Ice Spice is scrolling through her phone, a sweet smile on her face, as she tries to remember a compliment Taylor Swift once gave her. “I actually wrote it down, because she taught me a word,” she says, before landing on her note-to-self. “Oh! She was like, ‘You’re tenacious.’” She looked up the meaning, “and I was like” — here the rapper notorious for her purring timbre modulates her voice to a humble higher pitch — “thank you.”
Isis Gaston, the 23-year-old Bronx native whose casually commanding hits have introduced a slate of impish slang terms to the national lexicon, is tenacious and more: a rap star whose savvy, ingenuity and confidence have captivated the TikTok generation. “Munch (Feelin’ U),” the 2022 summer banger that catapulted her into fame, was a definitive musical thesis, establishing her as a sharp-tongued but preternaturally relaxed baddie who doesn’t suffer fools. It also embodied the welcome explosion of self-determined young women currently flourishing in hip-hop. “The girls are going insane,” says Ice Spice, who will spend late fall as an opening act on Doja Cat’s arena tour, alongside fellow rap phenom Doechii. “I’m seeing girls fill up entire categories. I feel like this is a really good time to be a woman.”
On the third day of New York Fashion Week, Ice Spice is beaming from a leather chair in a NoMad hotel whose stodgy, high-Gilded Age decor is upended by her signature fire curls and diamond chain — a cartoon rendition of herself. “I’m super inspired,” says the 23-year-old rapper, fresh off a performance for Marc Jacobs’ runway show and a chance meeting with R&B star SZA at a free concert in Brooklyn, during which fans noticed her in the crowd, chanting her name until the singer brought her up on the stage, unplanned. “I feel like I could write a whole album right now.”
Her fervor for an album is notable because, despite having one of the most meteoric, consequential rises of any musician in 2023, Ice Spice has not yet released one. The young rapper has appeared seven times on the Billboard Hot 100 this year, with four singles or collaborations — including “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” with the London singer PinkPantheress, and “Princess Diana,” with Ice’s mentor Nicki Minaj — reaching the Top 10. “Karma,” a remix of the song by Ice Spice’s other mentor Taylor Swift, peaked at No. 2 in June, and by September, “Barbie World,” her collaboration with Minaj sampling ’90s pop-ravers Aqua for the “Barbie” soundtrack, had racked up close to 270 million streams on Spotify. Ice Spice has accomplished all this on the infectious strength of “Like…?,” an EP released in January, and a handful of singles and remixes.
Taylor Swift and Ice Spice perform at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on May 26, 2023. “I couldn’t even hear because of how loud the crowd was,” says Ice Spice.
(Kevin Mazur/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Just four months after dropping “Like…?,” Ice Spice found herself on a stadium stage, performing “Karma” with Swift in New Jersey. “When I popped up out the stage, I felt a big whoosh — that’s what it felt like,” she remembers. “Heart just pumpin’, I’m like, Oh my god, I’m getting sweaty. All I saw was little flashlights, stacked on top of each other, and all I could hear was roaring. I couldn’t even hear because of how loud the crowd was. And so I was f—n’ up a little bit, but…” she chuckles, recollecting that she missed a cue. Even so, it was a remarkable moment for the pop queen to anoint the people’s princess, as Ice’s fans have dubbed her.
In January, Ice Spice had been watching Swift’s Netflix documentary “Miss Americana,” “to take notes and really understand how such a big artist has to move,” she says. “I just wanted to be inspired.” Her manager was inspired too, and reached out to Swift’s camp. Not long after, “Karma” was in the works. “Taylor was outside the studio waiting for me, and she was the nicest ever, making me tea,” says Ice. “She said she loves ‘Like…?,’ and told me she plays it to work out. I was like, Taylor’s listening? This is unreal.”
Their appreciation was mutual. “I really loved working with Ice because I got to see firsthand how focused she is, and she came in more prepared than anyone I’ve worked with,” wrote Swift in an email to The Times. “I made a habit early on in my career of bringing songs I’d written into sessions that were nearly done, to prove to my collaborators that I never expected to coast creatively. She did that with her verse and also sent me a demo of it beforehand.
“I see a drive in Ice that’s beautifully rounded out by other qualities like humility and humor, curiosity and focus,” Swift continued. “She’s very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the business, as well as obviously being tapped into this very natural creative wellspring. It’s those two sides of the coin that you just don’t see.”
True to this early moment in her career, Ice Spice is both enjoying the spoils of her hard work and bearing down on her future. She’s currently dating someone but declines to elaborate because she wants fans “to keep their focus on what I’m here for, which is music.” She attended the Met Gala — an invitation some people spend years coveting — and now sits front row at the fashion shows, performing at after-parties on hotel bars. But she’s in bed by midnight. “I do be getting my beauty rest,” she says, noting that she prefers to be alone and write in her journal to maintain her discipline.
Her lyrics are inspired by her life, even some of the most outrageous lines. On “Deli,” her quintessentially New York summer hit, she rhymes “hunnid bands on Chanelly” with “shakin’ ass the deli” — recounting a pricy shopping spree at Chanel during a trip to Italy. “I’m super big on purses,” she says.
In September, Dunkin released an Ice Spice Pumpkin Spice drink, capitalizing on the fact that her fans call themselves Munchkins. (“Munch” the song might be a bit too explicit for primetime advertising, however.) She stars in a commercial with noted Dunkin Bostonian Ben Affleck, which operates on the premise that Affleck is out of touch with Ice’s youthful fan base — a generational clash for the meme era.
A true Zoomer — she was born Jan. 1, 2000 — Ice Spice began her rap career as a college student at SUNY Purchase after meeting Ephrem Lopez Jr., a fellow communications major who produces all of her records as RiotUSA. Inspired by the gritty sound and slang of New York drill music, Ice Spice put a pop spin on the male-centric genre, honing the vocals that would make her famous — a breathy growl that can sound both intimate and admonishing, a tonal quality she worked on diligently. “It’s a lot of effort. I’ve spent countless hours in the studio, I’ve cried in the booth. When I was first learning how to record, I didn’t like my voice, and I had to keep finding pockets. One time I was recording a song, and one of the lines took me, I kid you not, 400 takes. Just an unnecessary amount of takes. I realized in that moment I had to get better, and only time lets you get better. I had to learn pitch, like really study it,” she says with a smile. “But thankfully that was years ago and it sounds way better.”
Riot, who continues to be Ice’s sole producer, is conscious of their growth. “In the beginning it was just throwing things on the wall and seeing what stuck,” he says, “but over the past year and a half, she knows more of what she wants as an artist, so we just follow what sounds right and what feels right.” Sometimes that involves osmosis, like when Ice told Riot she “needed a ‘SpongeBob’-type beat” for “Bikini Bottom,” and he intuited the music so accurately some fans thought it was actually from the long-running cartoon. “Not only is it an iconic show,” concedes Riot, “but it got some fire music.”
Ice Spice poses with her best new artist trophy backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 12, 2023.
(John Nacion/WireImage)
Ice Spice is the daughter of a Dominican American mother and a Nigerian American father, the latter an underground rapper who took her to the studio when she was a baby, after her parents separated. The eldest of five half-siblings, her Spanish-speaking grandparents helped raise her, though she says being bilingual didn’t necessarily help her rapid-fire rap flow. “My cadence in Spanish is a lot softer, and I would say more feminine-slash-babier. I was a baby when I started learning Spanish and I only ever have to really consistently speak it to my grandparents. So I realized as I got older, I act like a baby when I’m talking to them,” she laughs.
Before Ice Spice decided college wasn’t for her and left Purchase, she was a volleyball star — photos of her team are still online and, yes, have gone viral — and she still approaches music with an athlete’s training. She’s been watching Sha’Carri Richardson’s recent winning streak, and credits the star sprinter with “motivating me to work out, for real.” Awards shows are a “competition at the end of the day,” she says, “because one person’s gonna win. You can want your competition to win because you really enjoy their music, but I want to win.”
A few days after we meet, Ice Spice appears at MTV’s Video Music Awards wearing a lacy custom Dolce & Gabbana bodysuit in white — a nod to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera’s appearance with Madonna at the VMAs in 2003, aired when Gaston was still a toddler. Sitting at the right hand of Swift, the ascendant rapper and global superstar cheese together for Ice’s Instagram Stories, bop together through the performances and grin at each other as Swift racks up awards. When Ice Spice wins the fan-voted award for best new artist, a river of tears sparkles on her face. She thanks Riot, her fans and the Bronx.
Now, as Ice Spice readies her debut album, her next goal is to win the same award from the Recording Academy. “A Grammy would mean the moon, the sun, the earth. No, for real, like every star in the galaxy,” she says at the hotel, her eyes twinkling. She’s hoping to be nominated in multiple categories — particularly best new artist but also song and record of the year, in addition to the various rap categories for which she’s eligible. “I just know I’m gonna get one,” she says, but regardless, “I’m just gonna keep trying, you know? I’m just grateful to be in the conversation.”
Ice Spice’s fans connect with her earnestness, an enthusiasm that is genuine but decidedly unpressed. “She’s the boss of her own destiny; she writes her own music and lyrics and puts her stamp on it,” says Michelle Jubelirer, chair and chief executive of Ice’s label, Capitol Records. “She doesn’t conform to conventional norms. She just moves forward with her unique sound, unique looks and unique personality, and it allows her to connect deeply with her audience. I think they see her as a genuine and approachable figure.”
Approachability, or the illusion of it, is another important quality for young fans glued to social media, and sometimes it can feel concocted in a lab. Ice Spice has a quality that still feels down to earth, despite her rising fame. “I’m not really sure what it is exactly, but I feel like a lot of young girls, or older girls too, can just relate to what I’m saying,” she says. “It’s just like a confidence booster.”