Taylor Swift had to call out his exes on his 11th studio album, The Department of Tortured Poets – but it was Kim Kardashian who received the hardest blow.
In the album’s second batch of songs, released in the early hours of Friday April 19, one song, “thanK you aIMee”, appeared to have random capitalized letters in its title. However, upon closer inspection, eagle-eyed fans quickly realized that the capital letters spelled out a name: Kim.
Swifties will know that Swift, 34, has long placed hidden messages in her lyrics via capital letters, a tradition she stuck to for each album until the release of Reputation. However, she brought the game back by revealing clues about TTP leading to the release of the record.
Beyond its title, “thanK you aIMee” wastes no time pulling punches, with Swift opening the song by claiming that when she imagines her hometown – presumably Los Angeles – there is a “bronzed bronze statue ” of “Aimee” with a “plaque”. underneath, it threatens to push me down the stairs at our school.
The track is peppered with high school allegories, positioning “Aimee” as Swift’s teenage bully that the pop star dreamed of one day defeating.
“All the while you were throwing punches, I was building something / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel / I screamed ‘Fk you, Aimee’ into the night sky, as the Blood was gushing out,’” she seethes on the track, before giving her nemesis some credit: “But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.”
Elsewhere in the song, Swift claims that there was never a “fair fight” between the two women, nor a “clean kill.” She refers to “Aimee” – or let’s just say, Kardashian – “stomping” on her “grave” and writing headlines “laughing at every little step I take.”
The feud between Swift and Kardashian has a long history, which began with the reality TV star’s now ex-husband, Kanye West, taking the stage at the MTV VMAs in 2009 to declare that Beyoncé deserved an award that Swift had just won. In 2016, Swift called out West for rapping the line “Me and Taylor could still have sex / I made that b—h famous” in one of her songs, prompting Kardashian to come to his defense by posting a conversation telephone between the two musicians. .
Kardashian also posted a group of snakes for “National Snake Day” that year to call out Swift. The singer came back in force for her 2017 album “revenge” Reputationopening on the quarrel in an essay with She two years later.
“It would be nice if we could get an apology from the people who bully us, but maybe all I’ll have one day is the satisfaction of knowing that I could survive it and thrive despite it” , she wrote for the media before turning to 30 in 2019.
Swift then reignited the beef in 2020 when the full version of her leaked phone conversation with Kardashian surfaced online. At the time, Swift took to her Instagram Stories to note that the new footage proved she was “telling the truth all the time.” She initially criticized Kardashian for leaking the video on Snapchat.
“You know, the one that was recorded illegally, that someone edited and manipulated in order to trick me into making me, my family and my fans go through hell for 4 years…” Swift wrote . Kardashian, meanwhile, claimed Swift was “lying” about what happened.
In 2021, Kardashian surprised fans by praising Swift and her music during an episode of the “Honestly With Bari Weis” podcast. “I really like a lot of her songs,” she said when asked what her favorite Swift track was. “They are all super cute and eye-catching. I’ll have to look in my phone to get a name.
If “thanks aIMee” is any indication, Swift hasn’t evolved in the same way. In fact, the song claims that Kardashian’s lyrics “still ring in my head.” Swift’s mother, Andrea, is also mentioned, with Swift stating: “Everybody knows my mother is a holy woman/But she used to say she wished you were dead.” »
In the bridge, Swift posits that Kardashian may have “reframed” the feud in a way that allowed her to let go, where “in your mind, you never beat my mind black and blue.”
Swift then points out that she protected Kardashian’s identity on the track with a name change and no “defining clues.” (Of course, not really, because the entire song is one big neon light pointing in Kardashian’s direction, right up until the title.).
The track’s final lines appear to mock Kardashian for saying she likes Swift’s music, with the Grammy winner guessing that maybe Kardashian’s kids — North, 10, Saint, 8, Chicago, 6 years old and Psalm, 4, whom she shares with West. – will also appreciate his songs.
“And one day your kid comes home singing a song that only the two of us will know is about you,” Swift jokes.
She ends by giving Kardashian one last note of sincere appreciation. “Our town seems so small from here,” she said. “Thank you, Aimee.”
The Department of Tortured Poets is out now.
