Taylor Swift’s ‘Cassandra’ Might Reference Her Infamous Feud With Kanye West: Lyrics, Meaning
Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, finally arrived on April 19, 2024. As expected, Swifties everywhere have been looking at every single lyric under a microscope to figure out their meanings and uncover the inspirations behind each track. While many of the tunes seem to draw inspiration from the pop star’s relationships with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and even Travis Kelce, fans are theorizing that a few tracks, including “Cassandra,” are about her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
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To understand why “Cassandra” seems to be about the feud, fans must first know what went down between the “Cruel Summer” singer, the rapper and his ex-wife. They have a long history, but it all began at the 2009 MTV VMAs when Ye interrupted Taylor during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video to say that Beyoncé deserved to win the award instead. The “Gold Digger” hitmaker and pop star seemingly buried the hatchet for a while, but the feud was reignited in 2016 when Ye released his song “Famous,” featuring a crude lyric about Taylor.
“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous,” he rapped.
Kim, who was married to Ye at the time, claimed that her then-husband called Taylor to ask for permission to include the lyric, which Taylor allegedly granted. However, a spokesperson for the singer claimed that Ye did not ask for Taylor’s approval on the song and instead asked if she would share it on her Twitter, which she allegedly declined.
The drama heated up in July 2016 when Kim released video footage of the alleged phone call, in which Taylor could be heard calling the song a “compliment.” However, Taylor claimed in 2020 that the call was “illegally recorded” and “manipulated.” A longer version of the call was leaked at the time and revealed that Taylor was telling the truth and never knew about the “bitch” lyric.
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Taylor opened up about the effect the leaked call had on her in her December 2023 Time Person of the Year interview.
“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out there 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.”
Taylor added that it felt like a “career death,” but she ultimately “learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies.”
She concluded, “Trash takes itself out every single time.”
Is Taylor Swift’s Song ‘Cassandra’ About Kanye West? Lyrics and Possible Meaning
Now, what does “Cassandra” have to do with the Taylor vs. Kim and Ye feud? Many fans believe that the track includes references to Ye and his family, such as the lyrics, “They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time/ That I was onto something / The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line.” These lines could point to the reality TV family’s wealth and Ye’s Sunday Service ceremonies.
Other lyrics seemingly referenced the allegedly manipulated phone call that painted Taylor as a liar. “In the streets, there’s a raging riot / When it’s ‘Burn the bitch,’ they’re shrieking,” she sang, later adding, “When the truth comes out, it’s quiet.”
“Cassandra is so sad because when Kanye and Kim were spreading lies about her everybody was ready to burn her alive and when real clip came out confirming she was telling the truth everybody pretended nothing happened and no one apologized,” one fan tweeted about the song.
“Taylor is Cassandra. She tried to warn people about Kim/the Kardashians but people wouldn’t believe her,” another user wrote.
Taylor has not publicly commented on the inspiration behind “Cassandra.”
Greek Mythology Inspired the Song ‘Cassandra’
While she hasn’t confirmed or denied if “Cassandra” is about Kim and Kanye, Taylor did reveal some of the song’s original lyrics one month after the album was released in May 2024. “The Chairman is unsealing her #TTPDFirstDraft Phone Memos of ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,’ ‘Cassandra,’ and ‘The Black Dog’ on new digital albums,” Taylor Nation, her official merch account, wrote via X on May 16, 2024.
In the phone memos, Taylor explained that “Cassandra” was inspired by a figure in Greek mythology. “In Greek mythology, Cassandra was brought on by Apollo to always warn people of impending doom but she was cursed to never be listened to,” she told her fans. “So read into this what you will based on our current social and cultural climate.”
