Taylor Swift’s ‘Cassandra’ Lyrics Seemingly Reveal Her True Feelings About Kim Kardashian’s Silence
In Taylor Swift’s December Time interview, the singer touched on how much pain she stills feels about Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat scandal. Her song “Cassandra” from The Tortured Poets Department appears to expand more on it.
For context, in 2020, full footage of the infamous call between Taylor Swift and Kanye West discussing the lyrics of his song “Famous” was released. Kardashian had shared excerpts on Snapchat in 2016 to prove Swift approved his verse, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Those videos led to a massive public backlash against Swift. Swift’s rep, Tree Paine, issued a statement after the Snapchats came out, saying, “Kanye did not call for approval but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account. 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 bitch famous.’”
The full video proved that Swift was never told West planned to use the word “bitch” to describe her. However, Kardashian has never offered a public apology. Instead, she double downed.
In 2020, Kardashian posted on X, then known as Twitter, “To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission...’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission. In her statement when her team said she ‘declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.’ The lie was never about the word bitch, It was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation.”
Swift’s publicist responded to Kardashian on the platform, reposting her original statement. Paine then pointed out that, “when you take parts out, that’s editing.”
I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement. Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing.
P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video? 😂😂😂 https://t.co/AtMGUp3t24 pic.twitter.com/EjGDwAdL6O— Tree Paine (@treepaine) March 24, 2020
Swift brought the scandal back up to Time in December 2023, when she detailed just how traumatizing the ordeal was.
She said, “Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me. You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
Multiple sources told TMZ the day after Swift’s Time interview that Kardashian never reached out to say sorry to her, even after the article was published. The sources said that Swift believes Kardashian and West were in the wrong, and that she was “dumbfounded” when Kardashian maintained her position after the full video’s release.
Swift’s “Cassandra” lyrics seem to paint her feelings even more vividly. Lines like, “When it’s ‘Burn the bitch,’ they’re shrieking / When the truth comes out, it’s quiet,” could stress Swift’s shock and disappointment over Kardashian and West’s silence.
Swift seems to take aim at the Kardashian-Jenner family and their focus on money in the song’s bridge. She calls out hypocrisy, particularly juxtaposed to public displays of Christianity. Swift sings, “They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time / That I was onto somethin’ / The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line / They all said nothin’ / Blood’s thick, but nothin’ like a payroll / Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul / You can mark my words that I said it first / In a morning warning, no one heard.”
So why is the song called “Cassandra”? In Greek mythology, Cassandra is a princess of Troy who receives the gift of prophecy from Apollo—and the curse that no one would believe her. Swift casts herself in that slot.
Swift’s “Cassandra” lyrics allude to the snakes of her Reputation era, Swift’s lessons from that period in her life, and her thoughts on West and Kardashian now. Read them all below:
Verse 1:
I was in my new house placing daydreams
Patching up the crack along the wall
I pass it and lose track of what I’m saying
’Cause that’s where I was when I got the call
Pre-Chorus:
When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screamin’
In the streets, there’s a raging riot
When it’s “Burn the bitch,” they’re shrieking
When the truth comes out, it’s quiet
Chorus:
So, they killed Cassandra first ’cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
Verse 2:
I was in my tower weaving nightmares
Twisting all my smiles into snarls
They say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you aware”
What happens if it becomes who you are?
Chorus:
So, they killed Cassandra first ’cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So they set my life in flames, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
Bridge:
They knew, they knew, they knew the whole time
That I was onto somethin’
The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line
They all said nothin’
Blood’s thick, but nothin’ like a payroll
Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul
You can mark my words that I said it first
In a morning warning, no one heard
Verse 3:
I patched up the crack along the wall
I pass it and lose track of what I’m saying
’Cause that’s where I was when I lost it all
Chorus:
So, they killed Cassandra first ’cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
Bridge:
Ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I was onto somethin’
Ah-ah-ah, ah
They all said nothin’
Blood’s thick but nothin’ like a payroll
Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul
You can mark my words that I said it first
In a morning warning, no one heard
No one heard, not a single word was heard
Outro:
When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screamin’
In the streets, there’s a raging riot
When it’s “Burn the bitch,” they’re shrieking
When the truth comes out, it’s quiet
It’s so quiet
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