Ice Spice Says She’s Finished Recording Her First Full Length Album

Ice Spice Says She’s Finished Recording Her First Full Length Album

What’s it like to become a global superstar in a little over a year? In a word, according to Ice Spice: “Fun.” 

“I always try to remember to have fun,” the rapper tells TODAY.com. “I like trying to have fun when I’m recording.”

Ice Spice released her first EP, “Like…?”, in January 2023. Since then, she’s performed in arenas, taken home major awards and is up for the best new Grammy during the Feb. 4 ceremony. All that, before releasing her first official album: Her debut, “Y2K,” will be out in November, she shared on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna Feb. 2. 

The 24-year-old rapper from the Bronx soared onto the scene when her song, “Munch (Feelin’ U),” went viral after its August 2022 release. She caught the attention of artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, and was invited to collaborate with them. She now reaches more than 25 million listeners on Spotify each month.

Her relationship with music dates back to childhood, back when Ice Spice was just Isis Naija Gaston, a little girl watching her father work as an underground rapper. She has said in interviews that her father’s love for recording music inspired her to start doing the same while she was a student at SUNY Purchase.

“I always had a passion for music and I feel like whatever people are passionate in, they’re going to end up doing something along those lines,” she told TODAY's Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager in what was her first morning show appearance.

Her Bronx upbringing shaped her music, too. In a 2023 interview with Apple Music, Ice Spice recalled how the shops on Fordham Road would play vibrant, uplifting music to bring in new customers. When she records music, she tries to attract listeners in the same way.

“The second I stop having fun while recording, I need to just close the session and come back to it later. I don’t really think, ‘How am I going to get people to come into my store?’ consciously, but I probably do without even realizing it,” she says.

After a successful 2022 launched Ice Spice into celebrity status, 2023 put her into conversations — and collaborations — with some of the biggest names in music.

She and her idol Minaj teamed up in April 2023 for the track “Princess Diana,” which exploded on TikTok and beyond. She later joined Swift on a version of the "Midnights" song "Karma" in May 2023, and the superstar brought out Ice Spice on her “Eras Tour” stop in New Jersey later that same week.