The Ice Spice and Cleotrapa Drama Explained

Just over a month after the Central Cee and Madeline Argy drama exploded, Ice Spice is at the center of another controversy, this time with fellow New York rapper Cleotrapa.

Cleotrapa, who was featured in the "In Ha Mood" music video, is known as one of Ice Spice's friends on the scene and was most recently one of her opening acts on the U.S. leg of her Y2K! Tour. Now, Cleotrapa has taken to TikTok to criticize how Ice Spice allegedly treated her while on tour and explain why their friendship is no more, and Ice Spice has responded with her side of the situation.

To get the whole story, we have compiled a complete timeline of the Ice Spice and Cleotrapa feud, starting way before Cleo's tell-all TikTok series. Keep scrolling for the full explainer.

Fellow musician Baby Storme, who was also Ice Spice's friend, claimed Ice Spice was using Cleotrapa. "This is Cleo. The girl she chose to be her 'best friend to the public.' when in reality, it was me behind the scenes. Cleo & her are not really best friends. Isis has always hated Cleo. But she used her so she could appear 'closer to blackness.' she also lied about being Nigerian. She stole that from me," Baby Storme wrote on X.

In May, Baby Storme took to X to post a screenshot of an alleged conversation with Ice Spice. In the messages, Ice Spice allegedly calls Cleotrapa "mad fake." Baby Storme captioned the post: "Fake friends gotta stick together." She shared the screengrab quoteretweeting a picture of Ice Spice and Cleotrapa together.

Fans first noticed Cleotrapa and Ice Spice were no longer following each other on September 2, just days after the U.S. leg of Ice Spice's tour ended. Replying to a fan who claimed Cleotrapa "was about that bag and nothing else," the star admitted she was not paid for being part of the tour. "Yall thinking I got paid is hilarious. I was played, betrayed & unpaid," Cleo wrote in a comment. "I never had a problem with not being paid btw," she continued in another post. "I knew. I just want everyone to stop thinking I was paid cause I wasn't."

Cleotrapa accused Ice Spice of being a "fake friend" in a six-part video series posted on her TikTok account. In the videos, Cleotrapa said she and Ice Spice met two years ago and went on to explain why they were not friends anymore. "You deserve to know who that girl is as a human being," she said.

Going on to discuss her involvement in the Y2K! Tour, Cleotrapa claimed she was only given a day to prepare for the tour and was initially taken aback that Ice Spice even asked her to join her since "she had never brought [her] out on stage."

Cleotrapa then speculated the reason Ice Spice invited her on tour was "to make up for that fake sh*t that got exposed a month ago." Cleotrapa claimed she felt Ice Spice was "really trying to be an actual friend" and admitted she had "checked" her about the situation and "for her to apologize it was like pulling teeth."

Cleotrapa also claimed her involvement in the tour received no promo from Ice Spice or her team and that her name was not even included in the bills, but things reached a turning point when she received no help carrying luggage from a venue to the hotel and when she was expected to pay for her own lodging at a five-star hotel — despite Ice Spice apparently saying she wouldn't have to cover her own expenses. Cleotrapa also claimed she had no room backstage during her involvement in the tour, unlike other invited guests, and that she was initially not allowed to bring anyone, though her assistant joined her at a point.

Cleotrapa also recounted an instance where she was denied a chicken salad because she was "not a part of the budget" and expressed that throughout the tour, she felt like Ice Spice was "not really her friend." She also said there was one instance where Ice Spice and her team had food at a steakhouse and she and two other people were not invited.

Cleotrapa also went on to share a screen recording of a private message chain with Ice Spice where she aired her grievances about the tour but stated that she "wasn't mad," to which Spice replied she was "ungrateful." Ultimately, she alleged she felt she was invited on tour to "damage control the situation with Baby Storme."

In the captions for her videos, Cleotrapa added more details about her side of the story. "Ion wanna hear 'i told you so cleo' cause honestly i really thought i had a friend idc. Yall not gonnq create false narratives! Cause imma always clear my name up & yall been knew that since 2018," she wrote. "i love how much she showed me she didnt give af! Like girl finally show me your character & who you really are & been!"

"I want to apologize to my fans who been tryna say i was the Token black friend. Its all good yall will never see me with that girl again. That's it for this & i feel soooooooooo relieved whew ???? now yall can stop making up stories," she added.

Ice Spice addressed Cleotrapa's comments while chatting to fans in a public X space. "Y'all know this is not funny. Crashing out is sad, you guys," Ice Spice said. "The scary part of fame, honestly, is the moment that somebody feels like they can no longer use your platform, or, like, they are not getting exactly what they want out of a situation they way that they want it, you know what I mean? That's when they decide to crash out every single time."

"I'm noticing a pattern," Ice Spice continued. "And this sh*t is sad because I genuinely was trying to help her. I was like, 'Yo, do you want to just come on this tour? You know what I'm saying, you could just, like, join.' Like mad last minute. What had actually happened is that we added another tour bus so I'm like, 'Now we have extra room. We have extra bunks.' So I was like, 'Oh, let me see if Cleo wants to come with me so she could do her songs and stuff like that.' But that's what the f*ck I get for trying to be a good person. It's whatever, bro."

Ice Spice claimed Cleotrapa left out "so many details" about her time on tour, recalling their time together at a theme park. "B*tch, we was having fun, so for you to try to sit here and complain about a chicken salad? You never came to me talking about a chicken salad, what are you really talking about right now? Are you gon' send me a whole message after tour? Like you just gon' just get off the bus. I don't even know you got off the bus and you gon' send me an essay with an intro, body, and conclusion, and you want me to try to analyze this sh*t and figure out how I'm wrong when all I did was share my stage with you? When I ain't even have to do that."

"You got less than 10,000 listeners and I'm sharing my stage with you and you feeling so entitled," Ice Spice continued.

Ice Spice ended her speech saying: "The whole thing that's blowing me right now is talking about some dark energy, trying to compare a tour bus to a slave ship. Like, what are you talking about right now? What? That is crazy to me, bro. That is so crazy to me. You're really gon' be friends with somebody for two years, but the whole time you feel like they soulless and dark? Like, you sound dumb as hell, b*tch. If anything, we both need saving. What the f*ck are you talking about, bro? We was at the movie theaters, we was cyphin'. B*tch, you not gon' tell the people how we was at an Italian restaurant and you ate so much f*cking food, you f*cking vacuum, that the server was like, where did the food go? Stop it right now."

As the feud reached new levels, Baby Storme quoted her own post from May adding: “I tried to warn you & you just threatened to beat me up. Nevertheless, I'm sorry that happened to you.”

Cleotrapa responded to Baby Storme, writing: "Oh I threatened to beat you up cause you was doing all that cause was mad at ice. It didn't give you had any respect for me boo You really could've dm'd me from the jump with that whole situation if you was on some real b*tch sh*t word but thank you."

Ice Spice seemingly mocked Cleotrapa with a poll posted on her X account. "On my flight bored so lets play would u rather !!" she posted with the options "Be a mean bad b*tch" and "Be a stupid bum b*tch." She posted a second poll for "what should I do for dinner" with the options "Steakhouse" or "chicken salad."

Ice Spice's manager James Rosemond Jr. addressed the duo's "beef" in now-deleted posts on X. "This is what happens when an artist's team dont manage their artists expectations when an opportunity comes in front of them. If you not prepared for an opportunity and your team isn't properly advancing then that's on them. Not on us offering the opportunity," he wrote. "You have to invest in yourself, aka pay expenses if need be for the opportunity. It's corny. Someone gives you an opportunity and this is the thanks the person gets. Openers dont have same things headliners has. The Entitlement and ego are crazy."

"My team spoke to the artist's [manager] this morning & the artist's [manager] said he blames himself [because] he pushed his client to stay [because] it was a great opportunity..but he knows his client is 100% wrong. The [manager] realized his client didn't have the financial [backing] to be on the tour," Rosemond Jr.  added in another post, which Cleotrapa responded to. "The way he lying LMFAOOO my manager ain't speak to that man cause why tf would he be chattin afterwards," she responded to a fan.

After Ice Spice's X space, Cleotrapa seemingly accused Ice Spice of using Ozempic to lose weight in one of her tweets, an allegation Ice Spice had recently denied on social media. "Imagine being called big by someone that was just big. I'm going to bed bro ozempic got yall gassed & fatphobic now? BET" Cleotrapa wrote on X.

After the drama exploded, Azealia Banks took to her X account to side with Cleotrapa. "I don't like how everyone is trying to make Cleotrapa look. Any f*cking who @iamcleotrapa will be performing with me on Halloween Oct 31. at @Terminal5NYC. She will - be paid, have her own space to glam, whatever she wants on her rider.. because I have f*cking respect & class," Banks posted. Cleotrapa acknowledged Banks' support, quoting the original post with a kiss emoji.

Banks continued to show support for Cleotrapa in another post, replying to a fan who claimed "Ice Spice used Cleotrapa like Cardi B uses Star Brim for the BLACK LOOK," writing: "Why do these narratives that a black woman like star brim couldn't simply be deserving of a good sis to come thru when she's in need of assistance. Why does a black womans' worthiness' need to be contingent upon what she has to offer. These narratives actually do the opposite of what the people who craft them think. You're not making cardi look like a bad person so much as you're dehumanizing star brim and deeming her inherently unworthy of good friends simply because she is black. I really wish we could stop pushing the idea that black women are undeserving of love, protection, friendships, and happiness and erase the notion of black womanhood being inherently consequential. It's dehumanizing and not the mic drop u thought it was."

On September 5, after the drama reached new levels, Cleotrapa posted a cryptic note to her Instagram stories. "Tf," she wrote in white letters over a black background without context.

Courtesy of Instagram/Cleotrapa

Teen Vogue has reached out to Ice Spice's team for further comments. We will keep updating this story as more details break.