Ice Spice Has Found a Mentor in Taylor Swift: ‘She Gives Me So Much Advice’

Ice Spice’s recent team-up with Taylor Swift was apparently not a one-off. In a new interview with the Guardian ahead of her performance at Wireless Festival, the rapper recounted how she came to work with Swift and how much they are still in touch.

In the interview, Ice Spice explained that Swift had been listening to her Like..? EP, which dropped in January, during rehearsals for the Eras Tour, calling the revelation “surreal.”

“I was like: ‘You fuck with my project? Like, what?’” Ice said. “She’s so sweet – I was so obsessed with how humble she was and willing to work. She gives me so much advice – we talk all the time and she’s so funny… But I can’t say what she be telling me.”

Swift tapped Ice Spice to appear on a remix of “Karma” in May and the pair released a music video for the new version. Swift explained that the collaboration emerged after Ice “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.’” The singer later brought Ice onstage during a tour stop in New Jersey.

The interview doesn’t address the controversy around the remix, which had fans speculating that Swift only brought Ice Spice onboard after her ex Matt Healy made problematic remarks about the rapper on a podcast. The Guardian reporter was told not to ask about the incident.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ice discussed her collaborations with Nicki Minaj, who she recently worked with on single “Barbie Dreams.”

“She be telling me to learn from her mistakes – just watching her in general, if you pay close enough attention, you gonna see what you should do,” Ice said. “I love to talk to her about things that I can’t talk about publicly – it just means so much to be able to have somebody like her.”

The rapper added that she is beginning to see the impact of her rising fame. She said that after she released “Munch (Feelin’ U)” last summer she was forced to hire security.

“I’ll be thinking that I’m low-key, but then people start to notice – and once one person notices, people start to form a crowd and then I be getting a little overwhelmed,” she noted. “As time goes on, people are more and more excited. That’s the biggest thing to adjust to in real life – not being able to be outside as myself as much. I more gotta be, like, hiding a little bit.”

She added, “I was shocked when it happened in Italy. I didn’t expect people to recognize me.”

Ice Spice is set to open for Doja Cat this fall. The rapper’s 24-date tour begins in October and wrap in mid-December with Ice Spice and Doechii as supporting acts on select dates. The Scarlet Tour, which shares a name with the bloody alter-ego Doja Cat introduced in the “Attention” music video, will kick off in San Francisco, fittingly on Halloween. Tickets are on sale now.

From Rolling Stone US.