Director Joseph Kahn has already denounced accusations that his music video for Taylor Swift‘s “Look What You Made Me Do” bore a too-close resemblance to Beyonce’s “Formation,” and now he’s claiming Queen Bey actually copied Swift first.
“It’s not ‘Formation’ at all,” the filmmaker told the Los Angeles Times. “They try to say she’s wearing a black crop top and Beyoncé wore a black crop top. But they don’t realize in 2015 in ‘Bad Blood,’ Taylor Swift was wearing a black crop top. I really do think, by the way, that Beyoncé copied ‘Bad Blood.’”
As soon as the sneak peek of Taylor Swift‘s music video for her new song, “Look What You Made Me Do” hit the web, Beyonce’s famous legion of fans was up in arms because of similarities they saw to Queen Bey’s “Formation.”
Beyoncé fans compared Swift’s outfit in the video to Bey’s iconic Super Bowl performance, in which she wore a black leotard and fishnets. They also cited imagery from Swift’s video they said was similar to Beyonce’s Southern Gothic videos from the “Lemonade” visual album, which was nominated for four Emmys and won a Peabody Award.
At the time, Kahn said, “I’ve worked with Beyoncé a few times. She’s an amazing person. The #LWYMMDvideo is not in her art space. Love and respect to Bey.”
The director predicted that his new online haters will probably dislike “Bodied,” the new Eminem-produced feature film he directed about a grad student who infiltrates a community of insult-spewing battle rappers.
“If you’re a 15-year-old girl watching this movie, you’re going to cry and you’re going to think I’m an evil person,” said Kahn, whose film premieres this month at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I’m basically battle rapping on Twitter.”
A representative for Kahn has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
He has directed multiple videos for Swift, including “Out of the Woods,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Blank Space.”