Back in 2018, Grimes and Poppy joined forces for a collaboration called "Play Destroy," and we're still dealing with the repercussions in the year of our lord 2024. Shortly after the song's release, Poppy accused Grimes of "bullying" her while they were making it — to which Grimes said, "Let it go," among other things.
In the promo clip for Poppy's new Veeps series Improbably Poppy, the pop-metal singer born Moriah Rose Pereira made it clear that she has not taken that advice by cracking a joke about the Canadian artist. The video sees Poppy play a fortune teller, advising a passerby, "Grimes is going to ask you to be a surrogate to her child. Say yes. But don't go to the appointment. If you let her sing anything from her major-label releases to you, it's too late."
Never one to move in silence, the musician born Claire Boucher has responded via the social media platform driven into the ground by her bajillionaire ex, Elon Musk, claiming she's "tried to be a girls' girl" in this situation.
"Poppy is talented and doesn't need to lower herself to dredging up ancient drama to get people to listen to her music," Grimes wrote in a since-deleted tweet [via Stereogum]. "I don't understand these continued attempts to goad me into a public fight, all because I did not want to put out a song with her abusive boyfriend Titanic Sinclair (which they leaked anyway)."
She continued:
I don't claim any kind of moral authority. I understand how hard it is when the world is asking you to speak negatively about someone close to you who has done bad things.
I wish her the best and I hope one day she grows up and realizes that I've tried to be a girls girl here. I will not fight back, I won't pursue legal action, I will not get into the details. This is an entirely one sided situation.
I don't see the point in attacking ur friend while they take personal and professional hits for you.
Again, I don't claim any moral authority. I respect the friendship we once had and I have empathy for the rough spot she was in when she started doing this. I hope one day she is able to see who actually cares about her and who is standing up for her.
In a follow-up tweet, Grimes added, "Poppy had nothing to do with ['We Appreciate Power']. It bothers me that they continue this NDA nonsense, as far as I'm aware no NDAs have been proposed nor signed between her and I. I think it's reasonable [to] defend myself when I was accused of forcing her to sign an NDA, which I did not do. The only NDA that was signed was between myself and titanic in an attempt by me to try and not have titanic on the song they leaked, which he obviously broke anyway. And I did not pursue legal action against him regardless, because I don't see the point. Nor did I defend myself about what that was about when they leaked that. They continue to take these peace offerings as a sign that they can get press off this absurd mess. It should end now. Fr."
Poppy recently announced her forthcoming new album Negative Spaces (due November 15 on Sumerian Records), the title of which could certainly describe the spot her and Grimes's supposed one-time friendship is in. Meanwhile, Grimes has been tweeting a lot about Nietzsche.