Since the release of her breakout single “Munch (Feelin’ U)” in the summer of 2022, Ice Spice hit the ground running and hasn’t slowed down since. She released her first EP Like..? at the top of last year, and now, the Bronx-bred rapper’s long-awaited debut album Y2K! is finally here.
The album’s title is inspired partially by Ice’s Jan. 1, 2000 birthday and her love for ’00s aesthetics that have come back in vogue in recent years. When speaking to Rolling Stone about the highly anticipated project, she admitted that it’s the ideal concept for her first album. “I was really born into chaos, and I feel like the album sounds very chaotic, in a good way,” the Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree mused.
Ice has been teasing the album’s release since the top of this year with lead single “Think U the S**t (Fart)” and followed it up in subsequent months with tracks like “Gimmie a Light,” “Phat Butt,” and “Did It First.” Throughout the album’s 23-minute runtime, Ice doesn’t just stick to the Bronx drill sound that many have come to know her for.
“I definitely wanted to branch out more and try different sounds, and it was also just really natural too,” she told Rolling Stone of her creative process. “I’d get in the studio and say the first thing that comes to mind. A lot of these beats are still drill beats, but we’re using a lot of trap elements too to spice it up.”
The Y2K! World Tour in support of the album continues through next month and wraps up in Miami on Aug. 31. With such a quick rise to stardom, Ice Spice has had to deal with her fair share of negativity, but she brushes it all off with the same confidence that she first exhibited back on “Munch.”
“When people ask me, ‘Oh, how do you deal with the hate?’ I don’t give a s**t, because I won, bro. I win at life,” she said. “I can only just be grateful for people talking s**t, for people supporting me. Everything that comes with the territory, I can only be grateful for.”