Maya Hawke Says 2 Taylor Swift Songs Are Like Epic Poetry and Explains Why Eminem Is the GOAT

Maya Hawke named Taylor Swift and Eminem as the two artists she considers the epitome of cool during an appearance on Hot Ones. The episode was posted Thursday (Oct. 22).

The singer-actress ate increasingly spicy chicken wings and talked about two of her favorite Swift songs. The heat may have rivaled the moment her Stranger Things character, Robin, flambéed Vecna in season four. Host Sean Evans asked which track would best represent the Eras headliner in the “American anthology of poetry.” Hawke answered, “OK, I’m going ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ or ‘Betty.'”

“They tell a full story like an epic poetry,” Hawke said of the Tortured Poets Department and Folklore songs. “They do it without using clichés. They tell an original story that plays on themes and historical ideas. And I think they’re just very fully thought through, extremely complete, kind of epic journeys. And to do a journey like that in such a condensed amount of time — it’s just concentrated humanity, you know?”

Hawke has long been a Swift fan. In 2024, she helped connect the 14-time Grammy winner with her father, Ethan Hawke, so he could make a cameo in the “Fortnight” music video. Earlier this year, Maya told Rolling Stone of Swift, “I think she made a generation of young people listen to music and think, ‘Oh, my life could matter.'”

Hawke, who stars in One Night Only, released her latest album, Maitreya Corso, in May. Later in the Hot Ones episode, she explained why she thinks Eminem, as Slim Shady, should be the blueprint for artists, especially now. “The arts has really lost its, like, ‘F–k you’ attitude toward the industry,” she said. “[Eminem is] like, ‘I don’t need your, like, love. I’m cooler if I get bad reviews, ’cause it means I’m a rebel, right? It means I’m making something that’s not a part of your system.'”

“We really started to be like, ‘Really, daddy? Daddy, do you like it? Did my movie make money? Is it good? Do you like me?'” she continued about Eminem, whom she has called the “epic of our time.” “I miss that punk spirit. And so sometimes when I’m feeling too ‘Daddy do you love me?’ I listen to my Eminem, and I’m like, ‘I don’t care if daddy loves me. I’m free. I’m not a part of your system.'”

Source: Billboard