
A close friend in the music industry classified this song as a lazy double-down on the Kanye drama, which is personified by the Right Said Fred “I’m Too Sexy” hook. Those Right Said Fred songwriters were given credit on this track, presumably because of that whole Robin Thicke “Blurred Lines” judgment. So is my friend correct? The short answer is that I’m not sure. Swift has absolutely zero choice but to address this feud, and she can’t do it in a magazine interview, because each and every time she addresses controversy in magazine interviews she makes it ten times worse. Music is the only way, and re-invention is the key. We all know she has mastered the victim lane, so isn’t it better to flip things around and go for a more angry spin? That being said, the song has to be GOOD for this strategy to work, and Swift’s songs nearly always are. This song might be a little soulless and repetitive, but it does the trick. She’s either on the cusp of her next chapter or this is the beginning of the end. We shall see.
My longtime followers hate my posts about the Kardashians, but it’s my blog, and I’ll do what I want. The good news for those who object is that their ratings are slipping, but that is a fact I find odd considering this is the juiciest, most honest season yet. In the clip below, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner discuss Caitlyn Jenner’s tell-all book which Kris feels bashes her, and there are many revelations. First, Kris wishes that Caitlyn had told her why she and her ex-wife, Linda Thompson actually broke up. Both parties admit it was over Caitlyn’s gender identity issues, which Bruce conveniently left out when marrying Kris. Kim harshly proclaimed that Caitlyn ruined three lives with her dishonesty. Kris also says that Caitlyn accuses Kris of hoarding their money, which Kris points out was used to support the family. Watch below.
There are many artists I don’t like. There are many musicians I think are sell-outs, hypocrites, or simply a product of a machine I resent. When I saw the nominations for album of the year at the Grammys, for example, I found myself enraged at the thought that Sturgill Simpson was the only artist to actually write his own album — alone. In fact, I once likened Adam Levine to Britney Spears to prove the point that he no longer was worthy of his ‘Songs About Jane’ entrance into the industry. He had become part of the machine, and was therefore nothing but a pop star spouting Sia songs. Having said all that, there’s something about Ruby Rose’s hit at Katy Perry that incited my rage. Her tweet is below.
“Purposeful poop” to “bomb a petit” to a sloppy mess of writing over the top of Funkagenda..stop trying to make ‘Wit..I mean “fetch” happen.
— Ruby Rose (@RubyRose) May 19, 2017
Rose received a predictable backlash, but she stood firm, saying:
I’ve always stood up for the people I love and against things I think are cheap or mean spirited. That’s not new. You have to follow your ❤️
So who is she standing up for, and what exactly is mean spirited — except for her, of course? Here’s the story in a nutshell. Ruby Rose and Taylor Swift are friends. Perry and Swift had a falling out when Perry recruited Swift’s dancers during Swift’s national tour. Swift addressed the move in a public interview, saying that Perry tried to sabotage her tour by poaching her people. Perry’s dancers spoke up, saying that they were closer to Perry, and since Swift’s tour wasn’t exactly dance-heavy, they felt bored. When the opportunity arose to jump ship, they took it. Swift subsequently released “Bad Blood,” which was an obvious hit at Perry. Perry then released a not-so-cryptic tweet referring to Swift as Regina George in sheep’s clothing. Joe Jonas’ ex-girlfriend jumped on the train, pointing out that Swift bashed her with some not-so-friendly lyrics in retaliation for “stealing” Jonas. In summary, the Perry camp felt Swift parades herself as supportive of other women, yet she’s the opposite. I can only assume Rose thinks of Perry as “mean-spirited” as a result.
While I agree that Katy Perry’s new music is less than stellar (to say the least), I also agree that Swift is no innocent lamb, which was especially apparent when Kim Kardashian revealed that Swift played victim over a song she in fact approved. She’s cunning and calculated. Having said all that, these celebrities are little babies in need of a pacifier. Keep your mouth shut, Ms. Rose. I love a genuine, honest critique, but not when it’s agenda-driven, clearly biased, and unnecessary.
