In just a few weeks, it will have been two years since Ice Spice burst onto the scene with her hit single ‘Munch’, and her meteoric ascent to fame has showed no signs of slowing down. She has collaborated with high-profile artists such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Kanye West, and her every move has been the subject of much discussion – from her lyrics and album artwork to the way she markets her music. Ice Spice’s debut album is therefore the perfect opportunity for this native of the Bronx, Isis Gaston, to take advantage of the hype surrounding her name and release a project that justifies all the attention she has received thus far.
On ‘Y2K!’, the 24-year-old rapper spits menacing lyrics, sounding at times like the master of the game. Her disses aimed at anyone who she feels has wronged her are particularly precise and cutting. In ‘Gimmie A Light’, she effortlessly asks “And no, I don’t got any opps / Why would I beef with a flop?”. One of her biggest rivals was at the other end of her derisive burn on ‘Think U The Shit (Fart)’ when she coldly raps, “Think you the shit? / Bitch, you not even the fart.” ‘Popa’ sees Ice Spice whispering, almost threateningly, “I loved him / I was trollin’”.
It is required to move away from the moral high ground in order to appreciate a lot of Ice Spice’s lyrics on this album – one of her favourite topics being how she loves to steal other women’s men. Sometimes, she gives them playful praises, like on ‘Bitch I’m Packin”, featuring Gunna, where she raps “His bitch ride it really good / But I got better knees”. However, in other instances, she is biting with her remarks. On ‘BB Belt’, she states, “He got a bitch, but he know I don’t tell / I’m a baddie, so fck how she felt.”
Although her subject matter remains constant, Ice Spice experiments with new things on ‘Y2K!’. Trap elements seep into the heavy drill beats, and she plays with her voice throughout the album, finding different ways to switch up her delivery. She mimics the spaced-out daze of someone with their head in the clouds on ‘Bitch I’m Packin’: “Bad as fck, on a magazine / High as fck, what is happening?”, while ‘Plenty Sun’ sees her lower her voice, adding to her composed delivery.
While ‘Y2K!’ has a lot of highlights, there are also a couple of lowlights. ‘Oh Shhh…’, featuring Travis Scott, is frustratingly repetitive, while ‘TTYL’ is unremarkable, with its sluggish beat lacking the spark needed to make it memorable. Ice’s continued use of her nickname ‘Miss Poopie’ (first introduced on ‘Deli’ from her debut EP ‘Like..?’) is neither good nor bad, just plain confusing.
Despite some filler tracks, Ice Spice’s debut album ‘Y2K!’ shows a lot of potential and won’t put the brakes on her rapid ascent. It’s not a masterpiece that will silence all critics but, with how quickly she has shot to fame, it is easy to forget that she is still early on in her career and there is plenty of room and time for her to grow.
‘Release Date: July 26, 2024
Record Label: 10K Projects/Capitol Records
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