Halsey lived up to her role as a “socially conscious artist” as she distanced herself from Quavo, with whom she recently collaborated with on her latest album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, after being asked about his homophobic comments towards Makonnen this past February.
If you need a refresher, Quavo said in an interview with Rolling Stone that the reason Makonnen’s fans were supporting him after he came out as gay is because “the world is fucked up.”
This whole thing all started when Halsey appeared to defend Quavo in a recent interview with The Guardian. “I think he’s misunderstood," she said. "Just because I choose to be a socially conscious artist, and I’m pretty good at it, that doesn’t mean every artist is going to be equipped to be politically correct." Halsey added that she didn’t think Quavo was “inherently homophobic,” although his “apology was bullshit.”
After receiving a torrent of tweets from fans asking her why she would defend Quavo even though a large portion of her fan base is part of the LGBTQ community, the singer admitted she didn’t know about Quavo’s comments before he hopped on her track "Lie." Now that she knows, though, she doesn’t want to be his friend until he apologizes or educates himself. She also emphasized that since she identifies as queer herself, these conversations are important to her.
This announcement comes on the back of another Halsey comment during the same interview, this time more to the point. Speaking to The Guardian, she said she’d never want to collaborate with Iggy Azalea because she’s a “fucking moron.”
“[Iggy Azalea] had a complete disregard for black culture," she said. "I watched her career dissolve and it fascinated me.”
Halsey is clearly feeling herself lately—she’s going on a world tour and is performing at Glastonbury Festival this week—which might explain why she seemed totally unguarded during her interview and following tweet storm, and even if her outspoken comments are a little bit controversial, it doesn’t look like she’s losing any fans for it.