Ever since Taylor Swift announced her new collaboration with Ice Spice, her fans have been divided. On May 24th, the 33-year-old Grammy winner took to Instagram to share that she would be releasing a new version of her album Midnights with a “Karma” remix that would feature the 23-year-old rapper.
While many listeners expressed their excitement over the two artists working together, others were frustrated, saddened and disappointed since Swift’s rumored boyfriend Matty Healy agreed with racist comments made about Ice Spice when he appeared on a February 2023 podcast.
Many deemed Swift a “performance activist” for teaming up with Ice Spice despite her association with Healy, who she’s been spotted hanging with all month (following her split from Joe Alwyn after six years of dating).
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Taylor Swift Fans Divided Over "Karma" Collab With Ice Spice Following Matty Healy Controversy
When unveiling the collab, Swift wrote in a post for her 261 million IG followers that she was a "massive fan of this brilliant artist," Ice Spice, and "after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch."
The "Anti-Hero" hitmaker uploaded a still from the coinciding "Karma" music video featuring the "In Ha Mood" artist. Swift is currently in the midst of her Eras Tour, and brought out Ice Spice over the weekend for her three East Rutherford, New Jersey tour stop shows to perform their song together.
In a tweet, Ice Spice referred to Swift as the "sweetest person ever" and thanked her for the musical opportunity. Since then, social media has been buzzing with Swift fans and critics either supporting the collab or calling out Swift for what looked to be a "suspiciously timed release," as someone tweeted.
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What Did Healy Say About Ice Spice?
Healy, as many remember, appeared as a guest on The Adam Friedland Show in February. The 1975 frontman laughed while the two podcast hosts, Friedland and Nick Mullen, made fun of Ice Spice.
They used derogatory terms centered around her body and ethnicity, even going so far as to call her an "Inuit Spice Girl," and "chubby Chinese lady."
To make matters worse, they used, as the Washington Post notes, "contrived Chinese and Hawaiian accents to mimic her."
The episode has since been deleted from Spotify and Apple Music. Within it, Healy mentioned Ice Spice, and said that he tried to message her on Instagram.
When the "Happiness" singer was asked by the hosts, who the Post writes are "known for their racially insensitive jokes," if the rapper sounded the way they mimicked her, he told them, “Yeah, that’s what Ice Spice is like."
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He then called her "dumb." Later on in the episode, Healy asked Friedland and Mullen to do impressions of Japanese people who worked in concentration camps. He also did a "Japanese accent" himself.
In April (before he was spotted with Swift and before their dating rumors emerged), Healy apologized to Ice Spice after garnering backlash for his comments. He said, while onstage at a concert in Auckland, New Zealand: "I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you."
The musician added, "Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d—k. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry."
Before the podcast emerged, Ice Spice expressed her admiration and love for Healy's band, The 1975, in a January Elle interview.
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Days following the release, many Twitter users began calling out Swift for her association with Healy, and choosing to collab with an artist that he has made "horrific remarks" about to "cover up" what he said.
"Not Taylor Swift teaming up with Ice Spice for a collab," one fan tweeted, adding, "gotta get that damage control in for Matty Healy."
Someone else added, "Using Ice Spice for a remix to clear your image after all the racist s—t her boyfriend Matty Healy said about her is a new low even for Taylor Swift."
While some others stressed that Swift and Ice Spice seemed to have collaborated before all the Healy-related drama was analyzed, many found the timing of the collab release to be "upsetting," and urged that Healy's controversial past would be enough to "not want to associate with him," as someone else wrote.
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Are Swift And Healy Officially Dating?
Things seem to be heating up for Swift and Healy, who are rumored to be newly dating. Before they were seen in NYC together multiple times last week, Healy attended three of Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Nashville earlier this month, as seen in viral fan-shot footage circulating on social media.
After Healy and his bandmates performed a show in Manila, Philippines on May 4th, he then flew to the Tennessee city reportedly just for her three-date stop at the Nissan Stadium.
During this time, he also came onstage and joined Swift’s opener Phoebe Bridgers, accompanying her on guitar. Swift’s close friends like Gigi Hadid and Lily Aldridge were seen in the VIP area of her recent concerts, and Healy mingled with them there, which some fans are finding to be convincing.
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Additionally, the “Cornelia Street” singer’s father, Scott Swift, was photographed with Healy in the VIP area of her Lincoln Financial Field show in Philadelphia soon after.
Rumors of Swift and Healy dating went viral in early May on Twitter after The Sun reported that the two are now newly "dating," and apparently expected to "go public" with their relationship soon. (Did they already?)
Reports of the new relationship came in just after Swift split from her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn after six years together.
According to The Sun, Swift is “madly in love” with the British rockstar after their long-term friendship supposedly blossomed into a romantic relationship.
