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Taylor Swift has said she was “framed” by Kanye West, after the phone call she had with the rapper to discuss his 2016 track ‘Famous’ leaked online.
West was criticised for a line referencing Swift in ‘Famous’, where he rapped: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous.” Speaking about the controversial lyric at the time, West said that Swift consented to its inclusion in a phone call. His wife Kim Kardashian later released a video that appeared to support West.
But last weekend, a new video appeared to show that West seemingly told Swift a different line to the one that was eventually used in the song.
Responding to the leak, Swift wrote on her Instagram stories: “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked, proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, 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 4 years)… SWIPE up to see what really matters.”
Swiping up then led to a donation page for the Feeding America non-profit organisation.
Swift wrote in a separate post: “The World Health Organisation and Feeding America are some of the organisations I’ve been donating to. If you have the ability to, please join me in donating during this crisis. Swipe up.”
The two stars have had a tumultuous friendship over the years, with West famously interrupting Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV VMAs.
In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, Swift said she was “done” with the rapper after thinking they had overcome their rift. “I started to feel like we reconnected, which felt great for me because all I ever wanted my whole career after that thing happened in 2009 was for him to respect me,” she said.
Explaining that the pair would go for dinner together, she added: “It just felt like I was healing some childhood rejection or something from when I was 19.”
But, when West asked her to present him with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 MTV VMAs, another incident caused her to think twice about their friendship. “I was so stoked that he asked me that,” she said. “And so I wrote this speech up, and then we get to the VMAs and I make this speech and he screams, ‘MTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!’ And I’m standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body.”
She added: “I realised he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk shit. And I was so upset.”
In a four-star review of Swift’s last album, NME said: “To call ‘Lover’ a comeback feels like a reach considering that ‘Reputation’, her lowest-selling album to date, still went triple Platinum in the US. So let’s just say that the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now – ‘cause she’s busy writing songs that suit her again.”
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