Ice Spice talks being “confused” by The 1975 Matty Healy incident

Rapper Ice Spice has opened up about when Matty Healy of The 1975 made controversial comments about her on a podcast.

• READ MORE: The NME Big Read – The 1975: “I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero”

Healy publicly apologised to Ice Spice over the comments that were widely criticised back in February after his appearance on The Adam Friedland Show. Friedland and co-host Nick Mullen discussed the New York rapper’s heritage, debating whether she has Hawaiian, Inuit or Chinese, before impersonating the accents of those countries and regions.

While Healy didn’t participate in the mocking of accents, he did laugh along with the podcast hosts. The episode has since been taken down.

Speaking in Variety about the incident now, Ice Spice, who has been a fan of The 1975 since she was a teenager, explained: “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?’

“First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologised or whatever. 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 apologised to me a bunch of times. We’re good.”

Healy also apologised to Ice Spice on stage in Auckland earlier this year as part of a show on the band’s ‘At Their Very Best’ tour.

While talking to the crowd about how he hadn’t fully grasped the implications of his own fame, he took the opportunity to apologise to Ice Spice. “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry,” he said. “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 dick. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”

He continued: “I don’t want anything like that misconstrued to be mean. I don’t mind being a bit of a joker… It’s OK for me to be, like, a trickster or whatever, but I don’t want to be seen as, like, being barmy. Because honestly, I just love you guys, and I love doing this…

“The truth is it’s a bit of a problem because I just want to say, ‘Hello. This is a bit embarrassing. I’m sorry if I get it wrong. We all get it wrong.’ I just have to do it in public and then apologise to Ice Spice. My life’s just a bit weird. I am genuinely sorry if I’ve upset her because I fucking love her.”

Healy’s appearance on the podcast drew widespread criticism. Rina Sawayama appeared to dedicate her track, ‘STFU’ to Healy, during her Glastonbury set back in June.

“Tonight this goes out to a white man that…mocks Asian people on a podcast,” she told the crowd, adding, “He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough.”

Sawayama is signed to Dirty Hit, which is owned by Jamie Oborne of The 1975. Healy was a director at the company, but stepped down from that role back in April.

Yungblud also called out Healy online in the aftermath. In a now-viral tweet appearing to reference the podcast, Yungblud wrote: “Love listening to three privileged white dudes sit around and objectify a young black female artist who’s blowing up. Welcome to your 30’s, I guess.”

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