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As fans, journalists and critics all try to scramble to decode all 31 tracks on Taylor Swift’s newly-released (surprise!) double album The Tortured Poets Department, there seems to be a consensus that one particular track is about Kanye West.
While it’s not hard to see that that Swift’s “thanK you aIMee” appears to be a direct reference to Kim Kardashian, West’s ex-wife and co-conspirator in the “Famous” phone call drama — her name is literally in all caps in the song title — it’s “Cassandra” that also seems to hint at the same drama, this time with more of West’s involvement.
In the first verse of the song, Swift sings about moving into her “new house,” which is where she was “when she got the call” — a line that seemingly refers to West’s 2016 phone call to Swift, in which he asked for permission to use her name in his song “Famous.” (Swift agreed on the phone call, which Kardashian recorded and subsequently released — though Swift later pointed out that she never approved of West’s use to refer to her as a “b****” on the track.)
“When it’s ‘Burn the b****,’ they’re shrieking / When the truth comes out, it’s quiet,” she sings on the chorus of the song.
Swift also seems to refer to the whole Kardashian family as well as the Sunday services West started.
“They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time / That I was onto somethin’ / The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line,” she sings on the bridge. “They all said nothin’ / Blood’s thick, but nothin’ like a payroll / Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul.”
Fans immediately picked up on the clues in the song.
Larry Busacca/Getty Images
“Cassandra about the 2016 kanye drama and how when the true phone call leaked nobody except swifties talked about it because they only cared about burning her, in this essay i will,” tweeted one social media user.
“Cassandra is so sad because when kanye and kim were spreading lies about her everybody was ready to burn her alive and when real clip came out confirming she was telling the truth everybody pretended nothing happened and no one apologized,” another wrote via X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Cassandra sounds like a reflection on the kim/kanye reputation attack (and calling out the rest of the kardashian clan for staying quiet!)” a third person commented.
A fourth person even delved into the Greek mythology of it all. Cassandra, “literally ‘she who entangles men,'” according to the Brooklyn Museum, “was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy. The god Apollo, enamored of her, granted her the power of prophecy but, when she rejected him, sabotaged that power with a curse that no one would believe her predictions.”
That X user analyzed that the song is “all about Kanye/the kardashians/the phone call. Cassandra was the princess of Troy in Greek mythology and she was also a prophetess. Taylor=Cassandra, she tried to tell the world that Kanye and Kim put out a fake video but the world decided not to believe her (comments).”
Of course, Swift is thought to have written numerous songs about the West throughout the years, including Speak Now‘s “Innocent” (after the infamous snafu at the 2009 MTV VMAs), as well as multiple tracks from Reputation, like “Look What You Made Me Do” and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.