The Host Of The Podcast Where Matty Healy Made Racist Comments About Ice Spice Just Took Credit For Her Taylor Swift Collab And People Have Thoughts

    Adam is the host of the podcast where he, Matty Healy, and Nick Mullen made racist jibes about Ice Spice.

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    Last week, Taylor Swift announced that she had collaborated with American rapper Ice Spice for a new version of her 2022 song “Karma.”

    taylor and ice spice on stage

    “I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch,” she wrote at the time.

    Um. SO much to tell you. I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch. So delighted to say that Karma Featuring the incredible @icespicee_ will be out TOMORROW night at MIDNIGHT ET as a part of the new Midnights… pic.twitter.com/OaRrHBWTUw

    — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 24, 2023
    Twitter: @taylorswift13

    Explaining how the collab came to be, Taylor added that Ice Spice’s team had approached her because the up-and-coming star has been a fan of Taylor’s since she was a child.

    But as wholesome as the situation may seem on the surface, there is a darker context to this collaboration that rubbed many up the wrong way.

    ice spice and taylor walking away on stage with their arms around each other
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    In fact, immediately after it was announced, Taylor was accused of using Ice Spice to distract from the growing backlash surrounding her rumored relationship with Matty Healy.

    closeup of matty

    In case you missed it, just weeks after it was revealed that Taylor had split from her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, she was reported to be “madly in love” with The 1975’s lead singer, Matty.

    matty and taylor walking to their car

    The two have known each other since 2014, and even though Matty previously insisted that it’d be “emasculating” to date Taylor, they have done little to dispel the speculation.

    the two in 2014

    In addition to attending several of her recent concert dates in a VIP tent with her best friends and family, Matty has performed on stage alongside Taylor’s opening act, Phoebe Bridgers.

    matty playing guitar

    He and Taylor were also pictured holding hands before they were spotted kissing, and the two were filmed leaving a party together as well as him entering her New York home.

    matty on stage

    But the apparent new romance has not been well received by Taylor’s fans, who are hugely disappointed by her association with Matty thanks to his long history of problematic behavior.

    Over the years, the British singer has made a series of antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and racist comments, and in January of this year he was filmed seemingly doing a Nazi salute on stage.

    tw // antisemitism

    why is no one talking about the fact matty healy did a h!tler salute on stage?? pic.twitter.com/QXdza5gzuX

    — nat is in mourning (@waystarnatco) January 26, 2023
    Twitter: @waystarnatco

    In February, Matty faced fierce backlash when he appeared on The Adam Friedland Show podcast and he and the hosts made such harmful remarks that Spotify and Apple Music removed the episode from their platforms.

    At one point in the conversation, Matty casually admitted to masturbating to Black women being “brutalized” on a hardcore “abuse porn” website, and he also encouraged the other two men to do racist impersonations of a Japanese person working in a concentration camp.

    Twitter: @beyisover

    Matty, Adam Friedland, and Nick Mullen also made racist remarks about Ice Spice. The three men were recorded laughing as they mocked Hawaiian and Chinese accents while referring to the rapper as “one of the Inuit Spice Girls,” a “chubby Chinese lady,” and “a fucking Eskimo.”

    closeup of ice spice at the met

    To her fans’ disappointment, Taylor has not acknowledged any of the concerns surrounding Matty. In fact, at her Massachusetts concert last weekend she appeared to actively dismiss the scrutiny as she pointedly told the crowd: “I've just never been this happy in my life in all aspects of my life ever before.”

    taylor on stage

    As a result, Taylor has been branded “another complicit white woman,” and fans have canceled their preorders for her upcoming album and sold their tickets to her tour.

    So it’s perhaps unsurprising that when Taylor announced a collab with the same rapper that her rumored boyfriend had made racist jibes about just three months ago, many questioned her intentions.

    the two in the recording studio

    Taylor was called “insidiously calculated” as the discourse erupted online, with one person tweeting: “Calculated afffff instead of addressing it straight-on, it’s, ‘Lemme collab to show that the racism was okay bcz look Ice Spice is collabing w/me!’ Atrocious behaviour.”

    Calculated afffff instead of addressing it straight-on, it’s, “Lemme collab to show that the racism was okay bcz look Ice Spice is collabing w/me!” Atrocious behaviour.

    — Choo Choo (@tishas_tweets) May 24, 2023
    Twitter: @tishas_tweets

    Another pointed out that this was the first time that Taylor had ever collaborated with a Black woman in her 17-year career as they called the timing “telling.”

    Twitter: @ultravioletssss

    Others shared their disgust at Taylor “finding a way to profit” from Ice Spice amid Matty’s remarks, calling it “a text book example of white woman feminism. It’s convenient, manipulative and continues to shield and protect white men.”

    Taylor Swift failing to address the racist comments Matt Healy made towards Ice Spice and then finding a way to profit off of her with a new collab is a text book example of white woman feminism. It’s convenient, manipulative and continues to shield and protect white men https://t.co/qZuTOmUm7e

    — ⁷ (@undercoverARMY4) May 24, 2023
    Twitter: @undercoverARMY4

    A TikToker went so far as to theorize that self-proclaimed “mastermind” Taylor had pre-empted the backlash that she and Matty would face, so set the wheels into motion for the Ice Spice collab as a “pre planned redemption arc.”

    And Adam — the host of the podcast where the comments about Ice Spice were made — appears to agree.

    Fueling speculation that the only reason Taylor collaborated with Ice Spice is because of Matty’s appearance on his podcast, Adam retweeted an account reporting on the collab and simply added: “You’re welcome”.

    You’re welcome https://t.co/4Hz33Bz14Z

    — Adam Friedland (@AdamFriedland) May 25, 2023
    Twitter: @AdamFriedland

    Commenting on a TikTok video about Adam’s tweet, one person wrote: “whoaaa so adam is verifying that this is damage control on her part.”

    “ppls masks are slipping and it’s never been so obvious,” one more added in agreement.

    “And people say taylor didn't do this for PR…” another tweeted.

    And people say taylor didn't do this for PR... https://t.co/LRZWtRgUel

    — Julia (@Julia44704393) May 25, 2023
    Twitter: @Julia44704393

    Matty issued a “kind of” apology to Ice Spice for the comments that he made on the podcast during a concert last month, saying: “I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you,” before insisting that his “joking got misconstrued.”

    However, he has since had a change of heart, and in a new interview with the New Yorker he said that anyone who is “hurt” by what he said is “either deluded” or “a liar.”

    He defiantly added: “You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt.”

    The publication also reported that Matty chose to appear on The Adam Friedland Show because “he wanted to do something that felt more like simply talking with his friends” in lieu of traditional interviews.

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