- Fans think "ThanK you aIMee" on "The Tortured Poets Department" is a Kim Kardashian diss track.
- Clues appear to include the capital letters in the song's title spelling out "KIM."
Taylor Swift's fans originally thought her latest album would mostly be about her ex-boyfriends, but the deluxe edition of "The Tortured Poets Department" appears to feature a thinly veiled diss track about Kim Kardashian.
Swift released her new album on Friday, surprising fans with a deluxe edition that includes 15 additional songs.
Fans quickly started tweeting that they thought "ThanK you aIMee," is about Kardashian, who famously clashed with Swift in 2016.
kim kardashian waking up tomorrow morning to see her instagram comments flooded with the snake emoji after taylor swift just dissed her #ttpd #TSTTPD pic.twitter.com/nBlAj9fLWN
— ♡ (@laacolee) April 19, 2024
Not #thanKyouaIMee being an entire song by Taylor Swift thanking Kim Kardashian because there 'wouldn't be this if there hadn't been you' (and then also admitting Mama Swift 'wished Kim was dead') pic.twitter.com/XLcK1IyW22
— Rebecca Lewis (@bexlewis361) April 19, 2024
taylor swift just made a diss track about kim kardashian in 2024 #TSTTPD
— Ron is a tortured poet (@midnightstrack2) April 19, 2024
pic.twitter.com/Qeq8dvh4ZK
Their feud, which seemed to be resolved, stemmed from Kardashian defending her then-husband Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, when he called Swift "That bitch" in his 2016 song "Famous."
Ye and Kardashian said Swift gave her blessing to the song. Kardashian tried to prove this by publicly sharing short clips of a phone conversation between Ye and Swift about "Famous" before its release. Ye never mentions the notorious "I made that bitch famous" line in the clips. Swift didn't dispute the validity of the clip, but said she never gave permission for the "bitch" lyric.
It was a huge pop culture moment, as three of the most influential people of the 2010s clashed. Swift bounced back from the drama with her 2017 album "Reputation," and her popularity skyrocketed. Although Swift was already a rising star at the time, her global domination only began after her "Reputation" era and beefing with Kardashian.
In "ThanK you aIMee," Swift never mentions Kardashian by name, but it's easy to see why fans are speculating. For starters, "K," "I," and "M" are capitalized in the song title, which spells "Kim."
Here's what to know about Kardashian and Swift's feud and every lyric that references it.
In recent years, Kardashian seemed ready to move on from the drama.
The "Famous" feud reignited in 2020 when the full phone call between Ye and Swift leaked online. Swift's fans felt vindicated because the call showed that the "bitch" lyric was never mentioned during the call. However, Kardashian tweeted after the video leaked that she never lied about the call or the "bitch" lyric.
Since then, the drama has subsided, and Kardashian has started praising Swift, apparently keen to move on.
Swift, on the other hand, has not.
In December 2023, Swift addressed the drama in her Time Person of the Year profile, saying it felt like "a career death."
"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," she said. "That took me down psychologically to a place I've never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn't leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn't trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard."
This appears to be the first time Swift has written about Kardashian
Swift took aim at Ye on her 2017 album "Reputation," which had several songs that seemingly referenced their feud. Kardashian didn't get caught in the crosshairs in that album, but fans have speculated that Swift referenced Kardashian's relationship with Ye in her 2020 song "Mad Woman" and 2022 song "Vigilante Shit."
However, "ThanK you aIMee" appears to be the most blatant reference to Kardashian. Swift sings about a school bully called "Aimee" who made her stronger, who fans think is Kardashian.
Fans have speculated that lyrics about a "bronze spray-tanned statue of you" and "your words are still just ringing in my head" refer to Kardashian's physique and the infamous phone call.
Swift also seems to nod to the idea that "Aimee" is a fake name: "And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues / And one day, your kid comes home singin' / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you."
In response to these lyrics, fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) were quick to reshare the 2023 video of Kardashian and her daughter, North West, dancing to Swift's "Shake It Off" song on their joint TikTok account.
I DID NOT HAVE TAYLOR SWIFT GAGGING KIM KARDASHIAN ON MY 2024 BINGO CARD OMFG????? #TSTTPD TAYVOODOO IS SO REAL pic.twitter.com/GbdPunGVxz
— dianca is caffeinated (@diancuh) April 19, 2024
In the song, Swift also implies that her mother, "a saintly woman," wished death on Aimee.
Swift also seems to reference Kardashian and Ye on another 'TTPD' track called 'Cassandra'
The titular person that Swift sings about is likely a nod to Greek mythology, and the musician appears to be drawing a parallel between herself and Cassandra.
Cassandra, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, has the gift of prophecy. After she rejects the god Apollo, Cassandra is cursed so that people don't believe her prophecies.
Swift seemingly references her and Ye's infamous phone conversation in the first verse of "Cassandra," when she mentions getting a call. Swift appears to sing about the fallout of that phone call and the leaked version that indicated she wasn't lying: "When it's 'Burn the bitch,' they're shrieking / When the truth comes out, it's quiet."
The allusions to the aforementioned drama are also present in the chorus of "Cassandra," when she sings: "So they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say / Do you believe me now?"
Those lyrics point to Swift's "Reputation" era, which was pointedly full of snake symbolism. Swift used snake imagery to reclaim her power after Kardashian seemingly referred to her as the reptile on X in 2016.
Representatives for Kardashian and Swift did not immediately respond to a comment request from Business Insider.