At a roller rink in South Jersey last Thanksgiving, the DJ played the first five seconds of “Munch.” That was all the time it took to know that Ice Spice was going to take over the world.
The hi-hats and that menacing bass line crept across the maple rotunda floor.Grrah. Deafening screams. Then, everyone in the rink demanded in unison, “Stop playin' with 'em, Riot.” A group of teenagers made a beeline off the hardwood toward their friends in the open-air food court while the DJ ran the track back, teasing them by lengthening the intro, buying them time to rip off their skates to get sturdy. Finally, the beat dropped, and a mosh pit formed near the rink’s arcade as they screamed the first line at the top of their lungs, smiles bathed in neon: “You thought I was feeling you? That n**** a munch.” The DJ played the entire one minute and 44 second record. I turned and watched as almost every person in the rink sang along; the young crowd reciting every single bar and ad-lib, my mom chanting more of the chorus than I’d expect her to know.
Ice Spicetold us she’d “be lit by the end of the summer,” and still, her ascent to global superstardom has felt like a thunderbolt, a jolt to pop culture backed by the explosive sound of New York drill. The subgenre’s 808 slides might as well have served as a warning sound: Ice Spicegot next, and she’s not letting go of it.
Ice Spice wears a Jordan Dalah dress, Ferragamo shoes, and Swarovski earrings.Chinazam Ojukwu
Throughoutour conversations, I meet both Isis and Ice Spice. Overall, the young woman who embodies both personalities is a slow burn. Sweet and somewhat quiet, she warms up little by little. Her sharp wit and candor disarm me — before I know it, I am pulled entirely into her orbit. This balancing act of vulnerability and calm self-assurance defines her allure. She’s the down-to-earth, charmingly unserious girl from the Bronx one minute, and the aspirational, unattainable superstar the next.
The Bronx Baddie exudes sensual poise. She is the It girl, the queen of self-affirmations and manifesting, a bastion of aplomb. Injecting a matter-of-fact confidence into her discography (a.k.a. spreading the baddie gospel) might project her as godlike, but she’s not a mythological creature; she’s a 23-year-old embracing the surreality of being a “young, lit, rap b*tch.”
“That's fun. My job is being a rapper,” says Ice Spice. “Like, what the f*ck? That's mad lit.”
By now, the genesis of Ice Spice is somewhat well-known. Isis Gaston, 23, hails from the Bronx. She took her stage name from the Finsta account she made when she was a teen, which was inspired by a childhood nickname. She attended a private Catholic school in Yonkers and majored in communications at SUNY Purchase, where she played volleyball (back row) and met her future producing partner RIOTUSA, affectionately known as Riot. She’d eventually drop out of college in her sophom*ore year.
Ice began making music in 2021. She was still new to TikTok when she posted her “Buss It” Challenge entry early that year; nonetheless, it quickly went viral, and she capitalized on having new eyes on her by going straight for the ears. In spring 2022, she kept her foot on the gas. Most notably, she appeared on tastemaker and radio personality GabeP’s YouTube showOn the Radar;herOTR freestyle went viral next, then came “Munch,” in August. Forty-three millionYouTube views, three billionTikTok engagements, a Drake cosign, and nearly 87 millionSpotify streams later, “Munch” dominated the final month of summer — and all of Q4. Ice signed a deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records in the fall, released her surprise debut EPLike..? at the top of 2023, and the rest is history she’s excited to keep making.
“I'm most proud of staying grounded so far, because I've already been through so many things that I know a lot of people would've lost their f*cking minds,” Ice Spice tellsTeen Vogue of her transition to fame in less than a year. “The whole lifestyle change is super drastic, especially coming from where I come from, not coming from sh*t and not having a lot growing up, to now — it's the complete opposite…. Even though it's a positive change, it's still a change.”
