Swift fans believe it vindicates her of charges she lied about not being told all the “Famous” lyrics. Either way, the 25-minute call diverges fascinatingly into West’s relationship with his wife, Drake rivalry, debt load and confidence of becoming “a multi, multi, multi-billionaire.”
The 2016 phone call between Taylor Swift and Kanye West that transfixed the world when Kim Kardashian published three minutes of it on Snapchat to paint Swift as a liar has now been leaked, in its 25-minute entirety. It’s not known who let the full video recording that was made by one of West’s associates out of the bag, but it paints a much more interesting picture of the conversation — and of both artists’ state of mind at the time — than the heavily edited snippets that Kardashian first presented to the world.
Variety transcribed the entire 25-minute conversation, included below, for fans of either or neither artist to judge.
A full account of the phone call establishes that, as they discussed West’s forthcoming song “Famous,” the hip-hop titan never did read Swift the “I made that bitch famous” line that she ultimately reacted against, putting their former feud back in motion. In fact, at one point, she expresses relief that he did not use the B-word in the song, so far as she knew. “I thought it was going to be like, ‘That stupid, dumb bitch’,” she tells West. “But it’s not.”
West does tell her that he is thinking of saying “I made her famous,” without including the “bitch” part of the line. At this point in the conversation, Swift’s tone subtly changes, as she says, “Well, what am I going to do about it?” He responds, with a chuckle, “Uh, like, do the hair flip?”
She reminds him that she had two multi-million-selling albums before he rushed onto the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 to steal her thunder. “It’s just kind of like, whatever, at this point. But I mean, you’ve got to tell the story the way that it happened to you and the way that you’ve experienced it. Like, you honestly didn’t know who I was before that. Like, it doesn’t matter if I sold 7 million of that album [“Fearless”] before you did that, which is what happened. You didn’t know who I was before that. It’s fine.”
The transcript does
“I feel like with my wife, that she probably didn’t like the ‘might still have sex’ because it would be like, what if she was on a TV show and said ‘Me and Tom Brady might still have sex’ or something?” West says. Swift responds, “You have to protect your relationship. Do what’s best. You just had a kid. You’re in the best place of your life. I wouldn’t ever advise you to f— with that.” She argues against the “owe me sex” line preferred by Kardashian because, in what might be an understatement, feminists will object.
The conversation wasn’t just a blip in the careers of either Swift or West. For Swift, the repercussions were monumental. Blowback was immediate after Kardashian leaked the excerpts, resulting in headlines like The Verge’s “Kim Kardashian Used Snapchat to Prove Taylor Swift Was Lying About Kanye West’s ‘Famous.’” Swift soon retreated from public view in wake of the backlash against her, finally returning with the largely dark “Reputation” album and tour, which used snake imagery to play off the serpentine emoticons Kardashian used in her tweets when she lashed out against Swift.
The call starts with West asking if Swift will actually “release” the song for him on Twitter — even though later he admits he still hasn’t finished it yet. Swift is taken aback by the idea, but West argues, “You’re got an army. You own a country of mother—ing 2 billion people, basically, that if you felt that it’s funny and cool and like hip-hop, and felt like just “The College Dropout” and the artist like Ye that you love, then I think that people would be like way into it. And that’s why I think it’s super-genius to have you be the one that says, “Oh, I like this song a lot.’” After she balks, he adds, “You don’t have to do the launching and tweet. That was just an extra idea I had.”
At one point, Swift says, “I need to think about it, because you know, when you hear something for the first time, you just need to think about it. Because it is absolutely crazy. I’m glad it’s not mean, though.” Later, West says, “I’m going to send you the song and send you the exact wording and everything about it, right? And then we could sit and talk through it.” At the close of the call, West promises, “I’m gonna go lay this verse, and I’m gonna send it to you right now.” Swift says, “Send it to me. I’m excited.”
Swift’s camp has always contended that West never followed up on his repeated vows to send her the entire song, with or without the “that bitch” line.
The conversation also includes a seven-minute monologue on West’s part in which he free-associates about being “a good like 20, 30 million” in personal debt, and how “it allowed the whole town to try to feel like they could control Kanye or even talk to me like I’m regular.” But, he added, “It’s like even in debt, he moves around like he’s like a billionaire. I’m like, yeah, I’m a cultural trillionaire!”
He contends, “I, Kanye West, the guy who created the genre of music that is the Weeknd, that is Drake … Every single person that makes music right now, (their) favorite album is ‘The College Dropout.’ Every single person that makes music. But,” he laments, “I went into debt to my wife by $6 million working on a f—ing house, less than like a few months ago, and I was able to pay her back before Christmas and s— like that. So, you know, when I talk about Nike, the idea that they wouldn’t give me a percentage, that I could make something that was so tangible, when Drake was just rapping me into the motherf—ing trashcan, that I could have something that was tangible that showed my creativity and expressed myself, that also could be a business that I could have a five-times multiple on and actually be able to sell it for like a hundred million, 200 million or a billion dollars, that was very serious.”
He also suggests that keeping up with the Kardashians, financially, was a major strain on him. “With my family. I felt like, look, if I’m just the angry black guy with some cool red shoes from Nike five years ago, I was going to be visiting my daughter, as opposed to be living with her. It would’ve been like, enough is enough. It wouldn’t have been cool anymore, because it would have been a group of people, including my wife, that all had at least like 500, 400 million in their account. And then you get the angry black man at the party talking about ‘I’m the one that put Kim in the dress! I’m the one that did this!’”
“I’m 100% going to be like a multi, multi, multi-billionaire. I think it’s fun that I can like be like Charlie Sheen and be like, ‘Hey, like, I got AIDS.’ …. I told Drake that the other night. I was like, ‘Yo, Drake, I’m in personal debt.’ And for me to tell Drake, the f—ing number one bachelor in the world that can f—ing rap anybody into a trashcan, that lives four blocks down the street from my wife and like basically f—s all of her friends, that I’m in personal debt, it’s such a like putting down the sword or … showing the hand, that I don’t have my poker face on with any of you guys.”
