Aside from the collab just not being good, apparently fans aren’t buying into it for a few other reasons as well… with some even calling the entire thing a PR stunt in effort to clean up a mess made by Swift’s rumored boyfriend.
Taylor Swift’s love life is seemingly always in the spotlight for some reason, but reports this month that she’s dating the 1975’s Matty Healy is especially raising some eyebrows, as is her surprise announcement that she’ll collaborate with rapper Ice Spice on the deluxe version of her ‘Midnights’ album. The main issue most have is with Healy’s appearance on The Adam Friedland Show back in January, during which Healy and the two hosts, Friedland and Nick Mullen, laughed while speculating about the ethnicity of Ice Spice, who’s said to be African American and Dominican. Friedland and Mullen referred to Spice as an “Inuit spice girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady.” The co-hosts also mocked Chinese and Hawaiian accents, a bit that Healy seemed to enjoy.
The problematic podcast episode was later pulled from both Apple and Spotify. That wasn’t the only controversy Healy stirred up during the interview. He also joked about masturbating to a video of a woman “getting, like, brutalized” on Ghetto Gaggers, an adult website that mostly features Black women.
Months later, Healy somewhat apologized, admitting onstage during a performance he “can take it too far sometimes in front of too many people.” The singer added in April: “I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d***. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”
So whatever Swift and Healy’s exact relationship is, some fans are upset and tweeting with the hashtag #SpeakUpNow, promoting a letter circulating the internet that calls for Swift to address the situation.
I just canceled my @taylorswift13 Speak Now vinyl pre-order. I’ve previously bought: lover, redtv, FLTV, (all 5) midnights vinyls, many (some shitty quality) shirts from TS. Not to mention two floor seats to Eras. I just don’t feel comfortable giving her my $$$ now. #SpeakUpNow pic.twitter.com/MfzYMwTIXk
— ⚡️laurenelectro ⸆⸉⚡️ (@laurenelectro) May 17, 2023
While Swift hasn’t commented on whether she is dating Healy, some fans are already upset that she hasn’t publicly condemned any of his problematic behavior. Swift was criticized for years about staying largely silent on politics. The news of an upcoming collab with Spice didn’t help, and it prompted comments that it was a PR move. Especially considering Swift has never worked with a female rapper in her entire career, on top of the fact that their styles couldn’t be more different so many wondered about the reason for the choice in the first place.
Plenty of fans have taken Swift’s silence around Healy’s comments as endorsement of his behavior — and her choice to collaborate with a woman Healy publicly downed is not doing much to change that thought. “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,” one Twitter user said.
Take a look at some of the feedback for yourself and let us know your thoughts. Do you agree this was a convenience move for PR or could Taylor genuinely just really like Ice Spice?
That verse was so bad you can really tell the Karma remix was done last minute for damage control to clear Taylor Swift & her nazy boyfriend image after he said all those racist slurs to Ice Spice. Hope she got a massive cheque though pic.twitter.com/4HGuWZV2cm https://t.co/RcQbj2rbTf
— MK8≛ MOTOPAPI (@FdezzGarciiia) May 26, 2023
Let’s not forget that Matty Healy made several racist comments about Ice Spice pic.twitter.com/1oa8kzJfyE https://t.co/I8dhyQA8Mt
— Dan🥂 (@BLstagram) May 24, 2023
just learned that taylor swift boyfriend said racist shit about ice spice a couple months ago. taylor swift pr team works harder than the devil https://t.co/ieN8hwxhiW
— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) May 24, 2023
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
good pr / distraction for her current racist bf who said terrible things about ice spice cause barely any taylor swift song in the world needs a rap feature much less karma 😭 https://t.co/Er3iiS7SyW
— sk (@kirkxxs) May 24, 2023
Y’all know y’all can still like Taylor Swift and also acknowledge that this problematic ft with Ice Spice was DEFINITELY a PR move to distract y’all from her openly dating a racist who publicly made fun of said Ice Spice…two things can be true at the same time.
— PollyPocketNegro (@SCarter724) May 25, 2023
Taylor should not have to answer to her boyfriend’s actions especially before they started dating. HOWEVER, it is very clear she is intentionally using the Ice Spice feature to ERASE the racist comments her bf said instead of just condemning it. That’s what’s wrong about this.
— gati ⍟ (@youIovemelikexo) May 24, 2023