If seeing Taylor Swift overjoyed with Kendrick Lamar’s big night at the 2025 Grammys has you confused, then you clearly need to jog your memory and revisit the duo’s friendship.
If you are not a fan of either (or just one), seeing the names of Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar next to each other might seem like an odd pairing, but the “Fortnight” singer has been openly an admirer of the Compton rapper for over a decade. Their paths, however, have crossed more than once, blooming into a full-on friendship and expanding into an intricate web of collaborators.
Below, see Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s complete friendship timeline — from the first time they spoke about each other to their first collaboration and their latest linkup.
2014: Taylor Swift starts professing her admiration of Kendrick Lamar publicly — and he reciprocates it
The origins of Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s friendship can be traced back to 2014. Before she even publicly spoke about Lamar, Swift was notably seen rocking out to Lamar’s performance at the Grammys the January before, where he performed a mashup of “m.A.A.d city” and “Radioactive” alongside Imagine Dragons. (She loves dancing at the Grammys, okay?)
A few months later, in September, Swift admitted Lamar’s 2012 track “Backseat Freestyle,” off his acclaimed sophomore album good kid, m.A.A.d city, was her “go-to” jam in an interview with Rolling Stone.
Lamar swiftly reciprocated the love during a public appearance that same month. “I appreciate Taylor Swift for supporting not only my music but just the hip-hop culture,” he reportedly said at the time. “There’s really no gap. It’s music and it feels good. Some people always try to lock it down and categorize it for one particular listener, but it moves all, even people from other genres.”
