The groundwork for the single was laid during the volatile summer of 2016. Kanye West released the track "Famous," featuring explicit lyrics claiming he made Swift famous. West asserted Swift had approved the lyric during an hour-long phone conversation. Swift's representatives swiftly denied that she had consented to being called derogatory terms or claimed as West's creation. Months later, Kim Kardashian published selectively edited snippets of that phone recording on Snapchat, unleashing a coordinated social media campaign that flooded Swift's accounts with snake emojis.
Swift withdrew from the public eye for an entire year. During that isolation, she wrote and recorded the Reputation album. When "Look What You Made Me Do" debuted, it did not play defense. Swift embraced the villainous caricature imposed on her, weaponizing the venom that had previously sent her into hiding. The song reads as an itemized receipt for private betrayals played out on public stages.
