Taylor Swift was expected to get in touch with out her exes on her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Section — but it was Kim Kardashian who acquired the harshest blow.
In the second batch of songs for the album, unveiled in the early several hours of Friday, April 19, just one track, “thanK you aIMee,” appeared to have random letters capitalized in its title. Upon closer look, on the other hand, eagle-eyed supporters swiftly understood the funds letters spelled out a name: Kim.
Swifties will know that Swift, 34, has long positioned hidden messages in her lyrics by using capitalization, a custom she upheld for just about every album till the release of Standing. She introduced the recreation back again, on the other hand, when releasing clues about TTPD main up to the record’s launch.
Over and above it’s title, “thanK you aIMee” wastes no time pulling punches, with Swift opening the tune by saying that when she shots her hometown — presumably Los Angeles — there’s a “bronze spray-tanned statue” of “Aimee” with a “plaque underneath it that threatens to press me down the stairs at our university.”
The track is riddled with large college allegory, positioning “Aimee” as Swift’s teenage-style bully that the pop star just one day dreamed of besting.
“All that time you have been throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’ / And I just can’t forgive the way you made me experience / Screamed ‘F—k you, Aimee’ to the evening sky, as the blood was gushin’,” she seethes on the observe, right before supplying her nemesis some credit score: “But I cannot ignore the way you designed me heal.”
In other places in the music, Swift argues that it was under no circumstances a “fair fight” involving the two ladies, or a “clean eliminate.” She alludes to “Aimee” — or let’s just say it, Kardashian — “stomping across” her “grave” and writing headlines “laughing at each individual little one stage I’d take.”
Swift and Kardashian’s feud has a long history, which commenced with the truth star’s now ex-husband, Kanye West, hopping on stage at the MTV VMAs in 2009 to declare that Beyoncé deserved an award that Swift had just gained. In 2016, Swift termed West out for rapping the line “Me and Taylor nonetheless might have sexual intercourse / I built that b—h famous” in just one of his music, causing Kardashian to come to his protection by releasing a telephone conversation between the two musicians.
Kardashian also posted a bunch of snakes for “National Snake Day” that year to phone out Swift. The singer arrived back with a vengeance for her 2017 “revenge” album Popularity, opening up about the feud in an essay with Elle two years later.
“It would be good if we could get an apology from folks who bully us, but probably all I’ll at any time get is the satisfaction of realizing I could survive it, and prosper in spite of it,” she wrote for the outlet before turning 30 in 2019.
Swift then reignited the beef in 2020 when the entire version of her leaked cellphone dialogue with Kardashian surfaced on line. At the time, Swift took to her Instagram Tales to observe that the new footage proved she “was telling the truth of the matter the full time.” She termed out Kardashian for leaking the video on Snapchat in the to start with location.
“You know, the just one that was illegally recorded, that any person edited and manipulated in get to frame me and put me, my household, and supporters by means of hell for 4 years…,” Swift wrote. Kardashian, in the meantime, claimed that Swift was “lying” about what went down.
In 2021, Kardashian surprised enthusiasts by praising Swift and her new music through an episode of the “Honestly With Bari Weis” podcast. “I actually like a large amount of her tracks,” she mentioned when questioned about her beloved monitor of Swift’s. “They’re all super cute and catchy. I’d have to glimpse in my mobile phone to get a title.”
If “thanK you aIMee” is any sign, Swift has not moved on in the similar way. In actuality, the tune promises that Kardashian’s phrases are “still just ringing in my head.” Swift’s mother, Andrea, is also referenced, with Swift declaring, “Everyone is aware of that my mom is as a saintly female / But she applied to say she wished that you were being dead.”
In the bridge, Swift postulates that most likely Kardashian has “reframed’ the feud in a way that has permitted her to let go, where ”in your thoughts you never ever beat my spirit black and blue.”
Swift then points out that she’s protected Kardashian’s identification on the monitor with a title improve and no “defining clues.” (Of course, not actually, as the full track is one particular significant neon light pointing in Kardashian’s direction, ideal down to the title.).
The ultimate lines of the track appear to poke enjoyment at Kardashian expressing she likes Swift’s new music, with the Grammy winner guessing that maybe Kardashian’s children — North, 10, Saint, 8, Chicago, 6, and Psalm, 4, whom she shares with West — will get pleasure from her tunes, as well.
“And a single day, your child arrives home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you,” Swift quips.
She finishes by providing Kardashian one past observe of earnest appreciation. “Our town, it looks so compact from way up right here,” she suggests. “Thank you, Aimee.”
The Tortured Poets Department is out now.
