Is Taylor Swift's “thanK you aIMee” About Kim Kardashian? We Found 3 Clues That Suggest So
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Is Taylor Swift shading Kim Kardashian in her new song “thanK you aIMee”? Fans certainly think so, and there are multiple clues that support the claim.
ICYMI: Taylor Swift dropped her long-anticipated 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19, 2024 — but not without some surprises. Just two hours after the album's release, Swift took to Instagram to announce the project was actually a secret double album, unveiling 15 extra songs in the digital exclusive extended version called The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.
TTPD: The Anthology includes four previously announced bonus tracks and 11 brand new tracks, among them “thanK you aIMee,” which fans are theorizing is dedicated to Kim Kardashian.
Related: All the Celebs Taylor Swift Name Checks on Tortured Poets Department
Just to jog your memory, Swift and Kardashian's feud technically dates all the way back to 2009 when Ye (then still Kanye West) called Swift out on stage at the MTV VMAs, saying Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" should have won Best Female Video instead of “You Belong with Me.”
In 2016, West referenced the incident in his song “Famous,” rapping: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b*tch famous.” Swift, well, swiftly called him out for it, and Kardashian then leaked a conversation between the two where Swift seemingly granted West permission for the name drop. Since then, Swift has repeatedly claimed the call was edited to fit West's narrative. (The full call was leaked in 2020, and Swift referenced it as proof that she “was telling the truth the whole time.”)
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Okay, now that we have the backstory, let's get into the clues that suggest “thanK you aIMee" is actually about Kim Kardashian.
Clue No. 1: The song title spells out “KIM”
The first clue that suggests “thanK you aIMee,” penned by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner, could be a Kim Kardashian diss track is the stylization of the song's title, which features a capital K, I, and M, spelling out Kardashian's first name. This stylization is constant in the track's official lyrics, and, as fans know, it's not the first time Swift has used this coding device to spell out secret messages.
Clue No. 2: Swift sings about a bully, and she's publicly referred to Kardashian as a “bully” in the past
In the song, Swift seems to be referring to a high school bully. “When I picture my hometown / There’s a bronze, spray-tanned statue of you / And a plaque underneath it / That threatens to push me down the stairs at our school / And it was always the same searing pain / But I dreamed that one day I could say,” she sings in the first verse.
Swift famously referred to Kardashian as a “bully” in an essay published by Elle to commemorate her 30th birthday. “In my experience, I’ve come to see that bullies want to be feared and taken seriously. A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet," Swift wrote, referring to Kardashian, who posted snake emojis to refer to Swift mid-feud.
“The fact that so many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life, but I can’t tell you how hard I had to keep from laughing every time my 63-foot inflatable cobra named Karyn appeared onstage in front of 60,000 screaming fans," Swift continued. "It’s the Stadium Tour equivalent of responding to a troll’s hateful Instagram comment with ‘lol.’ It would be nice if we could get an apology from people who bully us, but maybe all I’ll ever get is the satisfaction of knowing I could survive it, and thrive in spite of it.”
Clue No. 3: Swift seems to reference North West
Towards the end of the song, Swift sings: “Maybe you’ve reframed it / And in your mind you never beat my spirit black and blue / I don’t think you’ve changed much / And so I changed your name and any real defining clues, and one day your kid comes home singing / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”
Swift could be referencing two Kardashian in instances here. First of all, Kardashian “reframing” her opinion of Swift. In late 2021, Kardashian called Swift's music “cute and catchy” during an episode of the Honestly With Bari Weis podcast. “I really like a lot of her songs,” she said at the time, which made fans scratch their heads. The second instance seems to refer to Kardashian's daughter, North West, who made her dance to “Shake It Off” together in a since-deleted video from their joint TikTok account.
Elsewhere in “thanK you aIMee" Swift sings: “I wrote a thousand songs that you find uncool / I built a legacy that you can’t undo / But when I count the scars / There’s a moment of truth / That there wouldn’t be this / If there hadn’t been you,” which seems to be her own version of “what doesn't kill you makes you stronger” with a seeming dash of admission that the whole feud — and what she created inspired by it — did make her more famous.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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