Ice Spice has said she was “so confused” by Matty Healy’s controversial comments about her.
In February this year, The 1975 frontman attracted widespread criticism for remarks he made about the Bronx rapper during an episode of the Adam Friedland podcast.
At one point in the podcast, which has since been pulled from both Apple and Spotify, Healy, 34, mentioned Ice Spice, 23, whom he claimed he tried to message on Instagram.
Healy, Friedland and comedian Nick Mullen then appeared to confuse her heritage by referring to her as Inuit and Chinese, imitating and mocking the accents of each.
Mullen called the “Princess Diana” rapper an “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady” .
Healy’s representatives did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment at the time.
In a new interview with Variety, Ice Spice – real name Isis Naija Gaston – said she was “so confused” when she heard Healy on the podcast.
“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 told the publication.
“First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologised or whatever.”
In April, months after the podcast aired, Healy addressed the comments during a 1975 concert in New Zealand and issued a sort-of apology.
The musician, who is the son of presenter Denise Welch, told the audience that he doesn’t like being famous and that he “makes a joke out of everything” and “can take it too far sometimes in front of too many people”.
“Ice Spice, I’m sorry. 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 d***. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry,” he said.
Speaking to Variety months later, Ice Spice recalled: “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.”
While Healy publicly addressed his comments about Ice Spice during the New Zealand concert, the musician failed to address the wider criticisms of the podcast appearance, during which he went on to encourage the hosts to do impressions of Japanese people working in concentration camps, later joining in himself.
The group also made a number of derogatory comments about women during the interview.
Within 15 minutes of the podcast beginning, Healy told Friedland that he would “f***” Friedland’s sister because “she’s hot”.
They also discussed Scots, a recognised indigenous language, which they appeared to confuse with the Scottish accent.
“Scots is its own language which is like retard English,” one of the hosts remarked, while Healy could be heard describing it as “mediaeval”.
At another point, while talking about a gambling website, one of the hosts joked that “they have child porn on the website”. Healy responded: “Shout out!”
On Twitter, listeners branded the conversation “f***ing gross” and called out Healy for taking part.
Earlier this week, Healy found himself in hot water again when he deactivated his X/Twitter account after making an ableist joke in connection to the indie supergrouo, Boygenius.
On Thursday (21 September), the 1975 frontman, 34, tweeted from his burner account under the username @Mattyfrnglomg.
“I told Lucy Dacus that ‘Boygenius’ had inspired me and George [Daniel] to start a new band called ‘Girlr*****’. I don’t really hear from her that often,” wrote Healy, who is friends and a frequent collaborator with Dacus’s Boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers.
Responding to his, the 28-year-old Dacus said: “You don’t hear from me at all.”
“Yeah this never goes well does it,” Healy wrote before deactivating his account.
Healy did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment at the time.
