Do you remember the feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West/Kim Kardashian? Taylor certainly does, as she spoke about it again in the new interview released by TIME, which crowned her Person of the Year: “I thought it was the end of my career. I was really hurt.”
It was in 2016 when the rapper released the song “Famous” with the famous verse against Taylor: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.” Her fans attacked him harshly. He responded that she knew everything. Taylor denied it. At that point, Kim Kardashian came into play, releasing a phone call between Taylor and Kanye in which it seemed like she was aware and approved. But for Taylor, that moment and the subsequent public reaction were a hard blow. So much so that it cast doubt on the future of her career. “Psychologically, I was in a place where I had never been before.”
“A illegally recorded phone call that Kim Kardashian edited and then spread to tell everyone that I was a liar,” she recalled. “I had moved abroad. I was afraid to receive phone calls. I distanced most people from my life because I no longer trusted anyone. I was very, very hurt.”
However, one learns something from these moments, and Taylor has understood one thing: “My response to everything that happens, whether good or bad, is to keep creating. To keep making art.” “And I’ve also learned that it doesn’t make sense to actively try to defeat your enemies. Rot eliminates itself.”