Kanye West has hit out at Taylor Swift’s fans after they apparently attempted to block his new music from reaching number one in the US music charts by starting a Beyoncé streaming war.
The rapper’s latest album Vultures 1 is on course to top the Billboard charts and tracks from the record including one titled Carnival look likely to land within the top 10 of next week’s Hot 100.
Not if his long-time nemesis’ loyal fanbase known as the Swifties have anything to do with it however.
They issued an online call to arms to thwart his comeback by helping to push Beyonce‘s latest singles Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages towards the all-genre chart’s top spot.
Not impressed, West took to Instagram to call them out about it on Valentine’s Day.
The Gold Digger hit-maker re-shared a fan post declaring a “Swifty emergency” which detailed their cunning plan.
In the caption of the since-deleted post, the black artist said he was being unfairly targeted and likened people trying to block his music from succeeding to “the mistreatment of my people because of the colour of out skin”.
“Remember, I was on Taylor’s side when Scooter [Braun] bought her masters behind her back,” he told his 19.5 million followers. “She and Beyoncé are big inspirations to all musicians; we always say how both sell out tours and movies. Also, I’m sure I’ve been far more helpful to Taylor Swift’s career than harmful.”
He also once again denied claims that Swift had him kicked out of last weekend’s Super Bowl following reports that he had deliberately bought seats in front of her suite so that he would be shown every time that the camera panned to her as she cheered on NFL player boyfriend Travis Kelce.
“To all Taylor Swift fans, I am not your enemy; I’m not your friend either thought,” he said. “Also, I didn’t get kicked out of the Super Bowl. We left our seats to go to YG’s box and see different friends.”
Bad blood between the two artists has been well-documented, beginning after West famously interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs to suggest Beyoncé should have won the gong instead.
While they had seemingly buried the hatchet by the mid-2010s, things soured again after West referenced Swift on his 2016 single Famous, which featured the lyrics: “For all my Southside n***as that know me best, I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous.”
He, along with then-wife Kim Kardashian, were caught in a war of words with Swift over whether she had approved the lyric before the song was released.
Swift insisted that she had not, issuing a statement saying she would “like to be excluded from this narrative”.
