When Kanye West stole the mic from Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs, an inextricable cosmic bond was formed between two seemingly diametrically opposed artists. It made the phrase "Imma let you finish" a permanent part of the popular lexicon. It gave Swift years of persecution complex mileage. Now, more than five years later, it appears that bond will manifest itself the way it perhaps was always destined to: a hot collabo.
This morning on On Air With Ryan Seacrest, West announced that he and Swift would be collaborating musically. "She wants to get in the studio and we’re definitely going to go in," West told Seacrest. "Any artist with an amazing point of view, perspective, fan base, I’m down to get in the studio and work." Kanye didn't elaborate too much on the whens or hows — his upcoming 2015 album is reportedly finished, but without an official release date there may be time to sneak a bonus track or two on there.
In the interview, West also discussed his feigned mic-grab from Beck at the Grammys this past week (itself a re-memeing of his VMAs moment with Swift) — "It was kind of a joke, like the Grammys themselves." Boom.
Cultural context aside, it's a little hard to imagine what the pairing of Swift and West would yield sonically. But then, we might have said the same thing about Sir Paul McCartney a few months ago, and look how that turned out. Still, it's going to be awfully hard to make this (whatever "this" is) transcend its gimmicky premise. (The music video is an easier proposition. Close your eyes and you can already see Swift and her ballerina girl gang dancing too enthusiastically behind an unsmiling 'Ye.)
Regardless of the outcome, it's nice to see these two kids burying the hatchet. We've come a long way from 2009.