Ice Spice has by no means been a lot of a lyrical rapper, however these moments are further irritating on Y2K! as a result of they distract from a genuinely thrilling and bold album. Individually, anyone tune right here may very well be analogized and defined. This verse reveals the Nicki Minaj affect (“Phat Butt”), this beat sounds just like the Opium label (“Loads Solar”), this observe lowkey provides Kay Flock (“Gimmie a Mild”). Collectively, this album seems like nothing her friends may make, swerving from one sonic inspiration to the following. Even when bars are fumbled, Y2K! finds its footing because of Ice Spice’s agile and adaptable stream, assembling easy syllables into uncommon cadences.
At every flip, Ice Spice stretches her distinctive decrease register to new timbres. There’s the 40-grit rasp of “Bitch I’m Packin’,” the place Ice Spice wheezes, “His bitch journey it actually good however I acquired higher knees,” and the booming Younger Chop soundalike “Popa,” the place she impacts a drawl that brings to thoughts Younger M.A and Bktherula. She sounds extremely irritated demanding males signal NDAs earlier than she cheats with them on “Loads Solar,” then pops up just like the demon emoji on “Did It First,” someway managing to sound even much less apologetic about infidelity than Mr. “Fortunate for me I deleted the message” Central Cee.
Drawing on drill’s decade-plus historical past between Chicago, New York, and London, in addition to trendier Jersey membership and rage beats, Y2K! doesn’t simply shock from track-to-track, however recasts the poppier singles as irregular parts of a cohesive aesthetic imaginative and prescient. The foolish Mike Dean synth breakdown on “Phat Butt” makes extra sense as a Commencement-indebted album intro; tucked close to the album’s shut, a cheat code Sean Paul pattern feels much less like nostalgia bait than a flag proudly repping her sample-drill and Caribbean roots. Day one collaborator RiotUSA is behind the boards on each observe, and Y2K! is a testomony to the energy of their long-running inventive partnership. Its weakest moments are these that includes outsiders—Gunna and Travis Scott simply get completely rinsed right here.
What makes Y2K! so immediately memorable is Ice Spice’s refusal to be pigeonholed. Undaunted by the scrutiny of Swiftie affiliation or the stress of dwelling as much as her earlier gross sales peaks, Spice doubles down on the sounds she loves with out compromise or quarter. A non-zero variety of followers turned this album on due to PinkPantheress and “Karma (Remix)” solely to be met with a number of the gnarliest 808s on the planet. She already is aware of her Munchkins love the bops: Now she desires to see them mosh.
