
Reputation (Taylor's Version)
Incomplete
Then came the breaking point: in 2016, rapper Kanye West released a song with vulgar lyrics about Taylor, claiming she had approved them. Taylor denied it. His then-wife, Kim Kardashian, later posted a selectively edited video of a phone call that appeared to show Taylor giving her blessing. The scandal ignited a media frenzy. Suddenly, she was branded a snake, a symbol that would come to define this chapter of her life.
“I had all the hyenas climb on and take their shots,” she said. “Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me.” For Taylor, it felt like a professional death. It was one of the darkest moments of her public life:
«You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.»
Taylor Swift
Table of Contents
Background
In June 2019, American businessman Scooter Braun, through his company Ithaca Holdings, acquired Big Machine Label Group—and with it, the master recordings of Taylor’s first six studio albums, including reputation. Taylor immediately denounced the acquisition, citing a lack of transparency and her strong disapproval of Braun. In response, she announced her intention to re-record those six albums in order to reclaim ownership of her work.
In November 2020, Braun sold the masters to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity firm backed by the Disney estate. However, the deal allowed Braun and Ithaca Holdings to continue profiting from the catalog—a condition Taylor opposed. That same month, she officially began the process of re-recording her first six studio albums.
Teasers
«It’s a goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure. I think a lot of people see it and they’re just like, 'Sick snakes and strobe lights.' [...] I’m collecting horcruxes. I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now.»
Taylor Swift
Gaining Ownership of All Her Music
Naturally, fans wondered what this meant for her re-recording project. In a public statement released on May 30, 2025, Taylor explained that she had delayed work on Reputation (Taylor’s Version) multiple times due to two key reasons. First, she found it emotionally difficult to revisit the era, having previously described it as the “lowest point” in her life and admitting that every attempt to re-record the material led her to an emotional “stopping point.” Second, she expressed that she did not feel she could improve upon the original recordings, which were created in the midst of intense personal turmoil and with a specific creative urgency that, she noted, could not be replicated. As a result, by 2025, Taylor had completed less than a quarter of the re-recording. She detailed:
«I know, I know. What about Rep TV? Full transparency. I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. The reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch. [...] But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.»
Taylor Swift
Although the full re-recorded reputation album will likely never be released, Taylor did indicate that she is open to releasing its vault tracks—previously unreleased songs written during the reputation era. However, she did not confirm a timeline or format for their potential release.
Artist | Taylor Swift | ||
---|---|---|---|
Released | Unconfirmed | ||
Recorded | 2022-2025 | ||
Studio | Unconfirmed | ||
Genre | Electro Pop | ||
Length | Unconfirmed | ||
Label | Republic Records | ||
Producer | Taylor Swift | ||
TAYLOR SWIFT CHRONOLOGY | |||
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TAYLOR'S VERSION
- 1. ...Ready For It?
- 2. End Game
- 3. I Did Something Bad
- 4. Don't Blame Me
- 5. Delicate
- 6. Look What You Made Me Do
- 7. So It Goes...
- 8. Gorgeous
- 9. Getaway Car
- 10. King of My Heart
- 11. Dancing With Our Hands Tied
- 12. Dress
- 13. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
- 14. Call It What You Want
- 15. New Year's Day