Taylor Swift indirectly criticizes her longstanding feud with Kim Kardashian in a diss track featured on The Tortured Poets Department titled “thanK you aIMee.”
For Taylor Swift, some unresolved animosity is difficult to let go of.
This became evident with the release of her 11th album, which was a surprise double album titled The Tortured Poets Department. In this album, the Grammy winner appears to make a veiled reference to Kim Kardashian, with whom Taylor has had a long-running feud.
The reference comes in the form of a track on the second part of TTPD called “thanK you aIMee.” Notably, the capitalized letters in the title spell out the name KIM. The song then unfolds as an allegorical narration of Taylor and Kim’s history, portraying Taylor as confronting a high school bully.
E! News has reached out to representatives for both Kim and Taylor for comment but has not received a response.
In the first verse, Taylor sings, “When I picture my hometown / There’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you,” hinting at Kim’s presence. She continues, “And a plaque underneath it / That threatens to push me down the stairs, at our school.”
The second verse sees Taylor criticizing the controversies she claims Kim caused with her actions, such as sharing footage of the infamous 2016 phone call between Taylor and Kanye West. Taylor also highlights the difference in their career trajectories at the time.
“And it wasn’t a fair fight, or a clean kill / Each time that Aimee stomped across my grave,” she sings. “And then she wrote headlines / In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I’d take.”
In December, Taylor addressed her mental health during the public fallout with Kim and Kanye. She told TIME, “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. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.”
The song’s lyrics become progressively sharper, with lines like “Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman / But she used to say she wished that you were dead.” Finally, Taylor delivers her most significant blow to the SKIMS founder.
While acknowledging that Kim may have revised their history in her mind, Taylor suggests that Kim hasn’t changed much and explains her motivation for writing the song.
“And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues,” she sings in the bridge. “And one day, your kid comes home singin’ / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”
Despite “thanK you aIMee” primarily detailing the challenges Taylor faced because of “Aimee,” the song also recognizes the growth it spurred in her, hinting at the broader legacy she’s established.
“All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’,” she sings in the chorus. She concludes, “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.”
For more insights and references in The Tortured Poets Department, continue reading.
“Fortnight” (featuring Post Malone): In the album’s first track, Taylor Swift collaborates with Post Malone to depict a “temporary” romance lasting for a fortnight (two weeks).
“I love you, it’s ruining my life,” the lyrics suggest. “I touched you, for only a fortnight.”
The song appears to reference Taylor’s revived romance with The 1975’s Matty Healy, which began in 2014 and rekindled a decade later in spring 2023 following her breakup with Joe Alwyn.
While the revival of Taylor and Matty’s relationship was brief, it was emotionally charged, as indicated by these lyrics.
Taylor described the opening number to iHeartRadio as “fatalistic,” mirroring the rest of the “tragic” album.
“The Tortured Poets Department”: While fans previously noted the connection between the album’s title TTPD and Joe’s WhatsApp group chat named “The Tortured Man Club,” the titular song actually references Matty.
Even the song’s opening line, “You left your typewriter at my apartment,” nods to Matty, who expressed his fondness for typewriters in a 2019 interview with GQ.
Later in the song, the lyrics offer further insight into Taylor and Matty’s profound connection. Taylor reminisces, “At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on. And that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding.”
Taylor’s lyrics also pay tribute to poet Dylan Thomas—”you’re not Dylan Thomas”—and singer-songwriter Patti Smith—”I’m not Patti Smith.” Additionally, there’s a mention of Charlie Puth. “You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.”
“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys“: On the third song of the album, Taylor sings about a partner who destructively handles their relationship.
“Cause I knew too much / There was danger in the heat of my touch,” the lyrics indicate. “Saw forever so he smashed it up.”
Taylor told iHeartRadio that the track serves as a “metaphor from the perspective of a child’s toy,” symbolizing how relationships can deteriorate despite their initial value.
“Down Bad”: In this song, Taylor reflects on being abandoned by a guy she calls her “twin” after feeling deeply attached to him.
“How dare you think it’s romantic / Leaving me safe and stranded,” she sings. “Cause f–k it, I was in love / So f–k you if I can’t have us.”
The use of “stranded” in the lyrics may resonate with Swifties, recalling Taylor’s previous use of the term in the 1989 song “New Romantics”: “Please leave me stranded / It’s so romantic.”
Taylor confessed to iHeartRadio that “Down Bad” equates the idea of being love bombed—a situation where someone dazzles you then abandons you—to an alien abduction. She explained that when the character was “dropped back off” in her hometown, she longed for the other “weird” world she had briefly experienced.
“I’ve just been exposed to a whole different galaxy and universe I didn’t know was possible,” Taylor elaborated. “How can you just put me back where I was before?”
