This morning, Taylor Swift finally dropped her latest single 'Look What You Made Me Do' from her new album Reputation, much to the world's delight.
As ever in her music, the 27-year-old has used her real-life relationships as inspiration for her latest creative endeavour, but this time she's focussing on a certain group of celebrities (*cough* Kim Kardashian and Kanye West*) who she appears to suggest may have damaged her reputation over the years.
The line 'I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now' seemingly references the controversy surrounding her name being used in West's 'Famous' single and video.
Now, those who are having difficulty keeping up with the Kimye and Taylor Swift feud β aka celeb social media battle of the century β we've put together a comprehensive timeline of all the (shady) happenings that have led to the latest news that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are potentially facing legal action.
Got your cuppa ready? You might be here for a while...
February 11th 2016: Kanye Releases 'Famous' at the Yeezy Season 3 show, New York Fashion Week
We're taking it right back to the beginning, Kanye's lyrics to 'Famous' includes the lines 'I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous (God damn) / I made that bitch famous.'
This is most probably in reference to his previous feud with the Bad Blood singer from the MTV VMAs in 2009. When Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance speech for winning the Best Female Video Award, a pretty drunken Kanye grabbed her mic and said: 'Taylor, I'm really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but BeyoncΓ© had one of the best videos of all time.' Oops.
February 12th 2016: Taylor Swift claims she was not made aware of the lyrics
Austin Swift, Taylor Swift's brother, posted a video on Instagram of throwing his very expensive pair of Yeezy trainers in the bin shortly after the lyrics were made public:
Tree Paine, a spokeswoman for Taylor Swift, said: 'Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single "Famous" on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misognynistic message... Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, "I made that bitch famous"'.
Side note of additional shade: Calvin Harris double tapped this Instagram post at the time. He wasn't snapped wearing a pair of Yeezy's until shortly after his split with Taylor Swift.
February 12th 2016: Kanye says otherwise
July 18th 2016:Kim Kardashian tweets shade
Let's fast forward to current day dramas, since nothing major happened in between.
No one really knows what's about to go down at this point or what Kim's even going on about, asides from perhaps her diehard fans β they're good at this stuff. Removing context, it's a good tweet to be fair.
July 18th 2016: And THEN Kim Kardashian teases further shade
It's the wink at the end. What does the wink mean? A new photoshoot? A new baby? More Kimojis?
July 18th 2016: Keeping Up With The Kardashian's episode of Kim K's interview with GQ airs
In the US, but thanks to Kim's tweet, the rest of the world now have their eyes locked onto #KUWTK tweets. 'I mean, he's called me a bitch in his songs,' she said in the GQ interview. 'I never once think, 'What a derogatory word! How dare he?' Not in a million years.'
According to a social-branding expert US weekly spoke to, the timing for this appears to be 'all very calculated' as the Snapchats were posted on the same night this episode was aired.
July 18th 2016: Kim Kardashian sends Snapchats of the recording between Kanye West and Taylor Swift
View the videos here, or alternatively read the transcript below:
Kanye West: You still got the Nashville number?
Taylor Swift: I still have the Nashville um, area code but I had to change it.
KW: For all my Southside n***** that know me best, I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.
TS: I'm like this close to over exposure..
KW: Oh well this one, I think this is a really cool thing to have, uh...
TS: I know, I mean it's like a compliment kind of.
KW: All I give a fuck about is just you as a person and as a friend I want things that make...
TS: That's sweet.
KW: I don't want to do rap that makes people feel bad.
TS: Um, 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
KW: Yeah, I just had a responsibility to you as a friend, you know, and thanks for being like so cool about it.
TS: Aw thanks. Yeah I really appreciate it. The heads up is so nice, and I really appreciate it and I never would've expected you to tell me about a line in one of your songs. And the flowers that you sent me, I like Instagrammed a picture of them and it's the most Instagram likes I've ever gotten it was like 2.7...
KW: Relationships are more important than punchlines, you know
TS: Yeah, I mean I don't think anybody would listen to that and be like oh that's a real dis, like she must be crying. You've gotta tell the story the way that it happened to you and the way that you experienced it. Like you honestly didn't know who I was before that. It doesn't matter if I sold 7 million of that album before you did that, which is what happened. You didn't know who I was before that, it's fine. I might be that I can make these things happen that I create these things and concepts and like I'm always going to respect you and I'm really glad that you have the respect to call me and tell me that this time about the song and... It's just like a really cool thing to do like and it really shows the friendship so thank you.
KW: Thank you too.
TS: And you know if people ask me about it I think it would great for me to be like look he called me and told me the line before it came out like so jokes on you guys we're fine. You guys want to call this a feud you want to call this throwing shade. Right after the song comes out I'm going to be on a Grammy red carpet and I'm gonna be like, He called me. Yeah, she does, it made her famous. You know, it's more provocative to say "Might still have sex"... it's not...it's not...it doesn't matter to me. There's not one that hurts my feelings and one that doesn't
July 18th 2016: Taylor Swift responds
Swiftly, too.
Side note: Some people think Taylor Swift saw this coming way before everyone else:
Who knows, who knows?
July 18th 2016: ChloΓ« Grace Moretz gets in on the action
We'll let the tweets explain this one...
July 18th 2016: Kendall Jenner, Demi Lovato and Hailey Baldwin take Kimye's side without saying much
Hailey Baldwin sent this tweet, and Kendall Jenner liked it:
Demi Lovato liked this tweet:
July 18th 2016: Selena Gomez takes Taylor Swift's side β but says too much and falls into a situation of her own
July 18th 2016: Katy Perry is telling us to rise above it all
Shameless promotion, don't care.
July 19th 2016: Taylor Swift's BFF Abigail stands in
'Lord, hear my prayers. β¦ I pray God helps your daughter understand, that despite how many times she'll hear daddy reference all women as "bitches," she isn't one.'
'I pray she understands her father actually IS faithful to her mother, despite all the adulterous comments she will hear her father making.'
'I pray that she will understand "adultery and bitches" are just daddy's form of art and not to worry because not every man thinks like him.'
'Lastly, I pray for forgiveness. May God forgive you & your wife for doing to others the very things you pray are NEVER done to your daughter.'
The above tweets were deleted shortly after being tweeted.
July 19th 2016: Kimye could face up to three years in jail
This went pear shaped real quick. The Sun reveal that Taylor Swift is planning to take legal action against the couple for leaking a private phone call.
July 19th 2016: Justin Bieber just wants us all to love each other again
We're with him on this one.
August 2nd 2016: Justin Bieber has seemingly changed his mind
'Taylor Swift what up'
