I think it’s going to take Taylor Swift to make it official: 2024 is the year of the diss track. January ended with a huge bloodbath (and especially a horror show) in between Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion after years of subtle shots between the two. Than Ice herbs and Latto entered the ring, and now, basically any rapper, singer or producer who has worked with Drake, teams up to take him down (Kendrick Lamar, Future, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross and The Weeknd are the most notable Avengers). Amid all this, fans are convinced that Swift has cashed in on the trend, reportedly resurrecting a nearly decade-old complaint by sending shots at Kim Kardashian in a song she called “Thanks, AIMee.â€
Of course, it’s worth noting that Swift has been known to write songs from the perspectives of various fictional characters (particularly from the Folklore from the era afterward), but – if Taylor Nation chatter is anything to go by at the moment – this is very much a case of Taylor addressing Kim directly, 2010’s ‘Better Than Revenge’. Below the song. ‘s spicier lyrics: lines about her mother, “a holy woman,” wishing Aimee “was dead” for “beat”[ing]”Her daughter’s mind is black and blue.” Then, like the movie’s villain who can do nothing to guide us through her twisted plan, Taylor tells us in a bridge of exposition that she… ‘s erased all clues about who she’s actually singing about! Only the two of them will ever know unless, somehow, someone can put it together… Masterful game, ma’am!
Whatever Taylor’s intentions, Swifties have quickly flooded the internet with theories about a drama so old that my Gen-Z colleague, Riann, was initially confused as to why Taylor would disagree with Kim. “I didn’t know they had beef,” she wrote on Slack. ‘Have I been living under a rock?’ No, Riann, it’s the beef that was petrified, and I’m not convinced it had to be dragged back up by means of The department of tortured poets conversation. Diss tracks have to be good, yes, but they also have to be delivered within a calendar decade. If Swift really wants to be in this pool, she should be back in the studio right now, recording a response to Drake mocking Kendrick Lamar rapping “for Swifties” on his own diss track “Push Ups”, released just hours later TTPD. (Drake, of course, references Lamar’s verse on Swift’s reported Katy Perry takedown “Bad Blood” in a sort of diss track mise en abyme.)
While diss tracks may be back in 2024, overall, most of them leave a lot to be desired. We’ve come so far from Nicki’s “Roman’s Revenge,” a classic that will still light up any club floor, or Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon,” a song so powerful it could make its target a more active father. Now it is more often a matter of childish nonsense about nose jobs and spray tans. It speaks volumes that this year’s best diss song has to be Ice Spice’s “Think U the Shit (Fart),” a song so addictive and deliberately stupid that it borders on genius. Perhaps because the genre has become so youthful, North West will respond to Taylor’s supposed call in her upcoming debut album: Early school leaving. In the meantime, I’m convinced J. Cole was right to do that.
