Upon its release, "Famous" was met with both critical acclaim and scrutiny for a controversial lyrical reference to American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, partially in relation to West's interruption of her 2009 VMA acceptance speech.

[3][4] In 2020, a 25-minute uncut version of the video surfaced, establishing that West did not appear to tell Swift about the specific line ("I made that bitch famous") which she had objected to.

[5][6] In June 2016, West released a music video for "Famous" depicting wax figures of himself, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby all sleeping naked in a shared bed.

In May 2016, Chance the Rapper shared a snippet of a demo version of the song during an interview with Zane Lowe of Beats 1 that featured a verse from him.

[7] "Famous" was originally slated to be released under the title of "Nina Chop", as it was called in West's handwritten notes, and include vocals from American musician Young Thug.

[8][9] In October 2016, another demo version leaked online, featuring two verses from Young Thug and him singing alongside the Nina Simone sample.

[12] On August 6, 2020, rapper Rick Ross played a version with an unreleased verse from him in the song during his Verzuz battle with 2 Chainz.

[13] Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot called the song "an example of just how brilliant and infuriating West can be at the same time", noting its controversial Swift-referencing lyric while going on to praise the production and Rihanna's guest vocals.

[14] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork wrote that the controversial lyric "feels like a piece of bathroom graffiti made to purposefully reignite the most racially-charged rivalry in 21st-century pop".

[15] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis described the song's position on The Life of Pablo as being "a flatly fantastic piece of music that may be the best thing on the album".

The court of public opinion won't ever reach a verdict on Taylor [Swift] v. Kanye — did she consent to being mentioned?

"[25][26][27] In response, Swift's spokesperson adamantly denied that West asked for her approval for the controversial lyric,[28] with an official statement claiming that Swift had only been asked to release West's song on her Twitter page, and had instead warned him not to release a track "with such a strong misogynistic message".

[30] She clarified that Swift's camp had threatened legal action should the video be released, and argued that "I swear, my husband gets so much shit for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.

"[30] In July 2016, Kardashian posted a 3-minute recording of the phone conversation online, in which Swift can allegedly be heard approving West's lyric, describing it as a "compliment" and a show of friendship.

In September 2016, Swift started using a filter created by Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to automatically delete comments using the snake emoji on her profile.

[35] During an interview with Rolling Stone in its October 2019 issue, Swift said that the world "didn't understand the context and events" preceding West's diss towards her.

[6] In an Instagram story, Swift did not address the leak in detail, instead urging her followers to donate to relief efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[39] Swift's publicist Tree Paine responded to Kardashian with a tweet of the original statement and captioned it "when you take parts out, that's editing.

"[40] In August 2020, West went on a Twitter rant and in one of the tweets, he may have referenced his old feud with Swift with the caption "Not gonna use a snake emoji cause you know why...

[50] German director Werner Herzog expressed admiration for the video, describing it as "very good stuff" and admitting he had "never seen anything like this".