Hi everyone. Badthony Dietano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd and it's time for a review of this new Ice Spice album, Y2K.

Finally, finally, finally, finally. Here we have the official debut full-length album from New York rapper Ice Spice. In a few short years she has managed to become one of the biggest commercial phenomena across the entire music industry, as she refers to herself in 1 bar on this very album, calling herself a rat bitch on the pop chart and it's absolutely 110% true.

She has a lot to brag about on this record in terms of her success, especially considering the shows shes been playing, the money shes been making, and the numbers shes been doing off of so little music. These days, and I feel like this doesnt even need explaining, but when most up-and-coming artists have their hit, their moment in the industry begins. They kind of furiously strike while the iron is hot and try to maximize their potential by dropping as much material as possible and just begin sprinting on the music industry treadmill until they eventually have their fall from grace.

But Ice Spice's approach has very much more been about playing to the crowd, trolling them a bit, and trying to beat their expectations and release each new song with the amount of forethought that you would put into a chess move while focusing more on building her up as a brand, as a persona, as a zoomer rap icon. Which I mean, isn't much concern for me personally as a music reviewer, but I can't deny the call that Ice Spice and her team made here was the right one because she really, truly did go from Bronx Drill Queen to Taylor Swift collaborator in the blink of an eye.

Still, even though the process of building up to this new album has been pretty long and even a little dragged out, it had to come eventually, and now that we're here, it feels like such a nothing burger.

The hooks are basic, the features are forgettable, the instrumental I would say are pretty typical for her at this point. The biggest bangers on this thing have been out for months now, and the entire tracklist is a very trim ten songs that span only just a mere 23 minutes. She's obviously not trying to make a splash with this thing in terms of giving fans a lot of material to go off of. Comparatively, the deluxe version of her recent Like..? EP is longer, though I have no doubt on some level we are going to see a deluxe version of this because, you know, marketing.

For the most part, Y2k just kind of feels like an album in name and in name only. Ice Spice, meeting that bare minimum ten-track requirement just to show that she could. Because even if we are getting ten songs on this thing, I don't feel like we're getting ten fresh, interesting, distinct ideas. Mostly because the vast majority of everything on this record is so recycled and self-referential as Miss Spice hits. Most of these songs with the same flows we've heard again and again and again. Same vocal delivery, same drill-influenced grooves, a lot of third-person references to herself being a baddie, the fact that she's thick people she's better than or flirting with.

Also, of course, a heaping helping of poop and diaper jokes to get a rise out of people. She truly has a lack of lyrical versatility that gives guys like Lil Pump a run for their money, which would be fine if the choruses on this thing actually popped off, but often they don't. I mean,"Think U The Shit (Fart)" is probably the biggest standout on the entire LP, but even the main refrain on that one feels mostly like a joke just thrown in to troll people.

As far as the singles on this thing are concerned, it kind of goes downhill from there, as on the track "Give Me a Light" we have this chipmunk Sean Paul sample that is kind of mismatched with a skittering beat and shouty flows from ice spice that sound like she's trying to be heard over like a club sound system or anything like that. There's not even really anything about her flow that makes me want to nod my head or get further into the track. How spaced out many of her bars are too leaves a lot to be desired, because sometimes what she's doing feels more like just narrating than spitting.

There's also "Did It First", which is a cute pop club rap crossover that reminds me a bit of her recent collaboration with Pink Pantheress that I enjoyed a lot. There are some adorable chopped up vocal samples peppered throughout the song too, but I think the mood is kind of dampened by an awkward and unceremonious appearance from UK rapper Central Cee. The narrative tension between both of them leaves this track with a lot of potential that isn't fully capitalized on, especially since the hook is so mediocre.

We also had the laughably basic "Fat Butt" in the lead up to this record, which features features ice spice rapping on top of one of the most uninspired beats I think she has ever favored. She also performs the track with this stale Nicki Minaj flow, while unironically rapping about people stealing her flow, not to mention the moment where she brags about not having a ghostwriter, and considering how often she comes back to a lot of the same lyrical points and references, yeah, that much is clear.

Those are kind of the highlights from the record. Sadly, the deep cuts don't offer much more. The Travis Scott appearance is not really the fireworks that it could have been. Meanwhile, "Popa" is one of several moments on the record where she's kind of experimenting with her flow a bit, hopping on the mic in a way that feels kind of exasperated or like she's maybe a bit sleepy and breathy. But all in all, it just makes her sound less engaged and makes the gaps in between each bar that she spits just feel wider and louder, which is kind of the same on the track, "Bitch I'm Packing", where she's really, really, really leaning into that vocal fry in an attempt to sound, I guess, kind of sexy. Like she's sort of moaning while rapping. And I'm sure on some level this is intentional, but she mostly just sounds high out of her mind and confused.

"Plenty Son" is another switch up on the album for Ice Spice narratively, as when she's saying stuff about flirting in her song, she's often not focusing on a single person or trying to paint a character portrait of them. Or, you know, that character portrait being of a guy who pretty much leads, like, a more of a gangsta type lifestyle. He has plenty of guns, he has a trap house. What the purpose of this interaction is, I'm not sure. Like, are they really all that into each other? Does anything actually happen? Not really. The most eventful part of this character portrait is when she says he takes a fake perk and then he has diarrhea, which, I mean, you know, Ice Spice, she's always good for a poop joke.

From here, we have kind of a weak ending on the record with "TTYL", which I get that lyrically, it's sort of a goodbye moment, but considering the punchiness of the beat, the aggression, her flow on the track, it sounds like it could have almost been an intro. I mean, maybe the rise in aggression on this one is attempting to wake people up before they completely let the album slip by them, because a lot of it does sound that background.

Overall, I kind of feel like this record is proof of how much for Ice Spice and her brand. An album really, truly does not matter. And that's kind of the thing. I don't want to say that this record is bad or is underwhelming, because I feel like Ice Spice lacks the capacity and the ability to make a good record. Really, to me, on the surface, it reads more like a lack of effort than anything, something she had to ceremoniously go through the motions of in order to get back to focusing on what actually brings her success and attention. And that would be singles, that would be performances, that would be viral social media moments and crossovers, traditional media blitzes as well.

And that's pretty much it. I feel like this record kind of marks a brand new era of pop rap stardom and Ice Spice or for better, worse is really paving the way. I'm feeling a decent two strong 4 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Ice Spice, forever.

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