Ice Spice’s manager James Rosemond Jr. criticized her former friend Cleotrapa amid beef over tour issues on Tuesday (September 3). Rosemond defended his artist after Cleotrapa bashed Ice Spice for alleged mistreatment.
“This is what happens when an artist’s team dont manage their artists expectations when an opportunity comes in front of them,” Rosemond wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “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. 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.”
He continued, “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. But some artists just don’t know how to come out with HITS so they crash out and go on rants.”
Cleotrapa claimed she was told her expenses would be covered when Ice Spice invited the lesser-known rapper on tour. Cleotrapa said she was forced to pay for her hotel rooms and dress in bathrooms instead of dressing rooms, among other grievances. She mentioned one incident in which Ice Spice’s team refused to buy her a chicken salad despite Cleotrapa’s hunger.
Ice Spice insisted she was “genuinely trying to help” Cleotrapa. Rosemond blamed Cleotrapa’s team for not explaining the realities of the touring situation to her.
“My team spoke to the artist’s mngr this morning & the artist’s mngr said he blames himself becuz he pushed his client to stay becuz it was a great opportunity…but he knows his client is 100% wrong,” Rosemond wrote. “The mngr realized his client didn’t have the financial backin to be on the tour.”
Rosemond accused Cleotrapa of clout chasing. He believed Cleotrapa’s complaints were misguided.
“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 handle from a private phone call to speak on differences,” he wrote. “I’m big on fairness & unity, peace & love. Best way to live to sleep at night.But we have to be grateful of opportunities that we get. Sometimes the experience is NOT what we expected & that’s OK. You learn from it & move forward. The public bashing just means therapy is needed.”
Listen to Ice Spice’s response to Cleotrapa below.