Ice Spice opens her hotly anticipated debut album by grunting “uh, man”, an obvious nod to Nicki Minaj’s 2012 single, ‘Beez in the Trap’. This sets the tone for the rest of Y2K!, a fairly unambitious effort that lives in the shadows of the artists revered and rebuked by Ice throughout the record.
After a slew of viral singles and a successful EP released in January 2023, Y2K! marks Ice’s formal musical debut. Clocking in at 10 tracks with a runtime of just 23 minutes, the album is definitely short, but its sonic and thematic sameness make it feel a whole lot longer.
A Bronx native, Ice Spice is known for her coolly unbothered flow and her ear for a catchy hook — she rose to fame on TikTok with her 2022 single ‘Munch (Feelin’ U)’, a track that is infectiously replayable, largely due to her cool delivery over an irresistible drill beat, but in some part due to its sub-two-minute length.
Since then, she’s gone on to collaborate with the likes of PinkPantheress and Taylor Swift on various chart-topping pop singles. Her musical brand has become largely built around shaking ass, making money, and dissing her haters and rivals: on ‘Barbie World’, her second collaboration with Nicki Minaj and her highest-charting UK single, she raps, “I keep draggin’ her, so she bald a bit / And I see the bread, I want all of it.”
So perhaps it was naive to expect that on her debut album, Ice might give us something different (as promised in an interview with Billboard earlier this year). Y2K! — so-called due to Ice’s birthdate rather than the album bearing any musical resemblance to the hip hop of the 2000s — was produced in full by longtime collaborator, RiotUSA. Riot, who has produced Ice’s entire discography excluding features, once again employs his signature Bronx drill sound, heavy on the 808s and stuttering hi-hats.
On an album with a runtime of only 23 minutes, she dedicates 2 out of 10 tracks to her ass, ‘Phat Butt’ and ‘Popa’ (“popa” being an English translation of a Russian word for “ass”). She also makes various swipes throughout the record at her fellow female rappers, including Latto and Cardi B — on ‘Phat Butt’, she alludes to her ongoing feud with Latto: “got these bitches copyin’ my pose / got these bitches bitin’ on my flows”. She also pays extensive lip service to Nicki Minaj, perhaps in an attempt to put rumours of a feud to rest. On ‘Popa’, she directly compares herself to Minaj, when she says, “bad bitches, I’m your leader”, in reference to ‘I Am Your Leader’ from 2012’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.
There are no features from Minaj or any female rappers on this record, though. There’s ‘Oh Shhh…’, a collab with Travis Scott, a completely unremarkable track that is indistinguishable from her collab with Gunna, ‘Bitch I’m Packin’’. It feels a bit phoned in as both featured verses could easily slot into either track.
Relief comes in the form of track 6, ‘Did It First’, the album’s fourth single, which is light and breezy and so much fun. This is where Riot’s production shines: its looping vocal sample is utterly addictive when combined with a bouncy Jersey club groove. Ice’s playful lyricism is at its best here, highlighting her ability to pen a great hook — “if he’s cheatin’, I’m doin’ him worse / no Uno, I hit the reverse”. A feature from Central Cee only serves to elevate this track, his flow and energy naturally complimenting Riot’s production. As is the case with the best Ice tracks, we’re left wanting more.
Unfortunately by track 7, it’s back to more of the same. On ‘BB Belt’, Ice raps over a dark drill beat about “countin’ up hundreds” as her man is “lovin’ [her] frame”. It’s wholly unexceptional fare, except for a line where Ice quips that “I’m his poopie, but I never smell.” Fans have remarked upon Ice’s seeming obsession with defecation, and this record doesn’t do much to beat those allegations. On ‘Plenty Sun’, she recalls how “Birdy took a fake perc, now he got tummy runs”; on ‘Gimmie a Light’, she declares, “I’m Miss Poopie like I need a diaper”, and then there’s the album’s lead single, ‘Think U the Shit (Fart)’.
‘Think U the Shit’ has an awesome funky synth line combined with a thumping beat, but is let down by its juvenile hook: “think you the shit, bitch? / You not even the fart”. What could be slightly amusing as a one-time gag has quickly become crude and rather bizarre as Ice continues to pen these lyrics, making toilet humour something of a trademark for her.
On the album’s closer, ‘TTYL’, Ice makes reference to 60s soul classic ‘I Say a Little Prayer’, as she raps, “first thing when I wake up / I make sure my cake up / I do my hair, put a lil’ bit of makeup”. Her energy is great — she comes onto the track swinging, ready to pop off at her haters, but she’s once again let down by some very safe, very samey production.
Ultimately, Y2K! lacks the catchy hooks and playful soundbites that made Ice so famous. Her excellent flow and varied vocal delivery shine through, but its woefully uninteresting production and stale lyrical themes have held her back. By the end of Y2K!’s very brief runtime, I find that I don’t know very much about who Ice Spice is, outside of shaking her ass, doing her dance, and counting her bands. Maybe that’s just who she is. Maybe that’s all she has to say. But don’t blame the audience if they get bored of listening.
Words by Imogen Fahey
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