It was the night of the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 when Kanye West ferociously called out Taylor Swift after she won the Best Female Video Award for ‘You Belong With Me’, beating Beyoncé.

 During this infamous encounter at the VMAs, Kanye interrupted Taylor on stage by taking the microphone and shouting, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” Dumbfounded by Kanye’s actions, young Taylor was deeply hurt and seeked payback for his actions. 

At the 2015 VMAs, Taylor once again secured the award for best video of the year with her song ‘Bad Blood’. During her speech, she beats on Kanye for his malicious actions by stating, “…but Kanye West I’ve had one of the greatest careers of ALL TIME.” Ever since the night of the MTV VMAs, the feud between Taylor and Kayne has carried on. 

On Sept. 14, 2009, Kanye released his first apology while appearing on The Tonight Show starring Jay Leno. The next day, Taylor appeared on The View where she shared her thoughts on the current situation concerning Kanye. Later that day, Kanye took a hint and reached out to her to make a formal apology. 

The following year at the 2010 MTV VMAs, Taylor sang a new song called “Innocent” from her Speak Now album. This performance was widely speculated that Taylor meant to address the Kanye situation. Kanye performed “Runaway,” a new song as a form of an apology. However in a 2013 Q&A with The New York Times,  Kayne explained, “I don’t have one regret….If anyone’s reading this waiting for some type of full-on, flat apology for anything, they should just stop reading right now.” 

At the 2015 Grammy Awards, the two seemed to reconcile and even happily posed for photographs with each other. A few months later, Taylor presented Kanye with an esteemed honor: the Video Vanguard Award  at the 2015 MTV VMAs. 

In 2016, the feud reignited when Kayne released his lyrics to “Famous”. In Kanye’s lyrics to “Famous”, he targets Taylor Swift by suggesting that he is the one that made her famous, despite Taylor’s groundbreaking achievements with her songs “Our Song”, “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me”. In 2008, prior to the Kanye incident, Taylor released Fearless which sold 592,000 albums and spent many weeks atop the Billboard Top 100. 

At the 2016 Grammy Awards, Taylor was awarded album of the year for her album 1989. Frustrated with Kayne’s recent actions, Taylor shared inspiring words while wrapping up her speech. “”I want to say to all the young women out there, 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. But if you just focus on the work, and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you’ll know that it was you, and the people who love you, who put you there.”” 

In June of 2016, Kim Kardashian, Kayne’s ex-wife, inserted herself into the situation by insisting that Taylor consented to “Famous” and was using the situation as “another way to play the victim”. On Aug. 24, 2017, Taylor released her new single, in the Reputation album, “Look What You Made Me Do,” which is full of references to Kanye. As Taylor’s Reputation album continued to rise in success, her song “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” describes, “It was so nice being friends again / There I was, giving you a second chance / But then you stabbed my back while shaking my hand / And therein lies the issue / Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you.”

 In March 20, 2020, the illegally recorded phone call between Kayne and Taylor was leaked and instantly stirred an uproar. Enraged by continuously being manipulated, Taylor encouraged her fans to ignore the drama and focus on donating to COVID-19 relief. 

Recently on August 28th at the 2022 VMAS, Taylor announced her 10th studio album, Midnights. This is to be released at midnight on October 21, 2022 which happens to be Kim Kardashian’s birthday. Coincidence…I think not! 

Taylor’s Midnights album will consist of 13 songs, however, the track list is incomplete.  There will also be three special edition covers for the vinyl albums. Make sure to listen to Taylor’s Midnights and track Taylor and Kayne’s interactions to see what will happen next!