Taylor Swift has opened up on the impact of her fallout with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and criticised the music industry at large in her interview as Time Magazine’s Person of The Year for 2023.
The 33-year-old’s recession-be-damned Eras Tour is set to become the highest grossing tour of all time and, according to Forbes, Swift became a billionaire in October – but the star spoke candidly on the low points in her life, including her West-Kardashian feud which she labelled a “career death”.
In 2016, West released Famous, referencing his awkward relationship with the singer, which began in 2009: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have s*x/Why? I made that b–ch famous.”
“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 says.
“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 any more. I went down really, really hard.”
West had requested Swift’s sign-off on v-lgar lyrics referencing the singer via phone call, before the rapper’s then-wife Kardashian leaked a heavily edited clip of the phone call, which portrayed Swift as a liar – social media users quickly piled on the backlash, attacking Swift for being a “snake”.
“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 says.
“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 says.
In 2020, the full 25-minute video of the phone call was released, which showed Swift expressing her discomfort at certain lyrics and ideas West had shared with her. He vowed to send Swift the song in advance, however, Swift’s team have repeatedly claimed the rapper never followed up with his promise.
Swift also spoke candidly about her gripes with the music industry, criticising the management of underage performers.
“In the ’90s and ’00s, it seems like the music industry just said: ‘OK, let’s take a bunch of teenagers, throw them into a fire, and watch what happens. By the time they’ve accumulated enough wisdom to do their job effectively, we’ll find new teenagers.’”
“By the time an artist is mature enough to psychologically deal with the job, they throw you out at 29, typically,” she says.
Swift has become the first Person of The Year to be recognised for her “achievement in the arts”, and the first woman to receive the honour twice. Former winners include fourteen US presidents, three Popes, and Queen Elizabeth II.
Later in the interview, Swift discussed the turning careers of her public enemies, including music mogul Scooter Braun, who recently lost top clients Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, and West, disgraced in late 2022 for antisemitic ideology.
“I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies,” she says.
“Trash takes itself out every single time.”
