How Jay-Z helped Kanye West and Taylor Swift bury their issues
One of the most controversial award show moments of all time went down at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 when Kanye West invaded the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. Swift won the award for Best Female Video with ‘You Belong With Me’, but her elation was quickly dampened by Ye.
“Thank you so much!” 19-year-old Swift said on stage. “I always dreamed about what it would be like to maybe win one of these some day, but I never actually thought it would have happened. I sing country music so thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award.”
Kanye West wasn’t happy with the decision and took things into his own hands, interrupting her speech to tell the world that he thought Beyoncé should have won with ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’. “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” he said to the audience’s shock.
Rolling Stone reported that sources told them Swift was “hysterically crying” backstage after Kanye’s comments. Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump also claimed, “I’m assuming based on the amount of Hennessey I saw [West] drink that he was not all there.”
After three public apologies, Ye reportedly apologised to her in private in 2009, according to Swift’s representatives, which she accepted. He had a brief hiatus from music and returned in 2010 with his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album.
West and Swift were able to mend their relationship partly due to Jay-Z. Hov, who has now known Kanye for over two decades, wanted to be friends with both of them. This led to Swift and Ye being on mutual terms. “I feel like I wasn’t ready to be friends with him until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn’t ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me—so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time,” she told Vanity Fair in 2015.
The singer continued: “I became friends with Jay-Z, and I think it was important, for Jay-Z, for Kanye and I to get along. It started with both of us really liking Jay and wanting him to be happy. And then Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music and what I’ve accomplished, and I could ask him how his kid’s doing.”
She also admitted that she “wouldn’t rule out” a collaboration between them. “We haven’t planned anything,” she said. “But, hey, I like him as a person. And that’s a really good, nice first step, a nice place for us to be.” She added about Kim Kardashian, who was his wife at the time, “I love Kim. She’s the sweetest. She’s just a really sweet, kind, warm person.”
However, Ye controversially mentioned Swift on ‘Famous’ from 2016’s The Life of Pablo album, rapping, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous.” He also depicted her in the music video in the form of a wax figure. West claimed he received her approval for the lyric, which she denied, calling the lyric “misogynistic.”