When the inevitable Ice Spice documentary arrives, however many years down the line, it’s likely to include a scene of the Bronx rapper sobbing her eyes out in her walk-in closet. Her producer, RiotUSA, often keeps a camera rolling to capture the kind of pivotal moments in her career that occur behind closed doors — like when she got a phone call telling her that Taylor Swift wanted her on the official remix for the Midnights single “Karma.”
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“I remember my manager called me, and he usually texts, but he called, and he’s like, ‘You ready for this one?’ And I’m thinking it’s going to be some bad news or something,” Ice recalls in her brand new Rolling Stone cover story. “He’s like, ‘Taylor Swift has a record for you to get on from her album.’ I’m playing it cool on the phone. I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. Super cool.’ And then I hang up the phone, and I’m hysterically crying. I’m in my walk-in closet, and I’m like, ‘Bro, this is not real life.’”
It was early 2023 at the time. The rapper was living in New Jersey in her first apartment. Her solo singles “Munch (Feelin’ U)” and “In Ha Mood,” among others, were already blowing up. Plus, her team-up with PinkPantheress on “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” was one of the first major pop moments of the year. The “Karma” remixed arrived that April and proved to be more than just a one-off collaboration. It marked the beginning of a genuine friendship with Swift, who Ice considers to be her “closest celebrity friend.”
But Ice was put off by comments suggesting that Swift’s interest in her was only surface level, an attempt at capitalizing on the rapper’s spotlight as if her own wasn’t blinding. “Which is so rude to me, [because] why would she not want to be my friend?” Ice says. “Taylor fucks with me. She’s so funny. I think our personalities mesh really well.” The pair connect on both a personal and professional level.
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“I love when I meet a new artist who takes a keen interest in not just the music, but the music industry and how it works,” Swift tells Rolling Stone. “I’ve seen how our industry tries to convince artists that they’re better off just being creative and making music and letting the labels and the management do the rest. Seeing Ice lean into the strategic, financial, and business aspects of her career is really exciting for me. The more artists learn about the inner workings of the music industry, the more power they can have in their creative world. I knew based on the questions she asked and the observations she made that she didn’t just want to be a passenger in her own career. She wanted to be the driver of it.”
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Their friendship also withstood a wave of scrutiny that came when Swift’s now-ex-boyfriend, the 1975 frontman Matty Healy, made comments about Ice that many viewed as racially insensitive. “I actually was late as fuck to that. I didn’t know about it until like a month after or something like that,” Ice tells Rolling Stone. “He apologized multiple times, but I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was to other people. I feel like people just wanted something to be mad about, I guess. I wasn’t angry or sad or anything. I was just kind of confused. I never really cared about that.” The rapper still listens to the 1975, adding: “I am a huge fan.”
