Michael G. BarilleauxNew York rapper Ice Spice has released her debut album “Y2K!”, and while it bears no substantial similarities to that famed day in the year 2000 of the same name (aside from that day having been the artist’s day of birth), it is easily just as uneventful and overhyped. And while Y2K the fiasco might have held everyone’s attention in its time, it seems highly unlikely that, despite her confident delivery and above-average flow, Ice Spice’s new album will feel even the least bit challenging or needle moving in the greater world of Hip-Hop. This is particularly true when forecasting the long haul.
These sentiments are undoubtedly true of several other artists entering the rap game and their subsequent musical efforts. Nevertheless, Ice Spice’s resume of high-profile features and the immense degree of buzz revolving around her make her ability to deliver a strong, memorable album especially vital and interesting in regard to her future in the rap music space. While a Taylor Swift feature and the opportunities that come from it can prove to be massive for any musician’s career, it’s difficult to make consistent waves with true longevity in the rap game without a robust, impressive body of work. It’s certainly true that the viral potential of apps such as TikTok brings new angles to the music world and each artist’s potential to succeed in it, there is still great importance and meaning to a strong, healthy breakout album in Hip-Hop.
In other words, the momentum behind Ice Spice’s name and abilities come into this LP with great anticipation and huge expectations in regards to seeing just what she is fully capable of (despite what was already learned from her first project, an underwhelming EP) and thus the great potential to disappoint. In the case of “Y2K!”, the disappointment is extensive.
This is an album in which the bars come weak and the beats come even weaker. Tracks like “Phat Butt”, “Bitch I’m Packin’” and “BB Belt” are especially stale, but quite frankly every other track on “Y2K!” is nothing short of a dud. Whether Ice Spice is rapping about how bad she is, how gorgeous, how real she is or anything of the sort, she is rapping lines that could easily have been found in the bottom of her contemporaries’ recycle bins – or toilets, considering Ice Spice’s apparent affinity for poop jokes.
The NYC rapper boasts very little in the vein of major technical capabilities when it comes to rhyme schemes, cadence and struggles to toggle any wordplay that doesn’t involve overused similes and metaphors, whether literally or conceptually.
Perhaps most unfortunate, however, is the sheer fact that Ice Spice simply doesn’t seem to have much to rap about. After all, one can only stress and focus on just how dope they are for so many tracks, especially when such brags aren’t supported stylistically.
Ice Spice’s flow is worth some note, however, for while the beats on “Y2K!” are not entirely challenging, she does make a decent case for rapping fluidity. She undoubtedly keeps the ball rolling on each of these songs, an aspect of rapping prowess that does not save this project by any means, but does add a slight bit of credibility to the MC’s abilities.
Unfortunately, her flow is hardly aided by the poor production quality that litters all over this album. The beat on “Oh Shhh”, sounds like little more than a fumbling boggle of confused bass and drums that carries itself as if it is stuck in a cardboard box from which it doesn’t mind being trapped in. “Plenty Sun” exhibits an instrumental full of synths that beg to sound eerie and intimidating but instead simply come off as childish and underproduced. And “TTYL” has a mild air of grit to it but ultimately trips over its own urgency, something many of the beats on “Y2K!” do.
Ice Spice provides very little in the way of significant thematics on this album and that lack is certainly felt as her technical ability takes a dive and her beat selection goes down with it. With little to look to on this album, it falls flat on the floor. Ice Spice has a decent flow, and that is nearly all that can be said for this project. In no way does this necessarily usher in a major decline in her popularity, but her inability to make the most – or just make something – of her first album doesn’t look particularly positive for her and without a doubt comes as a major disappointment.