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Kanye West claims Taylor Swift okayed his controversial line about her

Kanye West claims Taylor Swift okayed his controversial line about her

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Oh boy, here we go again

By Jamieson Cox

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Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

When Kanye West premiered his new album The Life of Pablo at Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon, one line seemed to jump out of the stadium and onto computer screens around the world. It's part of "Famous," a clanging, dense new track: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous." It's a reference to Taylor Swift, of course, and their long-running, complicated relationship. He interrupted her at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards! She wrote a song about it! They reconciled in public last year! It's all a little messy, and it's getting much worse.

It's unclear whether or not Swift had a chance to look at the lyric before West released the song, and reports are conflicting. TMZ says she reviewed it and approved it; The New York Times' music critic Jon Caramanica shared a statement from Swift's spokesperson that condemned the misogyny. West himself is taking to Twitter right now to defend the song and argue on behalf of "real artists," whatever that means. It should be noted that this is just the latest in a string of misogynistic mishaps that have tarred the release of The Life of Pablo. In a similar Twitter spat with Wiz Khalifa a few weeks ago, West went out of his way to criticize ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, the model and activist who has a child with Khalifa; earlier this week, he went on the record defending Bill Cosby's innocence on the same platform. Here's Kanye's tweeted statement in full.

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