Since the release of 2022’s “Munch (Feelin’ U),” Ice Spice’s raucous Bronx energy has been a perfect segway to more “build-a-baddie” anthems, or sexy theme songs that hype up the club, NY deli, and places Ice has no problem turning into her personal dancefloor. “Like..?,” the 2023 EP that followed, then saw the drill rapstress accumulate over 2.5 billion streams with the addition of singles “In Ha Mood” and a number of “Princess Diana” variants, notably powered by Nicki Minaj. What makes up the 24-year-old’s latest project, however, titled “Y2K!,” feels like a long cry away from what The New York Times once characterized as a “sharpshooter flow.”
For Spice, “Y2K!” seems to be a representation of the new Big Apple — a torch toward a new freedom for the Grammy-nominated rapper — One that’s hater-free, aggressive, and anti-“Actin’ a Smoochie.” Still, an album requires more than fake graffiti and an unrealized 2002 Sean Paul sample to reignite a Spice-ified Y2K experience. Instead, the project proves to lack even a college-grade thesaurus, and mistakenly rests on two-year-old Spice-isms that even make go-to producer RiotUSA’s addictive beats sound fatigued.
The most exciting elements to Spice’s “Y2K!” don’t lie in the record’s singles, its infidelity anthem “Did It First” with UK playboy Central Cee, nor its viral diss track, “Think U The Shit (Fart).” The gangsta rap roots of New York drill, most recognizable in the rags-to-riches discographies of Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. and other greats, even converges with co-parent genre trap’s materialistic wealth game. Instead, Ice’s lyrical prowess has a strict lineage of colloquial wordplay (“No Clarity”) and unapologetic call-outs (“Bully Freestyle”). However, the rapper’s use of repetition often bites into her authenticity, namely on “Phat Butt,” a peak Ice Spice track laced with ferocious percussion wherein its braggadocious lyrics eerily mime Minaj instead of a razor-sharp missive to opps.
It’d be naive, however, to expect a lyrical Picasso out of a 24-year-old’s debut record, and remiss not to recognize the inner functions of the new album. After the Bronx native dropped the accompanying music video for “Oh Shhh…”, featuring Travis Scott, in tandem with the album’s Friday release, there was an obvious and predictable top note that the record couldn’t shake. Though Ice twerked her way around CGI butterflies and a form-fitting Statue of Liberty getup, the copy-and-paste lyrics shouldered a rough loss against the Astroworld rapper and ultimately got out-Ice’d altogether by other A-list collaboration, “Bitch I’m Packin’” featuring Gunna. The husky entry gave “Y2K!” some necessary grit, partly due to Gunna’s genius double entendres, but most importantly Ice’s sultry, no-frills cadence– quite the contrast to the artificially grandiose Travis Scott collaboration.
In the same vein, “Y2K!” still holds undersung “party girl” bangers with intentionally “super simple” and “digestible” lyrics, as she told Complex. First, the buzzy snares of “Plenty Sun”, where Ice hypothesizes the future of New York drill music better than past projects with a “son” complex and savvy elixirs a la Minaj. Although “Gimme A Light” underuses Sean Paul’s notorious dancehall sample, the real focus is Ice’s loud self-confidence rather than its tepid Billboard charting. Lastly, wedged between the “Y2K!’s” dance epicenter (“Did It First” and “Fart”), there stands “BB Belt” as a younger sister to 2023’s “Deli”, the perfect middleman between lazy trap and some serious money talk.
Ice Spice’s “Y2K!” doesn’t get everything right, but the culture chose to embrace the record for its artistic declaration, not its lyrical proficiency. In her two-year ascent to superstardom, the female emcee garnered multiple Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles, one of which went on to be nominated for the 66th Grammy Awards in the “Best Song Written for Visual Media” and “Best Rap Song” categories (“Barbie World”). Her other Grammy-nominated collaboration (on Taylor Swift’s “Karma”) even parlayed into 12 performances as Doja Cat’s opening act for The Scarlet Tour, which set her up for the Coachella 2024 mainstage. Now, on her own summer 21-show spree promoting “Y2K!” worldwide, the record is already a victory lap (that can be enjoyed with her Dunkin’ signature drink in hand!) But at the same time, “Y2K!” is the official start line of her mainstream career, where all sonic road bumps and creative mishaps are smoothed over before the next music era begins. And as Google’s second most-searched musician of 2023, it’s safe to say that even if “Y2K!” isn’t the best Ice Spice record to exist, the culture will always give her a second chance to redeem herself.
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