It’s been 15 years since Kanye West’s beef with Taylor Swift began at the VMAs, and it looks like the feud will never end. On Thursday, after Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department kept West’s new album Vultures 2 from clinching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, she briefly released a new, live version of the song “thanK you aIMee.” The new version has a slightly different title: “thank You aimEe.”
To the average eye, the change is easy enough to miss. But to hawk-eyed Swifties, the tweak makes all the difference. In the original version of the song, released in April, the capitalized letters spell out “Kim” — widely interpreted as a reference to Kim Kardashian, who infamously inserted herself in the Taylor/Kanye beef. In the new version of the song title, only the “Y” and “E” are capitalized, spelling — you got it — “Ye.” According to Rolling Stone, Swift only kept the live version of the song, which was mashed up with her 2010 song “Mean,” online for a few hours — but not before Swifties could download and reshare it.
If your instinct is to roll your eyes, it’s worth noting that Ye also seems to be still fueling the drama. On “Lifestyle (Demo)” — a song on Vultures 2 featuring Lil Wayne — Wayne raps, “I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce.”
Earlier this month, hours after Ye dropped Vultures 2, Swift hit the stage in Poland in her “I Bet You Think About Me” tee. It wasn’t the first time she’s worn it, but that didn’t stop fans from taking it as a dig at Ye’s song.
Something tells me we haven’t seen the end of this saga.