Taylor Swift announced Wednesday that rapper Ice Spice will be featured on a new version of “Karma,” one of the songs from her latest album, “Midnights.” The announcement comes amid fans criticizing Swift for dating singer Matty Healy of the band The 1975, whose history of offensive comments and actions includes laughing along with racist jokes about Ice Spice.
In January, Healy appeared on an episode of the podcast “The Adam Friedland Show” in which Friedland and co-host Nick Mullen made racist comments about Ice Spice, referring to her as the “Inuit Spice Girl” and “that fat lady Chinese”. ” Healy laughed as the two co-hosts continued to poke fun at the Chinese and Hawaiian accents.
The podcast was pulled from Spotify and Apple. In April, Healy apologized to Ice Spice during one of their concerts in Auckland, New Zealand.
“I feel a little bad, and I’m sorry if I offended you,” Healy said, according to Rolling Stone. “Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m mad that my joke was misinterpreted. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a jerk. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”
Ice Spice never responded to Healy, but on Wednesday, the rapper tweeted about his collaboration with Swift, calling her the “sweetest person ever.”
In early April, the Sun reported that Swift and Healy were dating, and Healy was later seen supporting Swift during several stops on her current stadium tour.
Swift told a crowd in Massachusetts last week that she has “never been happier in my life, in every aspect of my life. And I just want to thank you for being a part of this.”