Taylor Swift's "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" Throws So Much Shade At Kim K
Taylor Swift's new album Reputation is chock full of love songs and sweet moments that make our hearts flutter, but it's also got its fair share of good, old-fashioned shade throwing. When Tay kicked things off with "Look What You Made Me Do" back in August, it became pretty clear that she wasn't going to hold back with her new music. And now that her latest project has been released in its entirety, there's one song that's making fans wonder if Tay is giving a serious shoutout to a certain someone. Is "This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" about Kim Kardashian? Let the speculation begin, folks.
The song (which you can purchase on iTunes here) is definitely a not-so-subtle diss at someone who did her wrong. It's the story of a friendship, or at least a frenemy-ship, gone completely sour. And Taylor's blaming the other guy this time. Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift have a complicated past. Taylor and Kim's husband Kanye have been locked in a public feud of sorts since what seems to be the beginning of time (OK, 2009), and it appeared to be all good between them for a while. But then, things got, well, intense. Taylor wrote in her new song:
It was so nice throwing big parties / Jumping in the pool from the balcony / Everyone swimming in a champaign sea / And there are no rules when you show up here / Bass beat rattling the chandelier / Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year
Hold up. Bells are ringing right off the bat. We don't believe there was ever a West/Swift pool party, but we do know the whole Gatsby thing has a Kardashian connection. Kris Jenner threw an epic 1920s Gatsby-themed birthday party in 2015, and one of Kim's favorite songs is Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" off the Great Gatsby soundtrack.
Anyway, in "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things," Taylor goes on to ask why this person rained on her parade, which is very Funny Girl of her, but we're not going to pull Barbra Streisand into this. Anyway, another verse in question also raises eyebrows and has our Swift spidey senses tingling at Kimye. She goes on,
It was so nice being friends again / There I was giving you a second chance / But then you stabbed my back while shaking my hand / And therein lies the issue / Friends don't try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you / And so I took an ax to a mended fence
The operative word here is "phone." If you haven't been following the whole Kanye/Kim/Taylor thing, Kim famously released footage of a phone conversation Kanye had with Taylor, where Taylor apparently approved a lyric about her in his song "Famous." Taylor, however, made it look like she wasn't cool with said line initially, so you get it. It's a long and layered saga.
But now, Taylor has apparently risen from the dead through song. In fact, she does it all the time.
The most telling lyrics off of "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" have got to be the following:
Here's a toast to my real friends / They don't care about that he said, she said / And here's to my baby / He ain't reading what they call me lately / And here's to my momma / Had to listen to all this drama / And here's to you / 'Cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do / Haha, I can't even say it with a straight face
Any casual Kanye listener would know "Real Friends" is one of his songs and that "Runaway" is all about toasts. In that song, he says:
Let's have a toast for the douchebags / Let's have a toast for the *ssholes / Let's have a toast for the scumbags / Every one of them that I know / Let's have a toast for the jerk-offs
If Taylor isn't referencing those songs, then you can just take away our superfan card now, because who else could she be talking about?
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