Ice Spice responded with a classy gesture at a recent international hip-hop festival when the crowd started booing her remix collaboration with Taylor Swift's "Karma."
The 24-year-old rapper from the Bronx, New York, has been close friends with Swift ever since they first met at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards and subsequently worked together on the remix of "Karma" that served as a bonus track to Swift's Midnights album.
At the time, their collab stirred controversy due to Swift's then short-lived relationship with 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who has been historically notorious for his problematic behavior, including making racist comments specifically about Spice in a now-deleted podcast episode.
Despite it all, Swift remained proud of working with Spice and explained:
“Collaborating with Ice Spice on ‘Karma’ was one of the most natural things."
"She reached out through her team, just kind of saying, ‘Hey, Ice has been a big fan of Taylor's since she was a little kid, would love to collaborate if that was ever something that came about.’”
Last weekend, Spice performed in Europe at the Rolling Loud Festival, billed as "the be-all of hip-hop festivals," and when the music to "Karma" began blasting through the speakers, some of the crowd members audibly booed while giving a thumbs-down.
Refusing to give in to the disrespect, "rap's new princess" reacted by blowing kisses to the haters.
Fans loved her display of combatting hate with love.
Some suggested the hate was rooted in misogyny aimed at two women receiving good karma and refusing to seek vengeance on detractors since the universe tends to take its proper course.
On May 26, 2023, Swift premiered the music video she directed for "Karma" featuring Ice Spice at the East Rutherford, New Jersey show as part of the first leg of her record-smashing The Eras Tour, which is currently making its way through Europe to sold-out crowds.
At the show in New Jersey, Swift was joined by Spice as a surprise guest, and they performed the song together.
