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Bronx rapper Ice Spice’s debut album is a 22-minute fantasia of the kind not seen since the early days of South Park. From drill-rap opener Phat Butt to lead single Think U The Shit (Fart), she brings the scat to scatological. Throughout her brief ascent Ice Spice (born Isis Gaston) has been famously unconcerned with subtlety. Since 2022’s viral Munch (Feelin’ U), she’s delivered a slew of hits, the durations of which kept closer to TikToks than songs. Her little-Orphan Annie-with-an-attitude-problem shtick attracted attention. But it’s testament to the nuclear half-life of the modern pop hype machine that this sound already feels dated. The fact that it’s all so brief could be a masterclass in Machiavellian cunning or could simply indicate a lack of ideas. Ice Spice feels, for better or worse, like an artist for our age: snotty, willfully prosaic, pointedly trashy. Sadly, her shit does stink.
