At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West jumped up on the stage as Taylor Swift gave her acceptance speech after winning Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me.”
“I sing country music so thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award,” Swift said before West got up, took the microphone from her, and infamously stated, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time.”
It was a hugely viral pop culture moment at the time that sparked a million memes and opened West up to furious criticism for taking a massive moment away from Swift.
But what if he wasn’t upstaging her at all? What if he was literally saving her life?
Kanye West Saved Taylor Swift theory
The recent arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, which he denies, has theories swirling about what the infamous moment actually meant.
A new claim percolating on TikTok posits that West was actually a hero. Despite the incident reportedly leaving Swift “hysterically crying” backstage, some fans are saying that West saved her life.
That theory is based on the idea that Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z, two immensely powerful figures in the music business, have been offing anybody who threatens Beyoncé’s perch at the top of the pyramid. With the help of Diddy.
@jacquedit I felt so sorry for Taylor at the time, but now I realize that Kanye literally saved her life #taylorswift #kanyewest #beyonce #pdiddy #mtv ♬ оригинальный звук – ︎
“Basically if someones more famous than beyonce like alliyah for [example]. P diddy somehow kills them for beyonce . Like beyonce, jay z and p diddy has this friendship and they protect each other,” one poster summed up the theory in a comment on a TikTok highlighting the theory.
The theory also went viral on Instagram, where one reel giving a complete rundown of the theory got nearly 300,000 likes.
“Some people think that the power couple are the reason that Aaliyah, Left Eye, and Michael Jackson are not here anymore,” one woman explained in the reel.
“The theory is that anyone who’s getting more famous than Beyoncé, they had to get rid of.”
Posters points to clips of celebrities like Adele and Lizzo thanking Beyoncé when they win awards as evidence, proof that singers must bow before Bey. In interrupting Swift, West gave Beyonce the credit she deserved for “Single Ladies,” keeping Tay upright.
“They give her a shoutout and then these celebrities don’t get her wrath,” explained the woman in the reel.
Aaliyah was a rising R&B star with huge hits in the late 90s and early 2000s who died in 2001 when she was just 22 in a plane crash. There were no allegations of foul play, but the private jet was overloaded, the pilot had fraudulently obtained his pilot’s license, and a toxicology report found trace amounts of alcohol and cocaine in his system. Left Eye was another big R&B singer at the same time who was in TLC. She died in a car crash in 2002 when she swerved to avoid a truck and a car. She wasn’t wearing a seat belt at the time.
Michael Jackson died of a drug overdose in 2009, but was always more famous than Beyonce. His doctor was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
It’s not the first time, though, Combs has been suspected of rubbing out his enemies in the music world. For years people have wondered about his involvement in the murder of Tupac Shakur. In 2008 and 2009, Shakur’s suspected killer Duane “Keefe D” Davis alleged that Combs had ordered a hit on Shakur and Suge Knight.
Rumors have also swirled about how much Combs knew about Biggie Smalls’ murder. In May this year, Rolling Stone reported that Biggie was planning to leave Combs’ label Bad Boy Records right before he died. A former bodyguard for Combs has also alleged that Combs had some degree of knowledge about the murder.
And prosecutors alleged that Combs orchestrated the firebombing of a convertible back in 2012. The indictment doesn’t name who Combs was targeting, but the facts line up with an incident where Kid Cudi had his car blown up while he was dating one of Combs’ exes.
The J.Cole song “She Knows” is also being cited as proof, because of a lyric that goes “rest in peace to Aaliyah, rest in peace to Left Eye, Michael Jackson I see ya,” with the title also being interpreted as a reference to Beyonce’s last name “Knowles.”
West later apologized for the Swift incident, but his reputation has taken a big hit in recent years after taking an extended slide into conservative politics which culminated with him praising Hitler and making frequent antisemitic comments. Who knows though? Maybe that’s just another way to protect Taylor Swift.
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