It’s been a mere 5 months since Ice Spice went viral with “Munch (Feeling U),” a coldly environment friendly putdown of the alternative intercourse that earned her a million-dollar take care of the label 10K Initiatives. The Bronx rapper has generated headlines from gossip of us ever since. She was feted by Drake…or is that dissed by him on “BackOutsideBoyz”? She shook her goodies on TikTok in celebration of her 23rd birthday. She impressed a lame “Ice Spice” homage by Memphis rapper NLE Choppa, the price of doing enterprise in an trade the place each lady is overanalyzed as a “hottie” and attracts backside feeders who need to “shoot their shot.” Her tentative appearances at festivals like Rolling Loud NYC had been dissected and criticized. Attractive social-media gawkers pretended to see her in a grainy intercourse tape, prompting her to reply, “U guys need them faux ass leaks to be me so unhealthy simply so u can go beat your lil soiled meat to it.”
Because the rap world beats its soiled little meat to the Ice Spice Expertise, it’s value remembering that her music will finally decide whether or not she’s the subsequent Cardi B. Her debut EP, Like..?, is a mandatory reminder. Produced completely by RIOTUSA, the entire thing lasts a mere quarter-hour, floats between drill variations and New Jersey membership type, and consists of beforehand launched materials similar to “Munch (Feeling U)” and subsequent singles “Bikini Backside” and “In Ha Temper.” Nonetheless, she successfully recenters consideration on the aim at hand.
Lyrically, Like serves as a testomony to the politics of attraction. “Fairly bitch, however I got here from the gutter,” Ice Spice boasts over the R’N’Drill rhythm of “In Ha Temper,” calling herself a “fairly bitch like Lauryn with a big-ass butt.” On the hard-drill showcase “Princess Diana,” she appropriates a TikTok meme evaluating her to the late British royal. Rapping alongside visitor Lil Tjay, she needs a “Gangsta Boo,” referring to an enormous stepper who likes the “diamonds dancing” on her jewellery. The observe not solely implicitly pays homage to the just lately deceased Southern rap icon, but additionally samples P. Diddy and Ginuwine’s jiggy-rap traditional “I Want a Woman Half Two.” However she’s not proof against the charms of ladies. For these of us who keep in mind when Queen Pen was shamed in 1997 for her bi-curious observe “Girlfriend,” the offhand method Ice Spice raps, “I like niggas/Bitches, too” on “Bikini Backside” seems like main progress.
Ice Spice expresses all of it with preternatural confidence. She has a easy, deep voice that glides over RIOTUSA’s beats, and her chopping supply feels easy. If these tracks appear a bit too sympatico, maybe the results of studio freestyles with a swiftly mapped-out hook to tie them collectively, their uncooked high quality additionally makes her performances visceral and thrilling. Few desire a return to the ponderously maximalist enviornment rap of the early 2010s, even when it’s clear that she will be able to enhance as a songwriter. A full-length album reportedly due this 12 months ought to carry additional progress.
Final month in Interview journal, Erykah Badu and her daughter Puma Curry gave Ice Spice their blessing. “The chances are monumental and exquisite,” raved Badu. Even the neo-soul legend is aware of that, for the second, the world belongs to Ice Spice.