Entertainment

The Original "Famous" Lyrics Were Much Worse

by Maitri Suhas

Kanye West's song "Famous" from The Life of Pablo has turned into the kind of spectacle I suspect he always wanted. Just as notorious as the song is the Snapchat Kim Kardashian posted of Taylor Swift giving West the go-ahead to use the lyric "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex." There's also the bizarre "Famous" video that uses wax-figure likenesses of 12 extremely famous celebrities, including Taylor Swift and West's ex Amber Rose. And now, "Famous" is generating more controversy: The original version of Kanye West's "Famous" leaked online on Thursday night, and they're even more potentially offensive than the current version, namedropping not only Swift but also Rose, and thank god West caught himself before he went ahead with this version. (Or maybe someone else told him, "Hey, bad idea bro.")

The lyrics of the released version of "Famous" are, as you probably already know by now: "For all my south side n*ggas that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b*tch famous." In the leaked demo version, the original lyrics were: "I feel like Taylor Swift still owe me sex / Why? I made that b*tch famous / I feel like Amber Rose still owe me sex / Why? I made that b*tch famous / Not really, but somewhat famous."

Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Couple huge red flags here: The verb "owe" could be viewed as extremely misogynistic in this context, implying that Swift and Rose should compensate West for his "services" in making them famous by having sex with him. Thankfully, he nixed the word "owe." And he also, thankfully, left Rose out of it, because she's already suffered the fool enough. Rose, who has been a powerful and outspoken anti-slut shaming advocate, has had to hear West tell the media things like he had to "take 30 showers" after being with her.

Rose did not consent, either, to have her likeness included in West's music video for "Famous." In fact, she claims she didn't even get a courtesy phone call about it. In July, on an episode of The Amber Rose Show, she defended her ex against Taylor Swift, but also wanted to know why she didn't get a call to ask her permission or even give her a heads up that her likeness would be in the video. "Why didn’t I get a phone call for using a naked wax figure in your video, Kanye? I mean, Taylor gets a call but I don’t get a call,” she said, going on to ask of Yeezy: “Stay the f*ck out of the news so I don’t have to talk about your ass no more." Bustle has reached out to West's rep for comment on the original lyrics and on Rose's claim that she didn't receive a phone call for approval of the video, but has not yet received a response.

Good thing West didn't go with the original version of the demo, because Rose would have buried him.