Ice Spice has been facing online backlash this week after her one-time opening act Cleotrapa accused the “Munch (Feelin’ U)” rapper of mistreating her while they were touring together last month.
“No matter what the opportunity is, nobody should make you feel like less than ... because they gave you an opportunity,” Cleotrapa said.
Ice Spice has dismissed Cleotrapa’s concerns, saying on X that her opening act seemed “entitled.” (Representatives for Cleotrapa and Ice Spice didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.)
Skip to end of carousel
End of carouselStyle is where The Washington Post explains what’s happening on the front lines of culture — including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion — with wit, personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories, click here. To subscribe to the Style Memo newsletter, click here.
Cleotrapa said that when Ice Spice invited her to tour last-minute, her then-friend reassured her they’d share a dressing room and that all the expenses were already handled. But as the artists toured, Cleotrapa alleged, she was at times kicked out of the dressing room, had to pay for her own hotel rooms with brief notice and was left out when Ice Spice’s team ordered food, missing out on a chicken salad and a “secret” trip to a steakhouse. At one point, Cleotrapa alleged, Ice Spice’s team members refused to load her bags into a vehicle, so Cleotrapa had to lug the bags herself in the rain: “I got a sense that she just wanted me to struggle.”
Cleotrapa referenced Ice Spice’s earlier falling out with artist and internet personality Baby Storme. In May, Baby Storme posted several of her text conversations with Ice Spice, including one where Ice Spice appeared to call Nicki Minaj “ungrateful & delusional.”
After Cleotrapa stopped touring, she said, she sent a lengthy text to Ice Spice detailing the issues she had faced. “I will say overall you could’ve been a better host,” Cleotrapa wrote in the apparent text exchange, which was shown in one of her TikToks. “It was beginning to feel like I asked you to come & not the other way around.”
“Nah ur mad ungrateful,” Ice Spice appeared to reply in the screen recording. “i feel like this a cover up.” Ice Spice also called her former tourmate “careerless,” a “bum” and an “entitled loser that thinks the world revolves around them” in the text exchange.
Ice Spice’s manager James Rosemond Jr. appeared to address the debacle in a series of deleted posts on X from Tuesday: “You have to invest in yourself, aka pay expenses if need be for the opportunity. It’s corny,” he said. “Someone gives you an opportunity and this is the thanks the person gets. Openers dont have same things headliners has.”
Ice Spice also seemed to refer to the allegations in a Tuesday audio conversation on X Spaces. “The scary part of fame, honestly, is the moment that somebody feels like they can no longer use your platform or like they’re not getting exactly what they want out of the situation, the way that they want it ... it’s like that’s when they decide to crash out,” Ice Spice said. “... I genuinely was trying to help her.”
She added that while she agreed the invite was “mad last-minute,” Cleotrapa’s story and the “whole essay” the indie artist texted her left out other key details, including them enjoying a theme park together.
“You want me to try to, like, analyze this ... and figure out how I’m wrong when all I did was share my stage with you?” Ice Spice said.
John Rose, an entertainment attorney for Fox Rothschild, said Cleotrapa is one of many up-and-coming artists who have performed without contractual accommodations on a quick-turnaround, unpaid opportunity in the hopes of growing their fan base, getting media exposure or recording music with the major artist inviting them on tour. But artists should seek legal advice from their management or ideally their attorney, Rose said, to help secure basic protections.
“At the end of the day, there’s hundreds, if not thousands of artists who are dreaming of being able to showcase their talent in front of the masses, and they don’t get that opportunity,” he said. “It’s for these artists and their teams to creatively figure out: How do we cull the good out of every situation, no matter how tough it may be?”
Rapper Azealia Banks has advocated for Cleotrapa, criticizing Rosemond’s response and giving Cleotrapa the opportunity to join her Halloween performance.
“I don’t like how everyone is trying to make cleotrapa look,” Banks wrote on X. “She will - be paid, have her own space to glam, whatever she wants on her rider.. because i have ... respect & class.”
