Taylor Swift's "Midnights" Addresses Some Big Celebrity FeudsReporting To YouSign In

In Midnights Taylor Swift Is Seemingly Out For Revenge Against The Celebs Involved In Some Of Her Most Famous Feuds

"Now she gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride, picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife."By by Ellie WoodwardBuzzFeed StaffPosted on October 21, 2022, 10:59 amTwitterFacebookLink

Happy Midnights day to one and all

Amy Sussman / Getty Images

In case you ve been living under a rock for the last few months you ll know that Taylor Swift has released her 10th studio album Midnights today And yes it s already a masterpiece

View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @taylorswift

In fact she not only blessed us with 13 songs at midnight but also dropped a further seven just three hours later meaning we now have 20 new songs to become obsessed with

View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @taylorswift

In the run-up to its release Taylor revealed that the album had been inspired by sleepless nights across her life and one of its core themes is fantasizing over revenge

Terry Wyatt / Getty Images

And the revenge theme does indeed come out in force on the album with several songs appearing to reference some of her most famous feuds with Scott Borchetta Scooter Braun Karlie Kloss and maybe even Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

Kevin Mazur / WireImage

It needs to be pointed out however that lyrical interpretation is subjective and therefore we can t be 100% certain of who any of the songs are about This story is the result of piecing together public knowledge with themes that have appeared consistently across Taylor s work So let s get into it

Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images

The first song that appears to be about two of the most devastating feuds in her life is track 11 Karma which opens with what seems to be a reference to Karlie Kloss

Kevin Mazur / WireImage

For those who don t know Taylor and Karlie were completely inseparable BFFs between 2014-2016 However their friendship completely fell apart around the same time as the demise of Taylor s ~reputation~ at the end of 2016

Tim P. Whitby / Getty Images

At the time neither Taylor nor Karlie addressed the rumors of a feud However two years later reports emerged suggesting that Karlie had leaked private information about Taylor to her manager Scooter Braun who Taylor has since described as her nemesis

instagram.com

And this was seemingly corroborated on Taylor s 2020 track It s Time to Go In this song Taylor sings When the words of a sister come back in whispers That prove she was not in fact what she seems Not a twin from your dreams She s a crook who got caught

genius.com

The reference to sisters and twins — something the pair were constantly described as throughout their friendship — as well as a crook being caught saying things behind her back seemed to point pretty heavily toward Karlie

James Devaney / GC Images

Taylor seemed to continue to reference her fallout with Karlie in Closure released five months later which reflected on her lack of desire to reconnect with a person who had betrayed her

genius.com

And the feud appears to come up again in Karma This song opens with a reference to a person talking shit for the hell of it which again connects back to the reports that Karlie was spreading gossip about Taylor behind her back

genius.com

The lyric goes on to accuse the subject of being addicted to betrayal in order to stay relevant This not only appears to once again acknowledge the betrayal Taylor felt at the hands of someone she trusted but could also be considered an acknowledgment of the way Karlie was accused of using her friendship with Taylor for relevancy — both at the time and long after it was over

Alo Ceballos / GC Images

For example she continued to reference Taylor in interviews including her 73 Questions for Vogue in 2018 where she insisted they were very much still friends despite Taylor signaling that they were done the year prior

Vogue

Later in the song Taylor appears to reference her feud with former record label boss Scott Borchetta

Kevin Mazur / WireImage

Taylor and Scott had worked closely together for 15 years after she was signed to his record label Big Machine Records when she was just 14 The singer has since admitted that she considered Scott family

Frederick Breedon Iv / Getty Images for ACM

However the pair s relationship imploded when at the end of her contract Scott refused to give Taylor the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums Instead he gave her the option to sign a new contract and essentially earn the rights to one old album for every new one she released He also refused to sell the masters directly to Taylor

Rick Diamond / Getty Images for ACM

Taylor knew that Scott would sell the label once she signed a new contract so she decided to walk away Scott then brokered a $300 million deal selling the label and her masters to Scooter Braun — something Taylor described as her worst-case scenario after claiming Scooter had bullied and manipulated her for years

Emma Mcintyre / WireImage,

Taylor has since said Scott s actions redefined her understanding of betrayal She has explored this in songs including My Tears Ricochet and It s Time to Go

Arturo Holmes / FilmMagic

In My Tears Ricochet Taylor reflects on feeling as though her entire life s work had been robbed from her by Scott s actions describing her masters as stolen lullabies

genius.com

In It s Time to Go Taylor focuses heavily on Scott s greed This is something she also reflected on in an interview after the deal with Scooter was made public where she described feeling like a prized calf that he was fattening up to sell to the slaughterhouse that would pay the most

genius.com

And both themes reappear in Karma with Taylor appearing to describe Scott as a king of thieves who s made her pennies his crown

genius.com

She goes on to suggest that he should be wary of prioritizing only wealth and financial greed and that he ll come to regret tricking her and losing her in his life both personally and professionally

Denise Truscello / WireImage

It s also interesting to note that Karma follows the exact same structure as It s Time to Go with Karlie seemingly being called out in the first verse and Scott appearing in the second

Terry Wyatt / Getty Images

It s arguable that elsewhere on the album Taylor also mentions her infamous feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West who legally changed his first name to Ye

Lars Niki / Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards

I m sure you re well versed in the details of this feud but the abridged version goes something like this Back in 2016 Ye released his song Famous which included the lyric I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex Why I made that bitch famous While he insisted that Taylor had known and approved of the lyric in advance her publicist maintained that Taylor never knew she d be referred to as that bitch

Ian West - Pa Images / PA Images via Getty Images

Just a few months later Kim Kardashian posted a video showing a phone call between Ye and Taylor where they discussed the song and she apparently gave approval It did not however show him telling her about the I made that bitch famous line

Marc Piasecki / WireImage

After the release of the video #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty began trending worldwide and she retreated from the public eye completely for over a year

Catherine Powell / Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global

Taylor has referenced the feud in numerous songs including This Is Why We Can t Have Nice Things Call it What You Want and Evermore

genius.com

But it appears to crop back up again in Midnight s Vigilante Shit which is hyperfixated on seeking revenge — a concept she s spoken and sung about at length in relation to what went down with Kimye

Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Big Machine Records

Before we get into it it s worth noting that since Folklore and Evermore Taylor has increasingly explored songwriting from the perspective of fictional characters And this song may be another example of that with Taylor exploring relationship dynamics that she s not a part of But it s also compelling to read it through the lens of the Kimye feud

View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @taylorswift

In one verse Taylor describes a wife needing cold hard proof which she supplies While some interpret this as relating to an affair others think it could be a metaphor for Kim needing proof in order to destroy Taylor s reputation This was supplied by the singer answering Ye s phone call that day — something she s since said she regrets deeply

genius.com

This notion echoes a line from 2020 s Mad Woman in which Taylor appears to suggest that Kim did Ye s dirtiest work for him by leaking the audio

genius.com

In Vigilante Shit Taylor goes on to reference a divorce between the two subjects of the song with the ex-wife getting the house kids and pride which connects very strongly to the current situation between Kim and Ye

Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images

However others are reading the verse very differently Some think it s about Scooter Braun who as you know Taylor actively despises Incidentally Scooter also recently split from his wife of seven years Yael Cohen Braun amid reports of infidelity

Jc Olivera / Getty Images

Some fans are theorizing that Taylor was involved in helping expose Scooter to Yael while others are interpreting the lyric as her simply fantasizing over contributing to his demise

Emma Mcintyre / WireImage,

This wouldn t be the first time Taylor has seemingly referenced Scooter and Yael in her work 2020 s Mad Woman also alluded to infidelity while she was raging over the Big Machine deal

genius.com

That s it for now but if we notice any more lyrical references we ll be sure to keep you updated

Midnights and Midnights 3am Edition are both available to listen to now

More on this

Taylor Swift Has Spent 16 Years Burying Intimate Details About Other Celebrities In Her Music. Here’s Everything She’s Taught Us So Far. Stephanie Soteriou · Oct. 21, 2022 Surprise! Taylor Swift Just Dropped 7 Extra Tracks 3 Hours After Her “Midnights” Album Release Like The Chaotic Queen She Is Leyla Mohammed · Oct. 21, 2022 Taylor Swift Is The Queen Of Easter Eggs And Hidden Messages. Here’s Everything That Fans Have Theorized About “Midnights” So Far. Stephanie Soteriou · Aug. 31, 2022

Topics in this article

Taylor SwiftKim KardashianKanye West Ellie WoodwardBuzzFeed Staff Ellie Woodward is a deputy news director for BuzzFeed News and is based in London. Contact Ellie Woodward at ellie.woodward@buzzfeed.com. Got a confidential tip? Submit it here

incoming

Your weekday morning guide to breaking news, cultural analysis, and everything in betweenThis site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.