Congrats to all those distressed Swifties freaking out over their favorite singer’s love life: It looks like Taylor Swift is finally addressing the backlash over her rumored romance with controversial singer Matty Healy.
Well, maybe.
On Wednesday, the Grammy-winning singer announced her latest—and maybe most bonkers—collaboration yet: a remix of her hit Midnights track “Karma” featuring femcee du jour Ice Spice.
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“Um. SO much to tell you,” Swift tweeted this afternoon. “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 (Til Dawn Edition) deluxe album that you can pre-order now.”
Additionally, Swift revealed that the expanded version of Midnights will include a re-recorded version of her Lana Del Rey-assisted track “Snow on the Beach” as well as a new (and possibly Joe Alwyn-inspired) song called “You’re Losing Me.”
Of course, the Ice Spice feature is the one garnering the most reactions on Twitter. For starters, Swift, a very white woman, collaborating with a drill rapper from the Bronx is immediately funny. The galactic cover art (or a possible still from a music video) of the two posing together and emitting light beams from their hands adds another layer of absurdity.
The elephant in the room, however, is Swift’s new rumored beau Healy, who’s been in hot water over the past few weeks for his problematic antics— including the time he laughed at a racist remark about Ice Spice on a podcast.
In February, Healy appeared on the “dirtbag left” podcast The Adam Friedland Show, in an episode that has since been removed from streaming platforms. In the episode, Friedland and the show’s co-host, Nick Mullen, launch into a racist tangent after Healy mentions that he sent Ice Spice a DM. Friedland and Mullen proceed to call the rapper “Intuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady” before imitating Chinese and Hawaiian accents, while Healy can be heard laughing along.
The British rocker has since apologized for the upsetting episode, calling his and the hosts’ commentary “embarrassing.” Unfortunately, it’s only one of several incidents on his rap sheet of derogatory behavior, including the time he saluted Hitler during a concert back in January.
Many Swifties have expressed their disappointment over her association with the inflammatory singer, with a subsect of fans even launching an online campaign called #SpeakUpNow boycotting the upcoming re-release of her third album, Speak Now.
Now that Swift has recruited Ice Spice as a collaborator—and maybe even a member of her famous “girl squad”—Twitter users are already labeling the “Karma” remix one of the singer’s classic PR-savvy moves. If the song is, indeed, some form of damage control, it seems a bit counterintuitive, given that this announcement has only made the internet more upset about Healy’s history with the rapper.
Whatever Swift’s intentions may be, the “Karma” remix, like most of her singles, will most likely be a hit. That still might not be enough to make the internet forget about Healy, though.
