Ice Spice‘s manager has responded to the beef between his client and her now-former friend Cleotrapa following a falling out while on tour together.
The issues began on Monday (August 2) when Cleo alleged that the “Munch” hitmaker had “mistreated” her on her Y2K! Tour.
In a five-part TikTok series, the rapper claimed that Ice had invited her to open for her on the road and reassured her that they would share rooms and that she would be looked after.
However, things apparently started to go south when Cleo was allegedly neglected by Ice’s security and left to carry her own bags, while also being denied other amenities that were given to the Bronx rap star.
In a series of since-deleted posts on X, Ice’s manager James Rosemond, Jr. (son of Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond), explained in depth why he feels the issue falls solely on Cleotrapa and her team.
“This is what happens when an artists team don’t manage their artists expectations when an opportunity comes in front of them,” he explained. “If you not prepared for an opportunity and your team isn’t properly advancing, that’s on them. Not on us offering the opportunity. 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 things the person gets. Openers don’t have same things headliners have. The entitlement and ego are crazy. An artist (and their team) needs to know what to do when these opportunities come their way they need to know how to leverage it to advance their career.”
He continued: “But some artists just don’t know how to come out with hits so they crash out and go on rants. If another big air artist hit my client and says come on tour with him or her with one day to prepare. As the manager, I would advise my client this is risky. I would then connect with the other artist management and agent immediately to advance logistics to see if it makes sense. To avoid hiccups.
“Two artists can’t speak on logistics and business and agree on it same day without proper representation thoroughly talking through management needed to advise properly their client and get ahead of any potential hiccups. I’m not allowing my client to go out on the road without me advancing it.”
He went on to say that he connected with Cleotrapa’s manager following the TikTok drama, and that the manager took full accountability for the issues.
“My team spoke to the artist manager this morning and the artist manager said he blames himself because he’s pushed his client to stay because it was a great opportunity… But he knows his client is 100% wrong. The manager realize his client didn’t have the financial backing to be on the tour.”
He also noted that he hates that people can make up their own narrative on social media without trying to solve the issues in private, then alleged that Cleotrapa needed therapy.
“What rubs me the wrong way is we live in TikTok/social media economy where people know how to go viral for [clout] and they go public with something that can be handled from a private phone call to speak on differences. I’m big on fairness and unity, peace and love. Best way to live to sleep at night.”
He concluded: “But we have to be grateful of opportunities that we get. Sometimes the experience is not what we expected and and that’s OK. You learn from it and move forward the public bashing just means therapy is needed.”
In her original video set, Cleo said she eventually confronted Ice about her luggage grievances, after which point she was further ostracized from the Y2K! rapper, including being denied access to Ice’s dressing room and told to change in a bathroom.
Cleo further claimed that the tour production team told her that she wasn’t in the budget and refused to pay for a chicken salad.
“This girl was really mad at me for saying something about that luggage,” she added. “She don’t want nobody to say nothing to her. She tried to lowkey torture me.”
The New Yorker suspects that she was asked to join Ice Spice on tour simply to “clean up” the rapper’s image following her previous spat with former friend Baby Storme.
After Cleotrapa’s lengthy rant went viral, Ice Spice hopped on X Spaces to address the allegations.
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“Crashing out is sad, you guys,” she said. “The scary part of fame, honestly, is the moment that somebody feels like they can no longer use your platform or they’re not getting exactly what they want out of a situation the way that they want it. That’s when they decide to crash out every single time. I’m noticing a pattern.
“This shit is sad because I genuinely was trying to help her […] What had actually happened is that we added another tour bus so I was like, ‘Now we have extra room, we have extra bunks.’ So I was like, ‘Oh, let me see if Cleo wants to come so she can do her songs.’ But that’s what the fuck I get for trying to be a good person.”
The 24-year-old also accused Cleo of deliberately omitting “so many” positive details about her tour experience, including them having fun together at an amusement park.
