Are Taylor Swift's 'thanK you aIMee' and 'Cassandra' About Kim ...
Swifties couldn’t wait for April 19 — the long awaited release date for her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” What Swifties didn’t know, was that the singer would also drop a secret double album, “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” just hours after its initial release.
The 2 a.m. drop brought the release of 15 additional songs, bringing the total to 31 new tracks in a matter of hours. While fans scoured the lyrics for clues about Swift’s exes Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy, they quickly discovered references on two tracks that led them to none other than Kim Kardashian.
Swift and Kardashian have had a long-running feud, and fans were dialed in as soon as they saw the capitalized letters in Swift’s new track “thanK you aIMee,” which spell “KIM.”
Click here for live coverage of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”
More ‘Tortured Poets’ lyrics analysis
The lyrics appear to be about a mean girl at school, but fans honed in on several lines in particular.
“I don’t think you’ve changed much/ And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues,” Swift sings on the track. “And one day, your kid comes home singin’/ A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”
Fans pointed out Kardashian’s oldest daughter North West has posted TikToks about Swift.
Swifties also looked at the lyrics to the 27th song, “Cassandra,” and found possible references to the billionaire owner of Skims, who once referred to Swift with the snake emoji — which later became a defining symbol of the singer’s “Reputation” era.
“So they killed Cassandra first ‘cause she feared the worst/ And tried to tell the town,” Swift sings on “Cassandra.” “So they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say/ Do you believe me now?”
Another part of the song references “the call,” which could be a nod to the phone call Kardashian recorded between her then-husband Kanye West and Swift in 2016.
“I was in my new house placing daydreams/ Patching up the crack along the wall,” Swift sings on “Cassandra.” “I pass it and lose track of what I’m saying/ ‘Cause that’s where I was when I got the call.”
Kardashian released a clip of the recording of their phone call shortly after West released his song “Famous,” which included a line where he posited he was the reason for Swift’s fame. That likely references their run-in at the 2009 VMAs, where he interrupted her acceptance speech for best female video.
“I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” he said, leaving Swift stunned on stage.
After Kardashian released the recording of Swift and West’s conversation, which appeared to show Swift saying she was OK with the line in “Famous,” Swift wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post she was trying to be supportive on the call, but she couldn’t approve a song she hadn’t heard in full.
“Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be part of, since 2009,” she wrote in the post.
Swift’s “Reputation” era began one year later in 2017.
The pop icon addressed the entire incident in her Time Person of the Year profile last year.
“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar,” she said. “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
Kardashian has not commented on the new Swift songs.
Read the full lyrics to both “thanK you aIMee” and “Cassandra” below.
‘thanK you aIMee’ lyrics
When I picture my hometown
There’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you
And a plaque underneath it
That threatens to push me down the stairs, at our school
And it was always the same searing pain
But I dreamed that one day, I could say
All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’
And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel
Screamed “F--- you, Aimee” to the night sky, as the blood was gushin’
But I can’t forget the way you made me heal
And it wasn’t a fair fight, or a clean kill
Each time that Aimee stomped across my gravе
And then she wrote hеadlines
In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I’d take
And it was always the same searing pain
But I prayed that one day, I could say
All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’
And I couldn’t wait to show you it was real
Screamed “F--- you, Aimee” to the night sky, as the blood was gushin’
But I can’t forget the way you made me heal
Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman
But she used to say she wished that you were dead
I pushed each boulder up the hill
Your words are still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head
I wrote a thousand songs that you find uncool
I built a legacy which you can’t undo
But when I count the scars, there’s a moment of truth
That there wouldn’t be this, if there hadn’t been you
And maybe you’ve reframed it
And in your mind, you never beat my spirit black and blue
I don’t think you’ve changed much
And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues
And one day, your kid comes home singin’
A song that only us two is gonna know is about you, ‘cause
All that time you were throwin’ punches, it was all for nothin’
And our town, it looks so small, from way up here
Screamed “Thank you, Aimee” to the night sky, and the stars are stunnin’
‘Cause I can’t forget the way you made me heal
Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman
But she used to say she wished that you were dead
So I pushed each boulder up that hill
Your words were still just ringin’ in my head, ringin’ in my head
Thank you, Aimee
Thank you, Aimee
‘Cassandra’ lyrics
I was in my new house placing daydreams
Patching up the crack along the wall
I pass it and lose track of what I’m saying
‘Cause that’s where I was when I got the call
When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screaming
In the streets, there’s a raging riot
When it’s “Burn the b----,“ they’re shrieking
When the truth comes out, it’s quiet
So, they killed Cassandra first ‘cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
I was in my tower weaving nightmares
Twisting all my smiles into snarls
They say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you aware”
What happens if it becomes who you are?
So, they killed Cassandra first ‘cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they set my life in flames, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time
That I was onto something
The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line
They all said nothing
Blood’s thick but nothing like a payroll
Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul
You can mark my words that I said it first
In a morning warning, no one heard
I patched up the crack along the wall
I pass it and lose track of what I’m saying
‘Cause that’s where I was when I lost it all
So, they killed Cassandra first ‘cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
I was onto something
They all said nothing
Blood’s thick but nothing like a payroll
Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul
You can mark my words that I said it first
In a morning warning, no one heard
No one heard, not a single word was heard
When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screaming
In the streets, there’s a raging riot
When it’s “Burn the b----,” they’re shrieking
When the truth comes out, it’s quiet
It’s so quiet