Rapper Ice Spice is eager to move past Matty Healy’s disparaging commentary about her ethnicity and appearance once and for all.
Healy, who is the frontman of the British pop band The 1975, was hit with backlash after appearing on “The Adam Friedland Show” podcast in January and seemingly encouraging Friedland and his co-host Nick Mullen to make racist remarks about Ice Spice.
The singer-songwriter called Ice Spice “dumb,” and could be heard laughing as the hosts referred to the rapper as “Inuit Spice Girl” and “this chubby Chinese lady,” and mimicked her with exaggerated Chinese and Hawaiian accents.
“Yeah, that’s what Ice Spice is like,” Healy also reportedly said in the interview, which has since been removed from streaming services. In April, he offered a public apology while performing with his band in New Zealand.
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Speaking to Variety this week, Ice Spice ― who is of Dominican and Nigerian descent, and was raised in New York ― acknowledged having been “so confused” by the remarks.
“Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some shit like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’ First of all, I’m thick,” she explained. “What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologized or whatever. And the whole time, I didn’t really care.”
She went on to note that she and Healy crossed paths at an event for legendary fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier in recent weeks, where Healy made a point to reiterate his amends.
“He was like, ‘Hey, you OK?’ and I’m like, ‘Of course,’” she said. “He apologized to me a bunch of times. We’re good.”
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The “In Ha Mood” rapper had nothing but praise for Healy’s rumored ex, Taylor Swift, with whom she recently collaborated onstage and in the studio. The pair were seemingly inseparable at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month, where they each received VMAs.
“That’s my sis,” Ice Spice told Variety of Swift when asked about a photo of the two women taken at the VMAs. “We was talking about a bunch of things. She’s so funny. We was sipping on a little something something. Just chatting, vibing.”