What Happened Between Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift?

If you love all the drama on Empire, then get a load of all this real life Summer 2016 music industry drama. It was a quiet Sunday night…until Kim Kardashian uploaded the Snapchats to end all Snapchats.

What Happened Between Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift?
What Happened Between Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift?

Let’s start from the beginning in 2009 (yes, all the way back then).

At the 2009 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift won Video of the Year for “You Belong With Me,” beating Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” Kanye didn’t think the award belonged with Swift, so he stormed the stage as the then-teen country star was giving her thank yous and he took the mic, declaring that “I’mma let you finish, but Beyonce had the best video of all time.”

And it began: The feud. Swift playing the victim. West being known for being more Kanye than ever before. He issued an apology, but it wasn’t enough. But as time past, the wounds and egos seemed to heal…by 2015.

Swift became a pop superstar with her unstoppable album 1989 and her meticulously constructed image. She declared herself and Yeezy besties. That is, until he decided to put the 2009 event in his song “Famous”: “I think Taylor and I still might have sex / I made that bitch famous.”

Taylor was not happy. She derided him in her Grammy Awards speech for Album of the Year, declaring that her fame was not due to him, but her own hard work. Everyone cheered for her and jeered Kanye. But she knew about the song, he said. But she approved it! he said.

 But still, Kanye was made out to be the bad guy.

His wife Kim Kardashian, though, knows what this is like. She knows how it feels to be accused of being “famous for nothing” every day and you know what — she works it. She plays the game. She, too, has been famous since 2008-2009 as the result of hard luck (or would that be just luck?). So Kim Kardashian, star of TV screen and Instagram and Snapchat, decided to take on pop music star Taylor Swift.

Step 1: Mention the Taylor Swift’s betrayal in a widely read GQ article. We have a video of Swift agreeing to the “Famous” lyrics, she says. Swift’s response is to make out with Avengers actor Tom Hiddleston on a beach.

Step 2: Film an episode of the E! stalwart series Keeping Up With the Kardashians centering around the topic. Because sometimes we forget this, but Kanye is an official Kardashian, too, in Momager Kris Jenner’s brood. And you do not mess with Mama Kris.

Step 3: Let the episode air on TV, drum up interest, then drop the video evidence on Snapchat, where Kim can amass new followers and Swift’s PR people can’t touch the snaps on her story. The internet goes wild. Even the most devoted Swiftian fans are taken aback. Who is their hero now?

And the world turned upside down. How will Taylor Swift rise from these ashes of lies? What else does Kim Kardashian have up her sleeve? Who else’s butthole will sister Khloe expose? We’ll have to wait and see.