The 1975’s Matty Healy Says He’ll ‘Stick to Music’ After Heated Social Media Exchange With Azealia Banks

Matty Healy is stepping back after a heated back-and-forth social media exchange with Azealia Banks.

“Guys I don’t have the right kind of intelligence / emotional maturity etc for social media I literally just end up saying stuff that immediately regret etc,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday (Dec. 4). “I’m actually just gonna stick to music cos I’m good at that. Having manic episodes on twitter at 35 is kinda pathetic.”

The post was seemingly in reference to his feud with Banks, which started when the “Liquorice” rapper took aim at Charli XCX, who is engaged to Healy’s The 1975 bandmate George Daniel. Banks called out the “360” singer’s looks, saying she “used to be soooo pretty. Ugh.”

In response, Healy wrote, “Azealia you seem to have a blind spot when it comes to your ‘reads’. 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.”

The reply spawned a sequence of aggressive words between the two, and while Healy deleted a number of his posts in the feud, he at one point threatened to “slap” Banks after she began throwing jabs at his fiancée, Gabbriette. “The b—- look like Frankenstein to me. You both look like you share needles. Lmao,” Banks wrote when Healy claimed he would “use my mental illness to full affect” and “dox” anyone who were to attack Gabi.

Healy then wrote to Banks, “I now you think your life is some episode of the library is open but I am not the one. Talk to me like that I’m not gonna side eye you at an awards do I’m going to f—ing slap you so hard I’ll get a Guinness world record for the highest a rat some b—- calls a wig has ever flown.”

However, the “So American” singer quickly took back his words and deleted the post, then asking Banks to “sort this out on the remix,” adding, “Nah I can’t be saying I’m gonna hit a girl that’s insane I’m sorry. You just can’t keep being so mean about my mates and my mrs it’s really hurtful gets me well defensive.”

“She’d f—in batter me tbf,” he continued.

Banks then threatened to sue Healy, and leaked DMs in which he apologized to her. She concluded by attacking The 1975 frontman for getting “fined 4m for kissing a man on stage In Malaysia, doing a nazi salute, watching violent porn, being a heroin addict, writing s—ty songs, randomly attacking black women and caping for trash white b—-es. I question the women who associate with him. I’m signing off for today, because my anger is really really really boiling.”

Some of Banks’ post was in reference to Healy stirring up controversy in 2023 when he made racist and sexist remarks about rapper Ice Spice on the Adam Friedland Show, during which he and the hosts made jokes about the rapper sounding like an “Inuit Spice Girl” and looking like a “chubby Chinese lady” before performing racist accents. After one of the men suggested Healy should have asked the MC about her ethnic background while dropping an Inuit ethnic slur, Healy called Ice Spice “dumb.” He later somewhat apologized for his comments.

Healy also kissed his bandmate Ross MacDonald for an extended period of time onstage at Good Vibes Festival in Malaysia in July 2023, but the set came to an abrupt end after he spoke out against the country’s stances on LGBTQ+ rights.

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.