Fans observed Friday that Taylor Swift's Reputation release date falls on November 10th, a date that happens to be the tenth anniversary of the death of Kanye West's mother Donda West. According to a source close to the release tapped by Complex, this is merely an unfortunate coincidence.
"It is standard practice that releases come out on Fridays and we locked in this release date based on other Universal Music Group releases," the source stated. "There is no correlation."
The perceived connection was brought up due to the release of Taylor Swift's new single "Look What You Made Me Do," which appears to take aim at Kanye. "I don't like your little games / Don't like your tilted stage / The role you made me play / Of the fool, no, I don't like you," she sings in the opening lines.
Taylor and Kanye have had a turbulent relationship since the infamous 2009 VMA moment in which West interrupted the singer's acceptance speech. Most recently, the two clashed over a line from West's 2016 single "Famous" in which he raps "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous." Following Swift's public denouncement of the line, Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian shared a recording on Snapchat which revealed Taylor giving at least part of the line the green light ahead of the release.
While their issues seem to be far from over, it is reassuring to hear that Swift did not intentionally choose Donda's death anniversary as her album release date. So far, Kanye has not responded to the perceived digs at him in "Look What You Made Me Do," and Taylor has not confirmed him as a target either. However, the tilted stage line does seem like a very obvious reference to the floating platform 'Ye used on his Saint Pablo tour last year.
Swift is set to perform at this Sunday's MTV VMAs. Though Kanye will not be in attendance, another artist in which she's feuded with the past, Katy Perry, is set to host. Taylor's video for the single will be released following the show. Meanwhile, Kanye is said to be working on a new collaborative project with Kid Cudi, as well as his next solo album.