Did Taylor Swift Hear Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ Before Its Release?

Despite a representative for Taylor Swift claiming that Taylor had not heard and was “unaware” Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo track “Famous” prior to its big release, a number of sources are now alleging that that’s not actually true.

TMZ’s Van Lathan recently appeared on The Brilliant Idiots podcast alongside Charlamagne Tha God and Andrew Schultz, where he confirmed West’s earlier report that he had in fact phoned Taylor ahead of the song’s release to discuss the track.

“Kanye’s absolutely right when he said he called Taylor. They spoke about it for a f***ing hour,” he said, claiming that he knows that to be true. “After there was gonna be a commotion Taylor was supposed to come out and be like ‘The joke’s on you!'”

Producer Kenny Elrich also recently alleged that Taylor Swift had, in fact, heard the track prior to West’s listening party at his Balmain New York Fashion Week fashion show in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“[Taylor] came in a couple of weeks ago and she had an advance of the track, so she commented on it in a very funny way,” Elrich told Entertainment Tonight last week, adding that he thinks Swift is “smart.”

But despite his earlier claims, Ken is now retracting his previous statement and claiming that he “misunderstood” what Taylor said when she spoke to him regarding West’s song.

“Regarding my statement at the Grammys about Taylor, I misunderstood what she had told me,” Ken said in a statement according to Perez Hilton. “Under the pressure of rehearsals, rather than say that [Swift] was aware of the song, I said she had heard a track when in fact she had not and what she said to me didn’t imply that at all.”

The reports come after a representative for Taylor revealed following the song’s release that Swift was “unaware” of the song’s message and Kanye’s only call to Swift came to ask her to release the song on her own social media accounts.

“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single “Famous” on her Twitter account,” Swift’s representative revealed. “She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that b***h famous’.”

However, Kanye West is telling a different story. Taking to Twitter after “Famous” hit the headlines, West claimed on the site that he did, in fact, call Swift and had an hour long conversation with her about the song.

Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West: A beef history from "I'mma let you finish" to Taylor's 2016 Grammy shade https://t.co/0tK3CPYQ2E

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 22, 2016

“I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings,” Kanye West wrote of Swift, before even claiming that the whole idea was actually the “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” singer’s idea to begin with.

“I’m not even gone take credit for the idea… it’s actually something Taylor came up with,” West tweeted out, “She was having dinner with one of our friends who’s name I will keep out of this and she told him… ‘I can’t be mad at Kanye because he made me famous!’ #FACTS.”

Although Taylor hasn’t explicitly spoken about this diss, she did appear to slam Kanye West and his claims while accepting the award for Album of the Year for 1989 at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards last week.

“And as the first woman to win Album of the Year twice, I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments and your fame,” Swift said at the big awards show.

“But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people side track you, some day when you get where you’re going,” Swift continued, “you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”

Do you think Taylor Swift had heard “Famous” before it hit the headlines?

[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS]