Back in February 2023, a semi-viral tweet asked, “Why does Matty Healy wanna ruin his band and his bands reputation so badly someone explain it to me.” After witnessing the 1975 frontman consistently find himself embroiled in controversy over the past few years, the answer remains unclear. Late Tuesday night, Healy called himself out for this very behavior after he escalated a heated online exchange with Azealia Banks to a point where he threatened her with physical violence. Now, she’s threatening to sue him.
Healy should know by now that deleting posts, deactivating his social media accounts, and issuing apologies does very little to mend the damage of his words. In one since-deleted post, the singer wrote: “Talk to me like that I’m not gonna side eye you at an awards show do I’ll fucking slap you so hard I’ll get a Guinness world record for the highest a rat some bitch calls a wig has ever flown.” The comment came in defense of Healy’s wife, the model Gabbriette, who caught a few strays after Healy began responding to Banks’ recent tirade against Charli XCX, who is marrying his bandmate George Daniel.
Healy first hit back at Banks in November, after the rapper criticized Charli’s Saturday Night Live performance of “360.” She stated at the time that the song ripped off Ciara’s “1, 2, Step,” to which he responded: “Shut up you fucking prat.” Some fans in the replies advised him against entering the ring with Banks, but she never responded at the time. Healy took another shot at her this week after she took aim at Charli’s physical appearance, saying Charli “used to be” pretty. “Azealia you seem to have a blind spot when it comes to your ‘reads,’” he wrote. “All the women you attack seem to be culturally relevant, attractive, divisive and NICE people. I think this makes you jealous cos you’re so talented but everything else about you is a failure. Just rap bro.”
Over the past few months, Banks has complained frequently about Brat, an album she says she didn’t enjoy beyond the song “Apple” (which she nonetheless declared the song of the year). She also described Lorde as “insufferable,” stated that Los Angeles is “destroying” Charli, and added that the British singer doesn’t grasp “the insidious ways in which whiteness as a social structure and whiteness as a social weapon work in America.” The list goes on and on, stretching as far back as June.
After Healy dared someone to speak about his wife in the same saw Banks spoke about Charli — “I will dox and fuck you up” — she took him up on his offer. “You both look like you share needles,” she wrote in one post, adding in another: “What type of pussy ass nigga goes online and incriminates himself this way? Lmfao a man could slap the shit out of Gabi and you wouldn’t do a damn thing. You’re too busy kissing men on stage for clout.” This was the post that prompted Healy to threaten to slap Banks. His courage was short-lived, proof that he should have heeded his fans’ warnings. “Nah fr I was just trying to match your vibe im scared now im sorry bro, i was just sticking up for my mates,” he said. “Im not tough.”
“Nah I can’t be saying I’m gonna hit a girl that’s insane I’m sorry,” Healy wrote in another post. “You just can’t keep being so mean about my mates and my mrs it’s really hurtful gets me well defensive.” But Banks wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily. “Fuck your mates honestly,” she said. “This is like the third time you’ve come out of your face spewing violence specifically towards black women. Brutalized porn, ice Spice, now you’re threatening to slap me and think a small apology will suffice.”
The post referenced Healy’s controversial appearance on comedian Adam Friedland’s podcast in 2023. During the show, he and the hosts laughed at derogatory comments about Ice Spice’s body and mocked Chinese and Hawaiian accents while speculating about her ethnicity. They also joked about Healy consuming porn that degrades and brutalizes Black women. He issued a non-apology a few months later and Ice Spice eventually cleared the air, noting that she “never really cared about that” and saying she remained “a huge fan” of the 1975. On Tuesday, he referred to the porn joke as “tasteless” and added that he regrets both that joke and an onstage Nazi salute that drew criticism.
Healy didn’t directly respond to Banks at this point, but deleted his posts about slapping her and added: “That was not cool even if I was angry.” The conversation didn’t end there. It only moved to their DMs. In a series of screenshots shared by Banks, Healy continued to apologize. “Babe l’m not inciting racial violence against you intentionally or unintentionally this was just like a bar fight,” he told her. “If I thought this would hit you deep I would have never said anything l’m sorry man.” He added: “Ok well I hear your point – I also know that you know i was just telling you to shut up. I did it badly. I feel like we both are guilty of doing things that make others feel bad or victimised tbh.” At least he’s self-aware.
But Banks has moved beyond apologies. She claims to be preparing to take legal action against Healy. “He’s been in my DM apologizing and begging me not to sue but I’m fucking tired,” she posted. “And people are gonna learn some fucking respect.” A few tweets later, Banks referred to Thailand as a “septic tank of a country,” took aim at Healy’s history with heroin addiction, and doubled down on her claim that Charli XCX “has horrible plastic surgery.”
In the midst of their battle, Healy remarked that he had reached the point at which he would normally deactivate his account. He only recently rejoined the site under the username @Gooodmorninguys, having deactivated his longtime @trumanblack account in 2020; Banks, too, has been sending all these tweets from an account she registered in 2023 with the username @azealiaslacewig. (Her bio: “rantings of a lunatic.”) Both of them are still there for now. But it wouldn’t be the worst idea for them to both log off and consider tossing all of their devices with internet access into a large body of water.
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