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Kanye West

Kanye West: 'I did not diss Taylor Swift and I’ve never dissed her'

Kelly Lawler
USA TODAY

Kanye West would like to clear some things up regarding Taylor Swift and a certain line in one of the songs of his new album. But he may or may not be muddying them even more.

It all started at his Yeezy Season 3 event in Madison Square Garden on Thursday, where he premiered his song Famous, which contained the following line:

"I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. / Why? I made that (expletive) famous."

The line has been interpreted by some (read: many) people as a direct reference to Taylor Swift and not a very flattering one. In fact it drew quite a bit of ire on social media almost as soon as it was heard at the event, from fans to even Taylor's brother and her friend Gigi Hadid.

And now Kanye is having his say. His longer say, that is.

In a Tweetstorm on Friday morning, Kanye attempted to clear up what exactly was going on with the lyric, saying that he sought and attained approval from both his wife, Kim Kardashian, and apparently Taylor herself.

"I did not diss Taylor Swift and I’ve never dissed her …  First thing is I’m an artist and as an artist I will express how I feel with no censorship. ...  2nd thing I asked my wife  for her blessings and she was cool with it.  ...  3rd thing I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings. "

He then compared the expletive he used in the song to describe Taylor to the 'n word,' saying it "is an endearing term in hip hop" like the 'n word' is. He also claimed that the "I made that (expletive) famous" part of the lyric was Taylor's idea.

"5th thing I’m not even gone take credit for the idea … it’s actually something Taylor came up with … She was having dinner with one of our friends who’s (sic) name I will keep out of this and she told him I can’t be mad at Kanye because he made me famous!  #FACTS"

However, Swift's representative Tree Paine sent the following statement to USA TODAY on her behalf:

"Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single Famous on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, 'I made that (expletive) famous.'"

Kanye went on in the same series of tweets to discuss art more generally, and to ask that people "stop trying to demonize real artist."

"Stop trying to compromise art. That’s why music is so (expletive) watered down right now. I miss that DMX feeling. ... I miss that feeling  so that’s what I want to help restore. ... They want to control us with money and perception and mute the culture. ... but you can see at Madison Square Garden that you can stop us ... It felt like a seen (sic) from The Warriors ALL GODS ALL GODS ALL GODS in the buildin (sic). not just the famous people there but the kids the moms the dads the families that came to share this moment with us."

You can scroll through Kanye's entire series of tweets below.

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