Kanye West’s new album featured a reference to Taylor Swift and her relationship with Travis Kelce, and now fans are convinced that Swift has made a subtle response to the rapper.
Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign‘s long-awaited ‘VULTURES 2’ dropped unexpectedly on Saturday (August 3), after failing to arrive on the scheduled dates of March 8 and August 2.
It marked the second instalment of the duo’s ‘Vultures’ series, which kicked off with the first album dropping in February this year.
In it, West and Ty Dolla $ign are joined by a range of famous faces, with Young Thug, Future, and Lil Wayne all collaborating on the tracklist. Soon after it dropped, fans were quick to notice how the latter used his appearance on the LP to make a reference to Taylor Swift.
“I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce,” Lil Wayne raps on the song ‘Lifestyle’, with the line referencing Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce, who has the NFL position as a tight end.
While West himself doesn’t mention the singer or the athlete at all in the album, fans have been quick to hone in on the Lil Wayne lyric because of Ye’s longtime feud with the pop star – which began in 2009 when he stormed the stage as Swift accepted her first VMA, claiming Beyoncé should have won instead.
Now, some fans are convinced that, while Swift hasn’t said anything overtly, she may have responded subtly while on stage.
While performing in Poland as part of her extensive ‘Eras Tour’ on Saturday – the same day that the album dropped – Taylor wore her famous T-shirt that read, “I Bet You Think About Me”.
While it is a reference to one of the songs from her 2021 album ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, some are certain it was no coincidence that she wore it on the day the album arrived.
What’s more, Taylor also released a new digital version of her latest album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ on that same day, and it was available to buy for only 24 hours. This meant that her album returned to the top of the album charts, seemingly blocking ‘Vultures 2’ from taking the position.
Taylor is coming to get Kanye lmao, 14th week at #1 let’s go!! pic.twitter.com/lLlLu9YVXb
— T.m
| Eras SG 7/3 (@tmlovesred2) August 3, 2024
taylor wearing the “i bet you think about me” and releasing another digital edition of ttpd to block kanye is HYSTERICAL
— Reilly
(@RandallManhands) August 3, 2024
Taylor swift when she surprise drops rep tv Friday and blocks any chance of Kanye’s new album going number one pic.twitter.com/lwvf3C67bf
— lex (@uhlexxuhhh) August 1, 2024
She's so funny for wearing the I bet you think about me shirt after Ka*ye name dropped her and Travis in his song an actual comedian
— Tiffani
(@PALLOTAYVIS) August 3, 2024
I filled mine out last night and then saw the k*nye thing a little bit ago and I knew she was gonna wear it lmao
— Tiffani
A ENTREGA DO CHAPÉU!
Taylor Swift iniciou o ato da era "RED" com a blusa “I BET YOU THINK ABOUT ME” na #WarsawTSTheErasTour. pic.twitter.com/uBKqu6WiqQ
— Taylor Swift Brasil (@taylorswiftbr) August 3, 2024
Though the pair seemed to make amends at the 2015 Grammys, things quickly soured when West released his ‘Famous’ song and video. There, he rapped about how Swift “owes” him sex and referred to her as a “bitch”, and additionally portrayed her nude in bed (via wax figurine) with a gaggle of other celebrities.
Swift claimed she was “horrified”, and has since written about the debacle in her 2017 album ‘Reputation’.
Things worsened when West’s then-wife Kim Kardashian insisted that Swift had given him permission to include her in the song, and released footage of a phone call between Swift and West about the inclusion of similar lyrics to those that were released, which Swift has since said was recorded “illegally” and “edited”.
Swift addressed the situation again in her December 2023 Time Person of the Year interview. “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before,” she claimed at the time. “I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
More recently, she dropped a track on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ that many speculate is about her feud with Kardashian. Titled ‘thanK you aIMee’, the capitalised letters in the title spell out ‘KIM’, and its lyrics are about a “bronze, spray-tanned” high school bully that some have claimed make reference to the reality star.
Since being released, ‘Vultures 2’ has drawn a mixed response from fans and critics alike, and has also drawn heat from Geoff Barrow, who suggested that the two rappers sampled Portishead on a ‘Vultures 2’ track without permission.
The Beak> member posted a clip of ‘Field Trip’ – which features Don Toliver, Kodak Black and Playboi Carti – as well as reportedly sampling Portishead’s ‘Machine Gun’ on X/Twitter.
“FFS. Not again”, he wrote, seemingly referring to another time a song was taken without permission. “Why can’t he write his own beats?”
The initial ‘Vultures’ album also ran into a similar issue regarding alleged copyright infringement, with West and Donna Summer‘s estate reaching a settlement over the alleged “illegal” use of ‘I Feel Love’ on ‘Vultures 1’.
Ozzy Osbourne also threatened legal action over an unauthorised Black Sabbath sample.
NME gave ‘Vultures 1’ a two-star review, saying the collection is “mired in misogyny” and “dogged by degrading lyrics and messy mixes”. It added: “Such misogyny is hardly new in hip-hop – or either artists’ catalogues or the broader musical landscape in general – but that doesn’t make it any less detestable.”
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