Album Review: Y2K! by Ice Spice
The debut album from Ice Spice, aka the meme rapper from the neighborhood, tries to reach for the stars, as evident on her debut EP, and fails miserably.
Ice Spice has made significant strides in her career last year, marked notably by her collaboration with PinkPantheress on “Boys a Liar Pt. 2.” Her ascent continued with “Barbie World,” her second collaboration with Nicki Minaj, following the remix of “Princess Diana.” This trajectory brought her to the brink of pop stardom, a status cemented when she was named Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards in September. During the awards, her close relationship with Taylor Swift and an emotional acceptance speech highlighted her evening. In an interview with Complex, Ice Spice mentioned that while she disregards comments from random individuals on social media, she values feedback from critics.
She is the internet’s favorite personality, whether it’s for her charm and charisma or for the free spirit she conveys in her songs. The 24-year-old is a rapper from the Bronx, queer and interactive in the culture of social networks and memes, making her relatable and able to attract the public to her content. At least that was enough to make her big song “Munch (Feelin’ U)” go immensely viral in 2022. If you listen to it, you quickly discover why the trade press like Pitchfork is so crazy about it. Drill hasn’t had a natural pop face for a long time, at least not since Pop Smoke died.
Ice Spice makes an entirely different style of drill; sample drill has kept Brooklyn under control in recent years, so cheesy love ballads with this typical and imported from England bass saw, preferably via some cheesy or TikTok-friendly R&B loops. “Munch (Feelin’ U)” and “Bikini Bottom” don’t need this sound gimmick because Ice Spice has what all the Dougie Bs and B-Lovees don’t necessarily have: charisma. Her voice usually sounds too chilled; she has this feeling of someone who doesn’t necessarily rap super-long yet, but you can argue that she has developed a pretty cool rap voice just because of it.
On the EP Like…? from last year, the American rapper shows her star power, taking the beats magnetically and effortlessly dictating everything that comes to mind about her rapid rise to fame and how her self-confidence helped her get there, even if she sometimes ends up stumbling along the way and making the same mistakes as her idols. You would think that by increasing the diversity of her songs, Isis Gaston could become one of the most exciting woman rappers of the new decade. This was not the case for Y2K!, which will make the runner-up for the serious contender for the worst album of 2024.
But first, can we talk about the album artwork? Revealed in early June, the artwork immediately became the target of a month-long critique, with many suggesting that the Bronx rapper might have leaned on AI for its creation and criticized it for lacking originality. Ice Spice, however, did not retreat from her artistic choice; she even introduced an alternative cover influenced by 2000s aesthetics. Despite these reactions, Ice Spice has no reason to apologize for her work. Adopting a bold and deliberate tacky style, she has stayed true to an authentic hip-hop tradition and garnered attention for her new project. The decision to embrace such an aesthetic was intentional, aimed at achieving a specific outcome, but the music isn’t much better.
You don’t go to Ice Spice for any lyricism but for bops (as there’s nothing to break down), but they all sound like one-string songs attached, especially having RIOTUSA as your sole producer. “Think U the Shit (Fart)” is laughable that it’s cringe with a gimmicky Jersey Club beat, “Gimme a Light” ruins a Sean Paul sample, and “Phat Butt” sounds like a knock-off of Nicki Minaj’s track with the way she’s rhyming over it by flow and cadence; however it does make for one of the select better moments. “Oh Sh…” with Travis Scott brings much-needed life into Y2K!, but other features like Central Cee (with the PR-based relationship track, “Did It First”) and Gunna (“Bitch I’m Packin’”) do nothing, but fill in the blanks like a multiple choice on a school assignment.
Speaking of her flow and cadence, Ice’s rapping is predictable in every fashion. Even if she’s getting loud with her delivery, nobody’s moving. When spitting on Drill beats, Ice Spice raps as if her teacher gives her timed repeated readings by putting her under a thirty-second recording time limit at the studio. It doesn’t help her basic rhyme skills of using the “op” word list with bop, flop, and opps multiple times in her music, but you must give her props that some of the production is catchy. She may need a co-writer to help with her clear direction because most of the album’s songs don’t sound fleshed out.
Although she doesn’t consider herself a ‘lyricist,’ and rightfully so, she has a few of the worst bars that would make Lil Wayne’s I Am Not a Human Being II feel like a classic. The eighth track of Y2K! has the following opening lines: “You think you the shit? Bitch, you not even the fart!” The follow-up track with the “Gimme the Light” sample has Ice Spice saying, “I’m Miss Poopie like I need a diaper.” What’s up with the infatuation with farts and poops? Beyond that, there is no variety, and its shortlisting makes this album longer than it is. The irony of “these bitchеs bitin’ on my flows” shows no self-awareness, considering she sounds like her idol, plus the tired subliminal warfare with Latto goes nowhere.
The label 10K Projects contracts them for Capitol, and some things become more apparent: these are the grandmasters of viral stunt marketing, also responsible for Internet Money, Trippie Redd, formerly 6ix9ine or Iann Dior and Leah Kate. This is the point at which you know that the young lady from New York will not give it a rest so soon. She has the songs (maybe), she has the swagger (kind of on “BB Belt”), and she has the infrastructure (correct with “Plenty Sun”). However, with a debut album like this, that spans 23-minutes long, Ice Spice has nothing to offer musically, and will eventually fade away.
Subpar (★★☆☆☆)
Favorite Track(s): “Phat Butt,” “Ohh Sh…”