Ice Spice is opening up with more details about her upcoming debut album.
In a new cover story interview with Complex’s Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo—with photography by the inimitable Hype Williams—the Bronx-bred rapper expressed her intention to stay true to her roots in the drill music scene.
“New York drill vibes, club music, Jersey club,” said Ice Spice. “I would say I’m bringing drill to new heights, and I feel like it would make sense to incorporate a lot of that in an album because, of course, there’s trap and everything else, but so many people are doing it and it’s so saturated right now.”
The 23-year-old MC gained notoriety when her 2022 single “Munch” became a viral summer smash and turned the rest of the country on to modern NY drill slang. She dropped her debut EP Like..? in January 2023 and a deluxe refresh in July, scoring high-profile collaborations with Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift along the way.
"I have a bunch of unreleased songs where I'm talking about feelings," said Ice in reference to a slew of unreleased songs that didn't make the cut for the Like..? re-release. "We're not turning up every time, every second of the day."
One part of the “Princess Diana” artist's success is her pen, but elsewhere in the cover story she questioned how much of a “lyrical rapper” she really is.
“It's funny because Hype [Williams] was just trying to call me a lyricist. I wouldn't consider myself a lyricist. Obviously, lyrics go into music and I do think about them and I do be having bars in my music but they're just super simple,” she said. “I want them to be digestible, I don't want them to fly over people's heads and they never catch it."
Ice Spice has persisted despite being on the receiving end of a lot of criticism amid her success. As anticipation builds for a full-length debut studio album, she admitted she does tune in to what professional music critics have to say about her work.
"They actually study music and care about it," she said. "So I feel like I'd rather hear their opinion. I'm more interested in that because at least it'll be paragraphs explaining why they feel that way and I'll be able to understand the person better versus just one little hateful ass comment from a private page. At least there's an author and a face attached."
While there's no street date for new Ice Spice music, fans can be held over by her latest cut “Pretty Girl” featuring Rema that dropped last week. The pair performed it on Saturday Night Live, where Taylor Swift was on site to make a surprise introduction.
Read Complex’s digital cover story with Ice Spice here.
