The moment Ice Spice got the music industry’s attention came late in the summer of 2022, when she dropped the music video for “Munch (Feelin U).” Filmed at St. James Park in the Bronx, a few blocks from the apartment Ice grew up in, the video finds her flanked by a phalanx of baddies and rapping in an smoky, unbothered monotone rasp. The one-liners she dispenses in rapid succession—casual up-down glances and quick dismissals of lames—feel no less devastating than the brash lyrical gunplay of her New York drill forebearers Pop Smoke and Sheff G.
The moment Ice Spice became anointed as the next princess of rap came only a couple months later, when rapper and internet genius Lil Nas X posted a video of him dressed up as her in “Munch” for Halloween—complete with mint green bandeau top, nimbus of ginger curls, and safety orange talons.
In hindsight, Lil Nas X’s video was nothing less than a prophecy of Ice Spice’s incredible and nearly frictionless ride to the heart of the pop zeitgeist in 2023, which echoed his own 2019 breakout. In 2023, Ice released her debut EP; netted a bevy of top 5 singles on the Hot 100 in collaboration with Pinkpantheress, Nicki Minaj, and Taylor Swift, including one via the Barbie movie soundtrack; performed on SNL; and released a signature drink with Dunkin and signature Chia Pet. Working with RiotUSA, her secret weapon producer (and fellow SUNY Purchase dropout), Ice cracked the algorithm by blending drill and Jersey club with R&B, bubblegum pop, Gen Z Bronx girl slang (the cutting edge of linguistics), and graduate-level internet fluency.
Looking past Lil Nas X, two other stars help us triangulate the appeal of Ice Spice. The first is Pop Smoke, the slain drill prodigy whose conquest of the NYC rap scene and emergence as an international star in less than a year runs parallel to Ice’s trajectory. Pop filled a void—he crystalized a forward-thinking sound, embraced and validated drill’s pop potential, and became the city’s greatest homemade crossover rap star since Nicki Minaj and Cardi B.
Ice Spice is picking up Pop Smoke’s torch as an avatar of and ambassador for outer-borough NYC culture, a rapper expertly weaving drill and pop sensibilities, a Hot 97-ready commercial artist who embodies the axiom “I didn’t sell out—I bought in.” Pop and Ice were born only a few months apart, and there’s little doubt that they would have collaborated by now if Pop were still alive.
(Disclaimer for the following paragraph: I say this all as a straight white man, and a proud Munchkin.) The second star who offers a lens to understand Ice Spice is 2023 Time Person of the Year Taylor Swift. In the year when Taylor Swift monoculture usurped the Marvel Cinematic Universe as our most prevalent cultural deadend, even Taylor was not the year’s alpha girl’s girl. Exempting presumed Mangoprism Person of the Century Beyonce, that honor would go to the person Taylor Swift brought out this year at her MetLife Stadium show: Ice Spice. Ice visibly feeds off female energy for her physical confidence—it’s apparent in her music videos, old photos of her with her high school volleyball team. The only time she doesn’t seem all-powerful is when she’s performing onstage alone. (Give her all of the backup dancers!) While Taylor’s music is interior, Ice’s is referential. Her sonic and visual aesthetic is that of a girl raised by Snapchat, Spongebob, Sheff G, and bodega cats. She holds a mirror to a borough and raps in conversation with the music, culture, and technology that swirls around her. Taylor builds her own world; Ice brightens the world we all share. ▩