Album Review: Ice Spice – Y2K
3 min read
It’s hard to believe that Ice Spice has only just released her debut album. With several high-profile collaborations, a song on the Barbie soundtrack, and a Grammy nomination, the 24-year-old singer has rapidly earned pop-culture icon status. Her red curls and 2000’s inspired fashion sense making her instantly recognisable. With Y2K Ice Spice, has swapped her curls for long straight hair, and her pop sound for something more inspired by drill and house music. It’s a bold move that does seem to pay off.
Where it works well it’s brilliant, the first track on the album is the instantly catchy and irreverently named Phat Butt. It utilises the rapid drum beat to make Ice Spice’s vocals sound even faster. The lyrics are fun too with Ice Spice joking about “toastin’ bitches like pop tarts”. She embraces the light fun lyrical style throughout the album, but doesn’t shy away from brutally roasting her “haters’, calling them “flops” on the infectious Gimme a Light and hissing “said I loved him, I was Trollin’” in Popa.
However, the lyrical style can also be a little jarring. Ice Spice had said she intended the lyrics to be easily understandable and uncomplicated, but at times they seem almost too simple such as when she rhymes “makeup” with “wake up” in the otherwise confident and positive TTYL. Much has also been said about her overuse of toilet humour, at times fun in its ridiculousness such as in You Think You the Shit (Fart) and other times just bizarre like her repeated attempts to make the nickname “Miss Poopie” stick. The occasional odd choices can seem to derail whole songs, which is a shame when her style is otherwise so fantastic.
Despite this, her move to a less pop style is very interesting and gives her much more room to experiment. It allows her to explore her vocals creating interesting effects. Popa stands out with her voice a whisper almost threatening the listener, she then switches to a drawl showing a wide range even in one song. She then uses her lower register in Bitch I’m Packin’ rapping in a gravelly tone. Her use of a lower register is most evident though in Plenty Suns where she slows down to a more spoken style as she takes on sad subject matter talking about how she “doesn’t get many friends” and pushes people away.
There are several high-profile features, the most memorable being Oh Shh (feat Travis Scott). The lyrics are repetitive and catchy and the synth style with echoed voices is an interesting change from the drill beat that defines the album. Ice Spice runs circles around Scott, making him sound almost lethargic in comparison to her. Ending the album on the euphoric and determined TTYL cements Ice Spices confidence in her new style, combining the simple lyrics with an upbeat backing track to make a catchy hit miles away from previous tracks like Boys a Liar.
The album might not be for everyone, the lyrics can be off putting and for fans of Ice Spice’s pop songs it’s certainly a change. But it is what she set out to create a fun drill album, with plenty of memorable tracks. With this debut, Ice Spice shows she can step out of her pop princess persona and embrace a new sound. And with her rise to prominence almost meteoric, it seems she won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
