Taylor Swift beats Kanye West to No. 1 on the Billboard 200

Taylor Swift earned another week at No. 1 and victory Kanye West in the system.

Swift’s Ministry of Victimized Poets celebrates its 14th week atop the Billboard 200 album chart, Billboard reported on Sunday, August 11. TTPD moved another 142,000 equivalent album units to retain the top spot on the August 17 chart.

West, 47, should settle for number two on the new Billboard 200. Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 2debuted at No. 2 on the chart with 107,000 equivalent album units. Ye’s 13th album reaches the top two, though it’s not a bad move for the rapper, who has scored 11 so far. (He and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 topped the chart in February.)

Of course, there has long been bad blood between Swift, 34, and West, who dumped both Swift and her boyfriend, Travis Kelceon his new record.

Related: All Records Taylor Swift’s ‘TTPD’ Has Broken So Far

Taylor Swift continues her record-breaking season with the release of Ministry of Victimized Poets. Swift, 34, released her 11th album on April 19, and it quickly began breaking sales and streaming records left and right. TTPD collected the equivalent of 2.6 million album sales in its first week of release, with […]

“I twist my Taylor spliffs tight like Travis Kelce,” West raps on the song “Lifestyle (Demo),” making a play on Swift’s name and Kelce’s NFL status.

Neither Swift nor Kelce have publicly acknowledged the West reference, but Kelce’s father, Ed KelceHe was not happy with what was said. “Mental illness is rampant,” Ed wrote on Facebook on Thursday, August 8, retweeting a Daily Mail article about voice.

Swift and West’s history with each other goes back to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video and announced that. Beyoncé should have won instead. (Swift won the award for the video for “You Belong With Me”, beating out Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It.”)

The couple appeared to make up after that, but the controversy reignited in 2016 when West name-checked Swift in her song “Famous.” He rapped, “I feel like Taylor and I might have sex / I made this bitch famous.” West said he wanted Swift’s permission to wear the line, which he denied.

Things came to a head when West’s ex-wife at the time Kim Kardashian shared an edited clip of a phone call between West and Swift that Kardashian said corroborates her account.

Swift described the incident as a “death on the job,” he said TIME in December 2023, “Make no mistake—my job robbed me.”

“You have a completely done frame job, on an illegally recorded phone call, that Kim Kardashian edited and then put everyone on the line that I was lying,” Swift said. “That took me mentally to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to another country. I didn’t leave the rental house for a year. I was afraid of getting phone calls. I pushed many people away from my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”