Isis Naija Gaston (born January 1, 2000), known professionally as Ice Spice, is an American rapper. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, she began her musical career in 2021 while studying in college after meeting producer RiotUSA. Ice Spice’s rapping style has been noted by music journalists, who have described her as a “breakout star” and “rap’s new princess”. She has received numerous awards, including the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, the People’s Choice Award for “New Artist of the Year,” and the Impact Award from the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards. She has received four Grammy Awards nominations, including Best New Artist.
Ice Spice gained major recognition in late 2022 with her song “Munch (Feelin’ U)”, which went viral on TikTok. After signing with 10K Projects in a joint venture with Capitol Records, she released the singles “Bikini Bottom” and “In Ha Mood” to promote her debut extended play (EP), Like..? (2023). The EP featured the Billboard Hot 100-charting song “Gangsta Boo” (featuring Lil Tjay), the single “Princess Diana” (with Nicki Minaj), and included the single “Deli” on its deluxe edition. She achieved further mainstream success with several collaborative singles that same year: “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” (with PinkPantheress), “Karma” (with Taylor Swift), and “Barbie World” (with Nicki Minaj and Aqua), all of which peaked within the top-ten of the Billboard Hot 100. This made Ice Spice the first rapper to release four songs that achieved top-ten status in the same year. Her 2024 single, “Think U the Shit (Fart)” preceded the release of her debut studio album, Y2K!.
Early life and education
Isis Naija Gaston was born on January 1, 2000, in the Bronx, New York City. The oldest of five siblings, Gaston is of mixed ethnicity; her father—Joseph Gaston—is of African American descent, while her mother—Charina Almanzar—is Dominican. The two met at a McDonald’s in New York; Joseph was an underground rapper, and Charina worked at a car dealership. Charina was seventeen when she gave birth to Gaston. The two divorced when Gaston was two years old.
Gaston spent much of her childhood with her grandparents and cousins. They moved out of Davidson Ave. in the year 2007 and moved to University. She went to school in the Bronx until the 5th grade, and to a Catholic Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers, where she graduated in 2018. At age seven, she took a liking to hip hop after listening to rappers like Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj, and others. French Montana used to visit her elementary school when Isis was in the fourth grade. She wrote poetry and freestyle raps from then to high school. In an interview with Billboard, Isis explained that she grew up listening to the likes of Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Wu-Tang Clan because of her father’s rap background. She would type out lyrics in the Notes app of her iPhone, listening to hip-hop instrumentals and rapping out loud to them. Gaston explained: “When I saw Nicki [Minaj], I was so mesmerized. She’s the first female rapper that I seen. And ever since then, I was kinda set on what I wanted to be.” She chose Ice Spice as her stage name while she was a freshman in high school.
Gaston attended State University of New York at Purchase, where she was a defensive specialist on the school’s volleyball team and studied communications. In seven matches, she had two kills and nine digs in the 2018 season. Around her sophomore year, Gaston dropped out of SUNY Purchase, later explaining that she did not believe the school was the right fit for her, and attributing her leaving college to the “strenuous commute”. She worked as a cashier at Wendy’s and The Gap.
Career
2021–2022: Career beginnings
Ice Spice performing
Ice Spice performing in 2022
Ice Spice started rapping in 2021 after meeting with a record producer, RiotUSA. He produced her debut song, “Bully Freestyle”, released in March 2021 after a video of Ice Spice doing the “Buss It” challenge went viral on Twitter. Her song “Name of Love” gained traction on SoundCloud, which led to her becoming popular on Instagram.
On August 10, 2022, Ice Spice released her song “Munch (Feelin’ U)”, accompanied with a video distributed by WorldStarHipHop,[26] as the lead single from her then-untitled debut EP, Like..?. The song gained popularity after getting support from Drake, who played the song on his Sirius XM radio station, Sound 42. It subsequently went viral on Twitter and TikTok, and charted on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts. In September 2022, Ice Spice appeared as a featured artist on the song “One Time” by B-Lovee. Later that month, she signed a record deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records. On October 28, she released the single “Bikini Bottom”.
2023–present: Breakthrough with Like…?
Ice Spice performing
Ice Spice performing at a PinkPantheress concert in Brooklyn in 2024
Ice Spice’s debut EP, Like..?, was released on January 20, 2023, and included the singles “Munch (Feelin’ U)”, “Bikini Bottom”, and “In Ha Mood”. In February 2023, Ice Spice collaborated with Lil Tjay on the tribute single “Gangsta Boo” to the late rapper of the same name, which became her first song on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 82. On February 3, 2023, the remix of singer PinkPantheress’s song, “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” featuring Ice Spice and the corresponding music video were released. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest charting position for either artist at the time. In April 2023, she released the remix of “Princess Diana” with Nicki Minaj. The song peaked at number four on the Hot 100, earning Ice Spice her second top-ten hit on the chart and the twenty second top-ten hit for Minaj.
On May 24, 2023, a remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma” featuring Ice Spice, was announced for release on May 26, 2023. The remix is a bonus track on the special editions of Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). A music video for the remix, featuring Swift and Ice Spice, was released on May 27. Pitchfork described 2023 as the breakout year of Ice Spice.[38] “Karma” peaked at number two on the Hot 100, making Ice Spice the artist with the most Hot 100 top-five singles in 2023. On June 26, she released “Barbie World” with Nicki Minaj which debuted at number 7 on the Hot 100. The deluxe version of Like..?, featuring five new tracks, was released on July 21, 2023.
On November 14, 2023, she teased an upcoming project titled Y2K! slated for 2024. She released the single “Think U the Shit (Fart)” as its lead single in January 2024. Y2K!, was released on July 26, 2024 and sold 28,000 copies for its first week. The project received mixed to favourable reviews from fans and critics, with Variety noting Ice Spice’s contribution to the drill subgenre, stating that Y2K! “struck the right equilibrium between street and pop sensibility — just hard enough for rap purists, softened around the edges for broader appeal — and set the table for what was leaning toward a mainstream breakthrough with her debut album.” NPR described the album as “almost crudely basic” and that Ice Spice “presses into syllables and pulls them apart like Play-Doh…she can make rapping itself feel like an afterthought, so trivial to her day-to-day routine that putting in the minimum effort makes a weirdly intuitive sense.” On August 1, 2024, Ice Spice added a bonus track to the album titled “GYAT.”
Artistry
Musical and lyrical style
Ice Spice’s music is primarily Bronx drill. Her name came from a “finsta” (fake Instagram account) she made at age 14. She has said she writes all her own lyrics, though she does not consider herself a lyricist. She explained that she prefers her lyrics to be “super simple” and “digestible”.
Influences
In a 2022 feature for Rolling Stone titled “My Life in 10 Songs”, Ice Spice included Coldplay’s song “Yellow” and the 1975’s song “Sex” on her list. She stated, “When I was 13 or 14, I was playing [The 1975] all the time. It was my shit, I think it’s because they’re from Europe and he [Matty Healy] has that [British] accent. It was a thing for me.”
Ice Spice was first inspired to start rapping by Sheff G and Pop Smoke, and has listed Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Foxy Brown, and Remy Ma as musical influences due to their New York roots. She has also called Erykah Badu, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Lauryn Hill inspirations because of their “graceful angelic vibe of timeless beauty”.
Personal life
Ice Spice is bisexual. She relocated to New Jersey following her career breakthrough.
Feuds & controversies
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Latto has been noted to be Ice Spice’s biggest rival, having had a tempestuous relationship dating back to 2022. It remains unclear what exactly started the feud, some speculate it could be because of the feud between the former and Nicki Minaj, which occurred around that same time. The feud initially began to speculate on the internet in January 2023 after Ice Spice released her song “Princess Diana” off of her EP “Like..?”, which featured the lyric “wanna be me so she do my emotes and my name in her mouth so I bet she gonna choke”. This lyric was alleged to be a reference to a resurfaced 2021 picture of Latto doing a similar pose to the one Ice Spice typically claims as her’s.[56] Just 1 day later, a Billboard interview of Latto was released online; where during a game of “Finish The Lyric”, she was unable to finish the lyric to Ice Spice’s song “Bikini Bottom”, which some speculated to be shade towards the rapper; Latto subsequently denied this.
A year later, the feud began to escalate after Latto released a snippet of her then-unreleased song “Sunday Service”, where the music video for Ice Spice’s song “Pretty Girl” could be seen on the TV in the background; just hours later; Ice Spice released a snippet of her own unreleased diss track by the name of “Think U the Shit (Fart)”, which was released on January 26. Ice Spice subsequently confirmed on Twitter Spaces that the song was in fact a diss towards Latto, while she did not name her, she called her song “weak”, and how she initially refused to believe that she was visible in the background of the video, believing it was AI.[59] Latto later released “Sunday Service” on February 7, accompanied by a music video filmed in New York City, Ice Spice’s hometown. Several elements in the video were deemed to be shade towards Ice Spice, such as a particular scene where Latto walks into a deli, alluding to Ice Spice’s song “Deli”. Through the basis of several months, the two continued to throw subs at each other in several different songs. Latto was also allegedly seen speaking negatively about Ice Spice’s performance backstage at the 2024 BET Awards ceremony. In a Rolling Stone interview in July 2024, Ice Spice explained that she “was confused” to why Latto continued the feud itself, referring to it as a “dragged out joke”.
On May 3, 2024, singer Baby Storme who claimed to be a former friend of Ice Spice leaked numerous text messages between the two; which included messages of Ice Spice speaking negatively of former collaborator Nicki Minaj, as well as her own mother calling them both ungrateful . Ice Spice subsequently confirmed the messages in a Rolling Stone interview 2 months later, but believed the people she mentioned “did not care.” Storme later came out admitting that she regretted leaking their exchange and claimed she may have had a schizophrenic episode during that time.
In July 2024, Madeline Argy, a former girlfriend of the rapper Central Cee, accused him of cheating on her with Ice Spice. Upon the release of their collaboration “Did It First”, Argy uploaded a 5 part TikTok story, where she claimed that upon Central Cee playing Argy his verse, he had allegedly started a dating rumor with another girl in Nigeria. Eventually, the two planned on breaking up in June 2024; but he had subsequently refused to see her up until July 1, not long after both Ice Spice and Central Cee filmed the music video for the song. Ice Spice subsequently uploaded a TikTok video just days later singing along to the song with the caption “mood after takin ha manzzz”, in which Argy commented on the post saying “Why”.
Shortly following the release of Y2K!, rapper Cleotrapa made claims that Ice Spice only invited her on tour to “clean up” Ice Spice’s image after the latter’s text messages she sent to Baby Storme were leaked. She also accused Ice Spice of giving her only a one-day notice prior to agreeing to the trek, and assured Cleotrapa that she would be “taken care of” on tour. However, Cleotrapa allegedly wound up being mistreated; such as having to pay for her own essentials, being forced to change in public restrooms, not getting informed about breaks and being left out from the budget. Ice Spice’s back-up stylist, who was present with them on the Y2K! World Tour, then confirmed the accusations on TikTok. In response, her manager James Rosemond Jr. stated that he spoke with Cleotrapa’s management, asserting on X that Cleotrapa was given an “opportunity” and that she “[has] to invest in [herself], aka pay expenses if need be for the opportunity. It’s corny. Someone gives you an opportunity and this is the thanks the person gets. Openers dont have same things headliners has.” Ice Spice herself later responded to the allegations via Spaces, claiming she only invited Cleo to her tour to help her, due to Cleo having a low amount of Spotify monthly listeners at the time; She also called out Cleo for allegedly complaining to her over a chicken salad and referred to her as a “vacuum”, due to the amount of food Cleo ordered at an Italian restaurant while the two were together. DJ Class Act, who worked at the Y2K! World Tour, then came forward in defense of Cleotrapa and emphasized the mistreatment of the tour staff, stating that most of them were not allowed to have lunch unless they had her say so, which included her manager’s daughter.
ICE SPICE URL LINKS:
Website: https://www.icespicemusic.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icespice
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IceSpice
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@icespice
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/icespicemusic1
X: https://www.x.com/icespicee_