Album Review: Ice Spice, Y2K

Perhaps it’s fitting, considering TikTok virality played a central role in NYC native Isis Gaston’s rise to hip-hop prominence, that Ice Spice’s debut album shares many similarities with a typical ‘doom scroll’ session: its contents are brief, often indistinguishable and largely unmemorable, with the exception of a few moments which stick for their silliness more than their substance.

Spice’s distinct Bronx annunciations are encased in limited lyricism and a largely unchanging flow. The bass-laden production, which mainly comes in the form of dramatic, video game-y drill beats, is similarly repetitive. Although her previous EP Like…? also leant heavily on this in-your-face style, there was balance in the form of fun, city girl anthems like ‘How High?’ and ‘Gangsta Boo’, which brought some textural variety.

Y2K does show some range in the final stretch of its brief, 23-minute runtime. Infidelity ode ‘Did It First’ featuring London heavyweight Central Cee is a welcome change of pace via its racing, club-friendly beat and hazy vocal samples, which buttress both Ice Spice’s strongest performance and the most captivating feature on the album.

Then there’s some juvenile and admittedly funny scatological references littered across ‘BB Belt’, ‘Think U The Shit (Fart)’ and ‘Gimmie A Light’, where the rapper delivers lines like, “Think you the shit, bitch? You not even the fart.”

That being said, when snippets like “I’m Miss Poopie like I need a diaper” are amongst the highlights, it’s evident that Y2K is far from being a classic.

OUT NOW