Rapper Kanye West got a bit of victory this week over Taylor Swift, the megastar with whom he’s had a longrunning feud of sorts.
On Sunday, “VULTURES,” the album by West and Ty Dolla $ign, had pushed West to the No. 1 spot on the Daily Top Artist Global chart of the critical Spotify streaming music platform, pushing out Swift from the top position, according to the entertainment website Uproxx.
For West, it might have been a sweet victory of sorts, given what had to be embarrassing publicity surrounding reported efforts by Swift to have West kicked out of the Super Bowl, a story an associate of West has said was false.
West’s post-Super Bowl Spotify thrill didn’t last — Monday and Tuesday Swift had bumped him back to the No. 2 position.
Besides chart jockeying, there’s long been bad blood between the two music stars.
The weekend’s Super Bowl controversy came from allegations by former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall that, knowing cameras would be trained Swift’s way during the game, West had positioned himself to be in the shots.
In retaliation, Marshall said, Swift had West removed from the stadium.
Not true, according to what an anonymous source close to West told the online music magazine HipHopDX, which reported West was repeatedly seen at the stadium, including as late as the third quarter.
West even had a televised commercial during the game which apparently was limited to the Chicago and Miami markets. It was for Yeezy Pod, a sock/shoe.
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But true or false, it’s not the kind of story any high-powered entertainer wants making the rounds, given that the gist of it was that West has to piggyback on Swift’s fame because he’s not attention-getting enough in his own right. No self-respecting celebrity wants that going around, even if it’s not true.
Problems between West and Swift date back as many as 15 years when he stormed on stage to interrupt Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 Video Music Awards when her “You Belong with Me” won for Best Female Video, as Rolling Stone reported at the time.
West took the microphone from Swift’s hand to announce the singer Beyoncé deserved the award instead.
In 2016 West disparaged Swift in song lyrics, according to HipHopDx.
But Swift has taken what the Spanish sports newspaper Marca described as “the high road in their particular rivalry.”
Swift, the paper said, “has never really responded with similar energy” to attacks by West.
Despite the high ranking of West’s latest album, he remains embroiled in controversy regarding accusations of anti-Semitism.
Those accusations caused Adidas to cut ties with him, which West indicated had brought him within two months of bankruptcy, HipHopDX reported.
But the publication also reported that he stirred up the accusations again this week when he said, “Black people can’t be anti-Semitic.”
“We are Jews,” West said Monday, speaking to reporters at Los Angeles International Airport, according to HipHopDX. “You understand what I’m saying? We are Jews.”
Also, because of the allegations of anti-Semitism, singer Ozzy Osbourne has objected to West’s using a sampling of one of his songs.
So the saga of Kanye West — also known as Ye — continues, as he becomes, according to Marca, the first independent artist to hit the top place on Spotify.
