Taylor Swift and Kanye West's 'Famous' Phone Call Video Leaks Online â Read the Transcript
Four years after Kim Kardashian shared an edited phone call between her husband Kanye West and Taylor Swift discussing his âFamousâ lyrics, extended portions of the conversation were leaked online late Friday night.
In clips posted to Twitter, the rapper, 42, is heard asking Swift, 30, to release his new song on her Twitter account. âSo my next single, I wanted you to tweet it ⌠so thatâs why Iâm calling you. I wanted you to put the song out,â he tells the Grammy winner on the phone.
After telling Swift he included a âvery controversial lineâ about her in the song, the pop star nervously asks West what the lyrics are.
West then tells Swift heâs been mulling over the lyrics for eight months and warns her âitâs gonna go Eminem a little bitâ and to âbrace yourself for a second.â
A wary Swift asks if itâs âgonna be mean,â and West acknowledges even Kim initially felt it was âtoo crazyâ but had come around. âItâs like my wifeâs favorite fâing line,â he says.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West
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âSo it says, âTo all my Southside nâ that know me best/ I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex,â continues West with a chuckle. Responds Swift with a laugh: âThatâs not mean.â
Further discussing his proposal to have her release the song, Swift â who expresses relief that the lyrics arenât about her being âthat stupid dumb bitchâ â tells West she needs to âthink about it because it is absolutely crazy.â
The real phone call between Taylor Swift and Kanye West leaked.#TaylorToldTheTruth#KanyeWestIsOverParty
pic.twitter.com/vgd7OlnTLU— SWIFTIES? (@SwiftiesIndia13) March 21, 2020
Later in the call, West tells Swift the original lyric he wrote was, âTo all my Southside nâ that know me best/ I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.â (The lyric that made it into the final version of the track is âFor all my Southside nâ that know me best/ I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famousâ)
In another leaked portion, West asks Swift how she would feel if he included a line that said âI made her famous,â to which she warily responded: âDid you say that? Well, what am I going to do about it? Itâs just kind of, like, whatever at this point. But I mean, you gotta tell the story the way it happened to you and the way that youâve experienced it. Like, you honestly didnât know who I was before that. Like, it doesnât matter if I sold 7 million of that album before you did that, which is what happened. You didnât know who I was before that. Itâs fine. But um, yeah, I canât wait to hear it.â
West also promises Swiftâwho encourages West to protect his relationship with Kim after he tells her his wife prefers him saying âowes me sexâ instead of âmight still have sexââto send her the final version of the track.
âIâm 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,â West tells Swift, who has long contended she never heard the song before its release.
After âFamousâ was released in February of 2016, Swiftâs rep told PEOPLE the singer âdeclined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyrics, âI made that bitch famous.ââ
Christopher Polk/Getty Images Kanye West and Taylor Swift
In June of 2016, Kardashian West told GQ the singer had told her husband she would âlaughâ and tell media she was âin on it the whole timeâ in a phone call. Then a month later, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star branded Swift a snake on social media and leaked edited snippets from the call on her Snapchat account.
âIf people ask me about it, look, I think it would be great for me to be like, âHe called me and told me before it came out . . . Jokeâs on you, guys. Weâre fine,ââ Swift is heard saying in the footage Kardashian West posted on Snapchat.
Swiftâs rep was quoted in the GQ article as saying that âmuch of what Kim is saying is incorrect. Taylor has never denied that conversation took place. It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do. Kanye West never told Taylor he was going to use the term âthat bitchâ in referring her. A song cannot be approved if it was never heard. Kanye West never played the song for Taylor Swift. Taylor heard it for the first time when everyone else did and was humiliated. Kim Kardashianâs claim that Taylor and her team were aware of being recorded is not true, and Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone.â
Moments after Kardashian West posted snippets of the call, Swift released a statement on her Instagram slamming the couple. âWhere is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me âthat bitchâ in his song? It doesnât exist because it never happened. You donât get to control someoneâs emotional response to being called âthat bitchâ in front of the entire world,â the singer wrote.
âOf course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me that I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship. He promised to play the song for me, but he never did. While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot âapproveâ a song you havenât heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.â
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While Swift went on to record and tour reputation, a dark album inspired by the depressive period she went through following the drama, the West has remained mum about the feud while Kardashian West told Andy Cohen last January she was âover it.â
For a transcript of the newly leaked portion of Swift and West’s phone conversation, keep reading below:
KW: âold school sâ, yeah. Iâm doing great. I feel so awesome about the music. The albumâs coming out Feb. 11. Iâm doing the fashion show Feb. 11 at Madison Square Garden and dropping the album Feb. 12, that morning. Itâs like âŚ. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Aw thank you so, so much. Thank you. It feels like, real. I donât know, just âYe, Apple, Steve Jobs-type music. Like, so my next single, I wanted you to tweet it ⌠so thatâs why Iâm calling you. I wanted you to put the song out.
TS: What would people ⌠I guess it would just be, people would be like, âWhy is this happening?â And I had something to do with it, probably.
KW: The reason why it would happen is because it has a very controversial line at the beginning of the song about you.
TS: What does it say? [nervous laughter]
KW: It says, and the song is so, so dope, and I literally sat with my wife, with my whole manager team, with everything, and try to rework this line. Iâve thought about this line for eight months, Iâve had this line and tried to rework it every which way, and the original way that I thought about it is the best way, but itâs the most controversial, so itâs gonna go Eminem a little bit, so can you brace yourself for a second?
TS: YeahâŚ
KW: Okay, alright. It saysâwait a second, you sound sad.
TS: Well, is it gonna be mean?
KW: No, I donât think itâs mean.
TS: Okay, then let me hear it.
KW: Okay, um ⌠and the funny thing is when I first played it and my wife heard it, she was like âHuh? What? Thatâs too crazy, blah, blah, blah.â And when Ninja from Die Antwoord heard it, he was like, âOh God, this is the craziest shâ! This is why I love Kanye,â that kind of thing. Itâs like my wifeâs favorite fâing line. I just wanted to give you some premise of that, right?
TS: Okay.
KW: So it says, âTo all my Southside nâ that know me best/ I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex.â [chuckles]
TS: [chuckles] Thatâs not mean.
KW: Okay. Yeah, well, this is the thing why Iâm calling you because you got an army. You own a country of motherfâing two billion people, basically, that if you felt that itâs funny and cool and like hip hop and felt like, you know, just The College Dropout and the artist like, âYe that you love, then I think that people would be like way into it, and thatâs why I think itâs super genius to have you be the one that says, âOh, I like this song a lot, like, yeah, whatever. This is cool. Whatever, itâs like, I got like sâ on my album where Iâm like, âI bet me and Ray J will be friends if we ainât love the same bitch.â
TS: Oh my [laughs]. I mean, I need to think about it because you hear something for the first time, you need to think about it because it is absolutely crazy. Iâm glad itâs not mean though. It doesnât feel mean, but like, oh my God, the build-up you gave it. I thought it was gonna be like that stupid dumb bitch, like, but itâs not. Um, so I donât know. I mean, the launch thing, I think it would be kind of confusing to people, but I definitely like, I definitely think that when Iâm asked about, of course Iâm gonna be like, âYeah, Iâm his biggest fan. I love that. I think itâs hilarious,â but um, Iâll think about it.
KW: Yeah, you donât have to doâyou donât have to do the launch and retweet. Thatâs just an extra idea that I had, like, but if you think that thatâs cool, then thatâs cool. If not, we are launching the sâ like on just GOOD Fridays, on Soundcloud, the site, sâ like that.
TS: You know, the thing about me is like, anything that I do becomes a feminine think-piece, and if I launch it, theyâre gonna be like, âWow,â like this thingâlike theyâll just turn it into something that ⌠I think if I launch it, it honestly like, itâll be less cool âcause I think if I launch it, it adds this level of criticism, âcause having that many followers and having that many eyeballs on me right now, people are just looking for me to do something dumb or stupid or lame, and itâs like almost ⌠I donât know, like I kind of feel like people would try to make it negative if it came from me. Do you know what I mean?
KW: Yeah.
TS: I try to be super self-aware about where I am, and I feel like, I feel like right now Iâm like this close to overexposure.
KW: Well, this one, I think this is a really cool thing to have.
TS: I know, itâs like a compliment [laughs].
KW: I had this line where I saidâand my wife really didnât like this one because we tried to make it nicer. So I said, âTo all my Southside nâ that know me best/ I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,â and my wife was really not with that one. She was way more into âShe owes you sex,â but then the owe part was the feminist group-type sâ that I was like, âAhhh.â
TS: Thatâs the part that Iâm kind ofâI mean, theyâre both really edgy, but thatâs the only thing about that line is that itâs like gonna ⌠the feminists are gonna come out, but I mean, you donât have to give a fâ, soâŚ
KW: Yeah, basically. Well, what I give a fâ about is just you as a person and as a friend. I want thingsâ
TS: Thatâs sweetâ
KW: âthat make you feel good. I donât wanna do rap that makes people feel bad, like of course like Iâm mad at Nike, so people think like, âOh, heâs a bully. He ran on stage with Taylor. Heâs bullying Nike now, this $50 billion company.â
TS: Why are people saying youâre bullying Nike?
KW: Because on âFactsâ I said like, âYeezy, Nike out here bad, they canât give sâ away.â
TS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, thatâs just what you do though.
KW: [laughs]
TS: [laughs] I mean, I wouldnât say that itâs like possible to bully a company like Nike whereâI mean, um, yeah, I mean, go with whatever line you think is better. Itâs obviously very tongue-in-cheek either way, and I really appreciate you telling me about it. Thatâs really nice.
KW: Oh yeah. I just had a responsibility to you as a friend. I mean, thanks for being, like, so cool about it.
TS: Thanks. Yeah, I really appreciate it. The heads-up is so nice. Youâd be surprised how many people just do things without even asking or seeing if Iâd be okay with it, and I just really appreciate it. I never would have expected you to tell me about a line in one of your songs. Thatâs really nice that you did.
KW: You mean like unexpected sâ like you taking the time to give someone a really, really valuable award and then they completely run for president right afterwards? Like unexpected in that kind of way? [laughs]
TS: [laughs] We have not talked about what happened.
KW: I just thought that was wavy. It was vibe-y. The funny thing is I thought about the weed and the president ⌠both of those things I thought about in the shower the day before and just started laughing like crazy. I was like, I gotta say that I had just smoked some weed, and then say Iâm gonna run for president. So those are my bases of ⌠I knew I wanted to say the thing about going to like the Dodgers game with my daughter and like getting booed and that being scary, and I knew I wanted to say, like, me changing and thinking about people more since I had a daughter. And then I wanted to say the weed thing. And then I wanted to say the president thing. And everything else was just like off the cuff.
TS: Oh my God. It was definitely, like, it stole the show. And then the flowers that you sent me. I Instagram-ed a picture of them and itâs the most Instagram likes Iâve ever gotten. It was like 2.7 million likes on that picture of the flowers you sent me. Crazy.
KW: Itâs some connection or something that I think is really important about that moment when we met on stage. Thereâs something that I think is really important about that, and where humanity is going, or now where me and Kim are, and having a family and just everything, the way things are landing. So itâs alwaysârelationships are more important than punchlines, you know.
TS: Yeah, I mean, I donât think anybody would listen to that and be like, âOh, thatâs a real diss.â Like, âShe must be crying about that line.â And I think because of how crazy and strange and fateful the way we met was, I think we have to pick our moments to do stuff together and make sure itâs only really cool stuff.
KW: Yeah, exactly. We canât have it, like, be somebody elseâs idea that gets in front and theyâre, likeâbecause if youâre like a really true, creative, visceral, vibe-y type person, itâs probably hard for you to work at a corporation. So how can you give a creativeâcreative ideas and youâre working in a house of non-creativity? Itâs like this weird ⌠so whenever we talk directlyâokay, now what if later in the song I was also to have said, uh, âI made her famousâ? Is that aâ
TS: [hesitant] Did you say that?
KW: Yes, it mightâve happened [laughs].
TS: Well, what am I gonna do about it?
KW: Uh, like, do the hair flip?
TS: Yeah, I mean, um, itâs just kind of like, whatever, at this point. But I mean, youâve got to tell the story the way that it happened to you and the way that youâve experienced it. Like, you honestly didnât know who I was before that. Like, it doesnât matter if I sold seven million of that album before you did that, which is what happened. You didnât know who I was before that. Itâs fine. But, um, yeah. I canât wait to hear it.
KW: I mean, itâs fun. Itâs definitelyâyouâre ready to trend. Thatâs all I can say.
TS: Uh, whatâs the song called?
KW: Uh, it might be called âHood Famous.â
TS: Oh, cool. Is it going to be like a single-single, or is it going to be a Soundcloud release? What are you doing?
KW: Oh, this one right here is like fâing song of the year-type territory.
TS: Oh my God, amazing. Thatâs crazy. Oh my God. Speaking of song of the year, are you going to the Grammys?
KW: Uh, you know what? I was thinking to not do it. But I think that this songâyou know what? Iâm 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. But if the song goes and fâing justâ
TS: âŚthey just look at us and go ⌠Even if weâve made an incredible achievement, itâs harder for people to write down our names for some reason. Thatâs just human nature. Itâs envy. Itâs asking people in our industry to vote for the people who are already killing it.
KW: Yeah. Itâs, like, so many people wanted Meek Mills to win because Drake was just killing it for so long, and they were just like, âWe just need like Meek Mills to likeâbut I think, you know, okay, so that has my mind going through a lot of places to problem-solve. I was talking to Ben Horowitz. Do you know this guy? Heâs a VC. Ben Horowitz out of San Fran. But heâs down with that.
TS: I know that name. I donât know him.
KW: Itâs just like the San Fran clique, you know, that type of thing. Like he stays down the street from Mark Zuckerberg and sâ like that. So I was talking to him and I was like, âBro.â Like me, Iâm in personal debt. Iâm in debt by a good like $20, 30 million, ever since the fashion ⌠and still have not made it out of it. So thatâs part of the reason why I had to go to Roc Nation and the touring deals evolved, and it allowed the whole town to try to feel like they could control Kanye or even talk to me like Iâm regular or have agents do it, but they saw they couldnât. Itâs like even in debt, he moves around like heâs like a billionaire. Iâm like, yeah, Iâm a cultural trillionaire! I might have financial debts. So I told Ben Horowitz, I was like, âYou guys, you, Mark Zuckerberg or whoever, Tim Cook, you guys have to clean that up.â So Iâm sending Ben Horowitz my current balance. That means that lâm not up $50, not up 100 million, not up 200 million, not up 300 million. No. Negative $20 million, currently. I, Kanye West, the guy who created the genre of music that is The Weeknd, that is Drak âthe guy who createdâevery single person that makes music right now, favorite album is The College Dropout. Every single person that makes music. But Iâm rich enough. Like, I went into debt to my wife by $6 million working on a fâing house, less than like a few months ago, and I was able to pay her back before Christmas and sâ like that. So, you know, when I talk about Nike, the idea that they wouldnât give me a percentage, that I could make something that was so tangible, when Drake was just rapping me into the motherfâing 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 $100 million, $200 million or a billion dollars, that was very serious. Every conversation, every time Iâd scream at Charlemagne or scream at Sway, that was really, really, really serious. And it also was with my family. I felt like, look, if Iâm 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 wouldâve been like, enough is enough. It wouldnât 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 âIâm the one that put Kim in the dress! Iâm the one that did this!â But it never realized itself. So thatâs one of the things I just talked to Ben. And I talk about it on the album. Talk about personal debt and sâ. Just the idea like, âOh sâ, this dude with this fâing Maybach that makes fâing $50 million a tour still hasnât lined it up or came out of the point when AEG and Live Nation wouldnât give him a deal.â The debt started after Watch the Throne, because I got no deal. But I still was doing my creative projects on my own, shooting a film, doing a fashion show, just trying to be very Disney, be very visceral, be creative. AndâŚ
TS: I mean, Iâm sure youâve thought about this up and down, but I mean, is there a way to monetize these in a way that you thought would still feel authentic but make them into a multi-billion dollar company?
KW: Well, thatâs what weâre going to do. Thatâs what weâre in the plans of. Iâm 100 percent going to be like a multi, multi, multi-billionaire. I think itâs fun that I can like be like Charlie Sheen and be like, âHey, like, I got AIDS.â You know, likeâto me, I told Drake that the other night. I was like, âYo, Drake, Iâm in personal debt.â And for me to tell Drake, the fâing number one bachelor in the world that can fâing rap anybody into a trashcan, that lives four blocks down the street from my wife and like basically fâs all of her friends, that Iâm in personal debt, itâs such a like putting down the sword or putting down the hand or opening, showing the hand. That I donât have my poker face on with any of you guys. Iâm just me. Iâm just a creative. You know, everything I did, even when it was mistimed, whatever it mightâve been from aâitâs always, like, from a good place, and I know that Iâll overcome it and I know that the world will overcome it. Because, like, Iâm going to change the world. Iâm going to make itâIâm gonna make peopleâs lives better on some post-Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes-type sâ. Like, Iâm going to do things with education. Iâm going to do things that help to calm down murders in Chicago or across the globe. Things that help to calm down police brutality, to equalize the wealth amidst the class system. Because thereâs a bunch of classes of wealthy people that hate Obama because heâs more social and he wants the people who donât have anything to have everything. And in my little way, by learning how to design, design is something thatâs only given to the rich currently. The exact color palette that Hermès uses versus the color palette that Forever 21 usesâa color palette is extremely important. Color is important. You know, the knowledge of proportions, you know, the size of our house versus the size of someone elseâs houses, and just the dynamics of that proportion. Like, I donât want this conversation to go too, too long, but I wanted to give you a bit of where Iâm at and the perspective that Iâm at and the way ⌠the fact that I am the microprocessor of our culture. Meaning like, I can figure out how to give Rihanna a Mary J. Blige-type album. I can figure out how to get the fashion world to accept my wife, and thus the whole family. I can figure out a lot of impossible ⌠I can figure out how to make something that youâre wearing to the airport, five years after the entire globe was like, âHang that nâ alive and fâ him, and letâs watch him die, slowly, publicly.â So, itâs a lot. I figured that out for myself, so itâs a lot of sâ that we collectively, with the power that you have and your fans, the power my wife has, the power that I have, that we can do to really make it where itâs not just the rich getting richer, but you know, make it not just a fâing charity, not singing for Africa, but change things in a way that people can experience sâ themselves, a piece of the good life. You know?
TS: Yeah. I mean, theyâre amazing ideas and amazing concepts, and I definitely would love to talk to you more about it. I know you have to do something right now, but I love that thatâs where youâre headed. And itâs been like that. I mean, when we went to dinner, there were the rumblings of those ideas. I like that youâre always thinking outward. And over the last six, seven, eight years, however long itâs been since that happened, I havenât always liked you, but Iâve always respected you. And I think thatâs what youâre saying when you say like, you know, âI might be in debt, but I can make these things happen, and I have the ideas to do it, and I can create these things or these concepts.â Like, Iâm always going to respect you. And Iâm really glad that you had the respect to call me and tell me that as a friend about the song, and itâs a really cool thing to do, and a really good show of friendship. So thank you.
KW: Oh, thank you too.
TS: And you know, if people ask me about it, look, I think it would be great for me to be like, âLook, he called me and told me the line before it came out. Like, the jokeâs on you guys. Weâre fine.â
KW: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think thatâs pretty much the switch right there.
TS: Yeah. Like, you guys want to call this a feud, you want to call this throwing shade, but you know, right after the song comes out, Iâm gonna be on a Grammy red carpet, and theyâre gonna ask me about it and Iâll be like, âHe called me and sent me the song before it came out.â So I think weâre good.
KW: Okay. Iâm gonna go lay this verse, and Iâm gonna send it to you right now.
TS: Oh, you justâyou havenât recorded it yet?
KW: I recorded it. Iâm nuancing the lines. Like the last version of it says, âme and Taylor might still have sex.â And then my wife was like, âThat doesnât sound as hard!â
TS: Well, I mean, sheâs saying that honestly because sheâs your wife, and like, um ⌠so I think whatever one you think is actually better. I mean, obviously do whatâs best for your relationship, too. I think âowes me sex,â it says different things. It saysââowes me sexâ means like, âlook, I made her what she is. She actually owes me.â Which is going to split people because people who like me are going to be like, âShe doesnât owe him sâ.â But then people who like thought it was badass and crazy and awesome that youâre so outspoken are going to be like, âYeah, she does. It made her famous.â So itâs more provocative to say âstill have sex,â because no one would see that coming. Theyâre both crazy. Do what you want. Theyâre both going to get every single headline in the world. âOwes me sexâ is a little bit more like throwing shade, and the other oneâs more flirtatious. It just depends on what you want to accomplish with it.
KW: Yeah, I feel like with my wife, that she probably didnât like the âmight still have sexâ because it would be like, what if she was on a TV show and said, âMe and Tom Brady might still have sexâ or something?
TS: You have to protect your relationship. Do whatâs best. You just had a kid. Youâre in the best place of your life. I wouldnât ever advise you to fâ with that. Just pick whatever. Itâs cause and effect. One is gonna make people feel a certain way, and itâs gonna be a slightly different emotion for the other. But itâs notâit doesnât matter to me. Thereâs not one that hurts my feelings and the other doesnât.
KW: Yeah. Itâs just, when Iâm pointing this gun, what I tried to do differently than two years ago, is like when I shoot a gun, I try to point it away from my face. So one is a little bit more flirtatious and easier, I think, so really, that means the conversation is reallyâone is like a little bit better for the public and a little bit less good for the relationship. One is a little bit worse for the public and better for the relationship.
TS: Yeah. I can hear it. But itâs your goals, really. I mean, you always just go with your gut, obviously. But, um, amazing. Send it to me. Iâm excited.
KW: All right, cool. Thanks so much.
TS: Awesome, Iâll talk to you later.
KW: All right, cool. Peace. Bye. [to camera] We had to get that on the record.
Cameraman: Iâm sorry. The battery on this thing died.
KW: Itâs just when it dies, you get some sâ like Kanye talking to Taylor Swift explaining that line? Thereâs gotta be three cameras on that one. We canât miss one element.