Sidebar: Karma is My Boyfriend
Thoughts on Taylor Swift's latest collaboration
I know I talk about Taylor Swift a lot, but how could I not? She is one of the most interesting figures in pop culture and continues to do all kinds of things that both baffle and amaze me. The latest of these being her collaboration with Ice Spice which comes out tonight at midnight.
Out of context, I love this collaboration. I like Ice Spice and am excited for Taylor to work with anyone whoās not a white dude. However, the context really matters here.
Ice Spice, a drill rapper from the Bronx, exploded on TikTok over the past year. If you havenāt heard her solo work, I am sure youāve heard her featured on āBoys a Liar Pt. 2ā by PinkPantheress. Taylor and Ice Spice met earlier this year at the iHeart Music Awards. Ice Spiceās song, āIn Ha Mood,ā is included on the pre-show playlist that plays before the start of Taylorās Eras Tour.
Thatās all well and good! Unfortunately, the most notable connection between Taylor Swift and Ice Spice is Matty Healy. Matty Healy, lead singer of The 1975 and man whoās entire artistic mission statement is āsaying controversial things just for the hell of it,ā has been publicly linked to Taylor since May. Earlier this very year, he made racist comments about Ice Spice on a podcast. You can read more about Mattyās generally shitty antics here.
For the first decade plus of her career, Taylor did not comment on political issues. In the last few years, sheās been trying to make up for this, especially following the 2016 election. In her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, Taylor details her decision to finally speak out against Donald Trump and stand up for the queer community. Since then however, sheās been noticeably silent on these matters (ie. not saying anything about the anti-drag and anti-trans legislation currently affecting the queer community, especially while she was performing in Nashville). To make matters worse, sheās now dating a guy who openly does and says offensive things and sheās doing nothing to actually address that.
Taylor releasing this song with Ice Spice screams PR move: if she can convince people thereās no bad blood (hehe) between her and Ice Spice, we will forget about the Matty Healy of it all. Well, itās not working! This is messy and possibly making things worse!
I have been a Taylor fan for well over half my life and in that time, sheās done plenty of things to confuse and frustrate me. This relationship, however, is something else. To spend the last few years trying to paint yourself as a bastion of left-leaning politics then to stay silent on actual issues and date this guy is beyond a bad look. Iām sort of at a loss for how to continue supporting her work. Taylorās right: it truly is exhausting [and sometimes downright disheartening] always rooting for the anti-hero.
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P.S. If you want to learn more about Taylor and Matty, check out FluentlyFowardās recent podcast episode, Decoding the Relationship History of Taylor Swift and Matty Healy ft. What I Will Say. They do a great job of breaking down how things got to this point.