After saying there wouldn't exactly be a "Bad Blood" response track on her album, Katy Perry released a duet with Nicki Minaj that seems a bit like a "Bad Blood" response track. Both women take aim at their rivals in the lyrics—for Minaj, it's Remy Ma; for Perry, it seems to be Taylor Swift.
Neither woman directly names who she's talking about, but the lyrics make it pretty clear themselves (Perry's are only a tiny bit more veiled than Minaj's). Read them here, via Genius, with Perry's likely Taylor Swift references explained:
Refrain: Fatboy Slim
They know what is what
But they don't know what is what
They just strut
What the fuck?
Verse 1: Katy Perry
A tiger
Don't lose no sleep
Don't need opinions
From a shellfish or a sheep
"Tiger" refers to Perry, whose old music includes "Roar".
Back when the Perry-Swift feud was just beginning, Perry infamously tweeted out "Watch out for a sheep in Regina George's clothing", which fans interpreted to be about Swift.
It was posted a day after Swift's Rolling Stone profile came out, where Swift talked about a frenemy widely speculated to be Perry: "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," Swift said. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?' [Then] she did something so horrible. I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business...She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I'm surprisingly nonconfrontational—you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."
Don't you come for me
No, not today
Entertainment Weekly asked Perry whether there would be a "Bad Blood" response track on her new album two weeks ago. She said there was nothing directly about anyone, but then added this response:
One thing to note is: You can't mistake kindness for weakness and don't come for me. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. And that's not to any one person and don't quote me that it is, because it's not. It's not about that. Honestly, when women come together and they decide to unite, this world is going to be a better place. Period end of story. But, let me say this: Everything has a reaction or a consequence so don't forget about that, okay, honey.[Laughs] We got to keep it real, honey. This record is not about anyone else! This record is about me being seen and heard so that I can see and hear everyone else! It's not even about me! It's about everything that I see out there that I digest. I think there's a healing in it for me and vulnerability. If people want to connect and be healed and feel vulnerable and feel empowered and strong, God bless and here it is.
Perry posted these two tweets after it:
Which, given the song's lyrics, seem to indicate the entire thing was a hint: "Don't come for me" (phrased as "don't you come for me") and a patronizing "honey" are all over this song.
You're calculated
I got your number
In a 2015 GQ profile, Swift made it very clear she hates the word calculated (and Perry, here, may have made it clear that she was the former acquaintance GQ's writer Chuck Klosterman was having lunch with). From the interview:
Late in our lunch, I mention something that happened several years ago: By chance, I'd found myself having dinner with a former acquaintance of Swift's who offhandedly described her as "calculating." This is the only moment during our interview when Swift appears remotely flustered. She really, really hates the word calculating. She despises how it has become tethered to her iconography and believes the person I met has been the singular voice regurgitating this categorization. As she explains these things, her speech does not oscillate from the second mode.
"Am I shooting from the hip?" she asks rhetorically. "Would any of this have happened if I was? In that sense, I do think about things before they happen. But here was someone taking a positive thing—the fact that I think about things and that I care about my work—and trying to make that into an insinuation about my personal life. Highly offensive. You can be accidentally successful for three or four years. Accidents happen. But careers take hard work."
'Cause you're a joker
And I'm a courtside killer queen
And you will kiss the ring
You best believe
Perry's "you will kiss the ring" line could also be a nod to the fact Perry has performed the Super Bowl while Swift hasn't yet. During Perry's Super Bowl performance, some believe Perry took a jab at Swift by having her backup dancers come out in high-waist polka dot bikinis, similar to what Swift had been photographed in before:
Later that year, Swift would have a shark appear on her tour during her performance of "Bad Blood"—a perceived slight back to Perry and her Super Bowl "Left Shark":
Pre-Chorus: Katy Perry:
So keep calm, honey, I'ma stick around
For more than a minute, get used to it
Funny my name keeps comin' outcho mouth
Perry offered a way for Swift to end their feud once and for all last September.
Swift, judging from these lyrics, didn't seem to take it yet. And while Swift hasn't done any interviews lately, her drama with Perry remained part of her public drama in 2016, with her ex Calvin Harris bringing Perry into their fallout with his don't "bury [me] like Katy ETC" line.
'Cause I stay winning
Lay 'em up like
Chorus: Katy Perry
Swish, swish, bish
Perry, true to her word, doesn't exactly name names. But "Swish", aka scoring a basket without hitting the back or rim of the hoop in basketball, is close to "Swift". Swish was also at one point the working title for Kanye West's album that he'd ultimately call The Life of Pablo. West is Swift's other big frenemy, and his album had the track "Famous" on it. The lyrics of "Famous" launched Swift and West's second feud and would lead to the Kim Kardashian Snapchat takedown of Swift last summer.
Another one in the basket
Can't touch this
Another one in the casket
Verse 2: Katy Perry:
Your game is tired
You should retire
You're 'bout cute as
An old coupon expired
Perry could be referring to some of the articles critical of Swift's image that were published over the last year, following the Kardashian-West Snapchat release and Calvin Harris breakup.
And karma's not a liar
She keeps receipts
A reference here to Kim Kardashian, who posted video of Taylor Swift and Kanye West discussing the lyrics in "Famous" about her before it was released after Swift said she never approved them.
Pre-Chorus: Katy Perry:
So keep calm, honey, I'ma stick around
For more than a minute, get used to it
Funny my name keeps comin' outcho mouth
'Cause I stay winning
Lay 'em up like
Chorus: Katy Perry:
Swish, swish, bish
Another one in the basket
Can't touch this
Another one in the casket
Swish, swish, bish
Another one in the basket
Can't touch this
Another one in the casket
Verse 3: Nicki Minaj
Pink Ferragamo sliders on deck
Silly rap beefs just get me more checks
My life is a movie, I'm never off set
Me and my amigos (no, not Offset)
Swish swish, aww I got them upset
But my shooters'll make 'em dance like dubstep
Swish, swish, aww, my haters is obsessed
'Cause I make M's, they get much less
Don't be tryna double back, I already despise you
All that fake love you showin', couldn't even disguise you
Ran? When? Nicki gettin' tan
Mirror mirror who's the fairest bitch in all the land?
Damn, man, this bitch is a Stan
Muah, muah, the generous queen will kiss a fan
Ass goodbye, I'ma be riding by
I'ma tell my nigga biggz, yeah that's tha guy
A star's a star, da ha da ha
They never thought the swish god would take it this far
Get my pimp cup, this is pimp shit, baby
I only fuck with Queens, so I'm makin' hits with Katy
Chorus: Katy Perry
Swish, swish, bish
Another one in the basket
Can't touch this
Another one in the casket
