For Taylor Swift, karma is her boyfriend, God, and now, her best friend, in the form of Ice Spice. On May 26, Swift released her remix of "Karma," which features the rising rapper as part of Midnights (The 'Til Dawn Edition) , which also includes a new version of "Snow on the Beach”, more featuring Lana Del Rey and the streaming release of the ex-Target bonus track “Hits Different.”
In the remix, Ice Spice takes over the second verse and makes her own karma comparison, saying karma is "beautiful girls who win beauty pageants" and "fire in your house," which may be a reference to Swift on A nod to the burning house in Lovers' House. A journey through the ages. “She never leaves you alone,” she raps. "Watch her put your rival on the throne/Made you wave the pretty white flag, pay for that money/Thought it would save you, now you change your behavior/It's okay baby, you don't have to worry, karma "Power never gets lazy." She also added a new riff to the song, calling Karma "her good friend" and stating "The Truth" in the background of Swift's bridge.
Ice Spice has been sharing lyrics on Twitter and posting new photos of her and Swift on Instagram Story to celebrate their collaboration. "The sweetest man, thank you," she wrote on Twitter in response to Swift's statement. "I love Yoyo."
Swift revealed the collaboration with Ice Spice to Spotify, saying that their collaboration felt very natural. "She reached out through her team and just said, 'Hey, Ace has been a huge fan of Taylor's since she was a kid and she'd love to work with her if the opportunity ever came up,'" she recalled. Swift said she had been listening to her music "non-stop" while preparing for her Eras tour, when an idea popped into her head. "So I immediately got her phone number and said, 'Hey, do you want to do your version of 'Karma'? Do you have anything to do with that? So she jumped in head first."
The 12-time Grammy winner heaped praise on the artist, calling her "one to watch" in the music industry. "Getting to know her was so special because I was blown away by her ... just seeing her work ethic and how thoughtful she was about her career," she said. "She's like my new favorite artist and I'm honored to have her on this song. So, yeah, what a joy."
Of course, Swifties on Twitter (and Ice Spice himself) can't stop quoting the new lyrics, which are destined to dominate Instagram captions all summer long.
They also teased some of Ice Spice's new ad-libs, like when she utters "Truth" while Swift sings, "Karma brings all my friends to the top," hinting that this could be the tagline for the next Eras Tour.
Since "Karma" is the closing song on Swift's Eras tour setlist, fans are speculating that Ice Spice may be a special guest at one of her shows to perform the remix. For those lucky fans who were there, karma was indeed their best friend.
