Taylor Swift Says Re-Recording ‘Bad Blood’ Remix with Kendrick Lamar Felt ‘Surreal and Bewildering’

It’s still mad love between Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar.

Hours after dropping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Friday, the pop superstar took to Instagram and thanked Lamar for getting back in the studio to re-record their remix of “Bad Blood,” first released in 2015, for the new project’s deluxe edition.

“Watching @kendricklamar create and record his verses on the Bad Blood remix was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life,” wrote Swift, 33, alongside a photo of herself with the “Humble” rapper, presumably around 2015. “I still look back on this collaboration with so much pride and gratitude, for the ways Kendrick elevated the song and the way he treats everyone around him.”

Swifties also continue to have a special connection with the remix years later, as Swift noted, “Every time the crowds on The Eras Tour would chant his line ‘you forgive, you forget, but you never let it… go!’, I smiled.”

She then expressed gratitude for Lamar re-joining her to record the remix once again. “The reality that Kendrick would go back in and re-record Bad Blood so that I could reclaim and own this work I’m so proud of is surreal and bewildering to me,” added Swift.

The remix’s new version appears on a special edition of her latest project. “I’m overjoyed to say that the Bad Blood Remix (featuring Kendrick Lamar) is available everywhere on the 1989 Deluxe Edition,” concluded the Instagram post.

In 2017, Lamar opened up to Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show about what it was like creating the original remix with Swift. “With this particular record, it was me just vibing and catching her lyrics,” he said at the time.

“I didn’t want to get into her head too crazy. I just wanted to have my own inspiration and see where it took it,” added the rapper. “Fortunately, the vibe was right and it didn’t take too many takes and we was really locked in on the chemistry and we really felt what was going on when I was in the booth.”

1989 (Taylor’s Version) marks the fourth re-recording from the Grammy winner, coming several months after she dropped Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July and following the 2021 re-releases of Fearless and Red.

The new version of her fifth studio album (out via Republic Records) sees re-recordings of the deluxe edition of 1989’s 16 original tracks, plus the five “From the Vault” songs “Slut!,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends” and “Is It Over Now?”

Swift posted to Instagram to celebrate the release, opening up about how much the album and revisiting it means to her in the caption. 

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“I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the magic would you sprinkle on my life for so long,” the “Karma” singer wrote.

“This moment is a reflection of the woods we’ve wandered through and all this love between us still glowing in the darkest dark,” added Swift. “I present to you, with gratitude and wild wonder, my version of 1989. It’s been waiting for you.”