Ice Spice has finally responded to Matty Healy's controversial appearance on the comedy podcast The Adam Friedland Show.
In an extensive cover feature for Variety, the "In Ha Mood" rapper addressed the appearance, which caused an uproar around the time The 1975 frontman was romantically linked to Taylor Swift. “When I had heard that little podcast or whatever, I was so confused. Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some shit like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’" she said. "First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What?"
During the episode, the hosts of the show—Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen—made racist comments about Ice Spice after Healy told them that he DMed her after he learned she was a fan of his band. Friedland and Mullen referred to Spice as "Inuit Spice Girl," impersonated racist sterotypes of Chinese and Hawaiian accents, and called her a "chubby Chinese lady." Healy laughed off the comments, which many perceived as an endorsement.
"They apologized or whatever," Ice Spice continued. "And the whole time, I didn’t really care. But that’s funny because I saw him at the Jean Paul Gaultier party a couple days ago, and he was like, ‘Hey, you OK?’ and I’m like, ‘Of course.’ He apologized to me a bunch of times. We’re good.” The feature makes sure to note that Ice Spice still considers herself a fan of The 1975.
Ice Spice didn't address the since-deleted episode of the podcast at the time, but Healy did address them in an interview not long after the drama kicked off. He suggested he might have baited his fans "a little bit" with the interview, but ultimately said the whole thing "doesn't actually matter." He said that anyone who was upset with him was "a bit mental." Not long after the whole ordeal, Swift and Healy reportedly called it quits.
The controversial podcast episode has not only proven offensive to Swifties and Ice Spice fans but has also offended Rina Sawayama, who is signed to Healy's label Dirty Hit.
"I wrote this because I was sick & tired of these micro-aggressions," she said ahead of a performance of her song "STFU!" at Glastonbury Festival in June. "This goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters! I've had enough!" During the episode of The Adam Friedland Show, Healy made a joke about enjoying the degrading pornography production company Ghetto Gaggers.
Elsewhere in Ice Spice's Variety feature, she also addressed accusations that she's an industry plant. “A lot of people have thrown that in my face—like ‘Oh, I’ve never seen anything happen so quickly. She needs to be studied,’ or ‘She’s a plant,’” Spice said in the interview. “I just let people believe whatever they want to believe, to be honest. I don’t really mind all the rumors. At first I did, but now I’m at a point where I understand that just comes with this lifestyle.”
