Back in April, Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which featured a song that fans speculated was aimed at Kim Kardashian.
As I’m sure you’re well aware, Taylor and Kim clashed in 2016 when Kim’s then-husband, Kanye West (now known as Ye), released this song lyric: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Taylor claimed she hadn’t approved of Ye’s lyric, which led to Kim infamously releasing footage of a phone call between Taylor and Ye that heard the pop star say, “Yeah. I mean, go with whatever line you think is better. It’s obviously very tongue-in-cheek either way. And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice!”
The phone call — and Kim’s memorable tweet about “National Snake Day” — prompted widespread criticism of Taylor, who was publicly vilified for years. But fast-forward to 2020, and the full phone call was shared online, revealing that Taylor hadn’t actually approved of Ye’s “that bitch” lyric after all.
Ever since, Taylor has repeatedly referenced both Kim and Ye in her music and interviews. Just last year, she told Time magazine, “Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me. You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”
The song, “thanK you aIMee” — stylized so that the capital letters notably spelt “KIM” — seemingly references Kim’s attempt to ruin Taylor’s career with the whole Snakegate saga. You can read a full breakdown of the lyrics here.
Now, eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Taylor has changed the stylization of “thanK you aIMee” to seemingly reference Ye.
On Thursday this week, Taylor released a limited-edition digital version of The Tortured Poets Department that included “thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London),” with the capital letters changed to spell “Ye” instead of “Kim.”
This notably comes days after Tortured Poets secured its 14th week at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart — blocking Ye’s recently released collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 2, from reaching the top spot.
One of the songs on Vultures 2 featured rapper Lil Wayne mentioning Taylor’s name, along with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. He says in the song “Lifestyle,” “I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce.”
The subtle move from Taylor is receiving heaps of attention online. One person wrote, “taylor changing the letters in thank you aimee from ‘Kim’ to ‘Ye’ is a VERY rep coded thing for her to do,” referencing Taylor’s 2017 album Reputation, which saw the singer reclaiming her “snake” brand following the Kimye feud.
“I am in love with this level of petty Taylor,” another fan tweeted, while someone else wrote, “oh she’s being messy i love it.”
Other users weren’t quite as keen on Taylor’s move, with one person writing, “you know i get that he publicly embarrassed you 15 years ago but at what point do you move on?”
On the flip side, someone else argued, “She’s entitled to have feelings towards such a dark time in her life, time doesn’t change that.”