Kanye West Was Speechless When Jay Leno Asked What His Late Mom Would've Said About His Taylor Swift

April 2024 · 7 minute read

Highlights

In 2009, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift on the MTV VMAs stage while she was expressing her gratitude for winning the Best Female Video award for You Belong with Me. West grabbed the microphone from the singer, who was just 19 at that time, and ranted about how Beyoncé's Single Ladies was "one of the best videos of all time."

Even Queen Bey was shocked. After the rapper was kicked out, the Renaissance artist used her Video of the Year win to bring back Swift on stage and let her finish her speech. Two days after the incident and after being called a "jacka**" by Barack Obama, Ye went on The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno to talk about the incident.

During the interview, the controversial Yeezy founder struggled to respond when the host asked him what his mom Donda West, who died in 2007, would have said about his behavior.

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Kanye West Apologized To Taylor Swift On Jay Leno's Show In 2009

On September 14, 2009, Leno welcomed West to the show after telling the audience that the hip-hop artist "wanted to talk" at the "last minute" before his live performance of Run This Town alongside Rihanna and Jay-Z. When asked if he had a tough day, a remorseful Ye responded: "Yeah, it's been extremely difficult. Just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away from a talented artist."

In a typical celebrity apology, the father of four prefaced his regret by saying he only "wanted to help people" and that his "entire life, I only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right." Before expressing his desire to apologize to Swift in person, he admitted: "I immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong, and it wasn't a spectacle [...] It's actually someone's emotions, you know, that I stepped on. It was rude."

Leno went on to ask what West's mom would have said about the scandal. The latter was speechless. The host followed up, "Would she be disappointed in this? Would she give you a lecture?," to which the Heartless performer replied: "Yeah, you know, obviously, I deal with hurt and so many celebrities they never take the time off and I've never taken the time off to [grieve]."

Holding back his tears, West said that he kept himself distracted, working on "music after music." Relating his loss to his VMAs meltdown, he said he was "ashamed my hurt caused someone else's hurt." He clarified that he wasn't trying to justify his actions but that it made him realize he needs to "take some time off and just analyze how I'm gonna make it through the rest of this life."

Leno noticed West struggling to answer further as he choked on his tears, so he wrapped the chat and thanked him for doing the interview. However, it wasn't until 2015 that the Bound 2 rapper finally patched things up with the Love Story songstress.

Here's a timeline of their brief truce.

February 8, 2015

West and Swift posed for photographs together at the Grammys.

August 30, 2015

Swift introduced West for his Video Vanguard Life-Achievement Award at the VMAs.

September 2015

Swift referred to West as her "BFF" after he sent her a huge block of white roses.

September 2015

Swift revealed she became friends with West after getting close to their mutual pal, Jay-Z.

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Kanye West And Taylor Swift Feuded Again In 2016

On February 11, 2016, West reignited his feud with Swift during the launch of Yeezy Season 3 in New York City. During the fashion show, he played his new album The Life of Pablo which featured the song Famous where he raps: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that b*tch famous."

The very next day, a rep for the Lavender Haze singer said that "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 b*tch famous.'"

In June that year, West's then-wife Kim Kardashian joined in on the drama, arguing that Swift "totally knew that that was coming out" on her first-ever GQ cover. It got worse shortly after the rapper released a music video showing a nude wax figure of Swift and other celebrities including Kardashian and Donald Trump.

Here's how it all went downhill from there:

July 14, 2016

Kardashian accused Swift of "playing the victim" on Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

July 17, 2016

Kardashian leaked a video of West and Swift agreeing on the song via Snapchat.

July 17, 2016

Swift wrote on Instagram that she never agreed on being called a "b*tch" and that she'd "very much like to be excluded from this narrative."

August 4, 2017

Swift dropped her diss track Look What You Made Me Do with a video full of Ye references.

September 18, 2019

Swift finally shared her side, calling West "two-faced."

March 20, 2020

Someone released West and Swift's full phone call, proving that he didn't ask approval for the infamous lyric.

March 23, 2020

Kardashian denied "editing the footage" and called Swift "self-serving" after saying the leaked call proves she was "framed."

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Kanye West & Taylor Swift May Still Be Feuding In 2023

Kardashian's response to the leaked phone call in 2020 was the last time fans would hear from her and Ye's side of the feud. But this year, it seems like Swift is still relishing her win as she continues to perform her Ye diss tracks from her Reputation album during her Eras tour.

On one of the shows, she sang This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things which she hadn't performed since her 2018 Reputation tour. In the recent, performance she laughed after singing, "And here's to you, 'cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do."

Taylor Swift is reportedly earning $10-$13 million each stop of the Eras tour, adding to her massive $1.1 billion net worth .

Even her 2022 album, Midnights seems to be throwing shade at West and Kardashian's messy divorce. In one of the songs in the record titled Vigilante Sh*t, Swift sings: "Now she gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride."

"Picture me, thick as thieves with your ex-wife," the lyric continues. "And she looks so pretty, driving in your Benz, lately she's been dressing for revenge." Fans are convinced it's a reference to the long-running feud. And frankly, so are we.

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