Matty Healy kind of apologizes to Ice Spice, but not for the rest of the controversial podcast episode

Matty Healy has apologized to Ice Spice for a podcast interview in which he and the hosts mocked Chinese and Inuit in regards to the rapper.

The 1975 frontman came under fire for comments he made during an episode of Adam Friedland Show Podcast in February.

At one point in the podcast, Healy mentioned US rapper Ice Spice, who he claims tried to message him on Instagram.

Healy, Friedland and comedian Nick Mullen then seemed to confuse their heritage by referring to them as Inuit and Chinese, mimicking and mocking the accents of both.

Mullen called the American rapper an “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese”.

As reported by Rolling StoneHealy, 34, addressed the comments during a 1975 concert in New Zealand.

The musician and son of Denise Welch said he doesn’t like being famous and that he “makes a joke of everything” and “can sometimes take it too far in front of too many people”.

“Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It wasn’t because I was angry that my joke was misunderstood. Because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m an asshole. I love you Ice Spice. I’m so sorry,” he said.

The Independent has reached out to an Ice Spice representative – real name Isis Naija Gaston, 23 – for comment.

However, Healy failed to address broader criticism of the podcast appearance, during which he encouraged hosts to give impressions of Japanese working in concentration camps, and later joined in himself.

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The group also made a number of derogatory comments about women during the interview.

Within 15 minutes of starting the podcast, Healy told Friedland that he was going to “fuck” Friedland’s sister because “she’s hot.”

They also spoke about Scots, a recognized indigenous language, which they seem to have confused with the Scottish accent.

“Scottish is its own language, it’s like English left behind,” remarked one of the hosts, while Healey described it as “medieval”.

At another point, while talking about a gambling website, one of the hosts joked that “they have child porn on the site”.

Healy replied: “Shout out!”

On Twitter, listeners branded the conversation “fucking gross” and called on Healy to participate.

Earlier this month, the podcast episode was pulled from both Apple and Spotify. It’s still available on YouTube.

His representatives did not respond The Independent‘s request for podcast comments.