R&B/Hip-Hop

If there’s any verifiable dud on Y2K!, it’s “Plenty Sun.” On its own merit, it’s far from a bad track, but entirely too predictable, which renders it one of the least interesting songs on the album. With production that is directly in line with the two preceding tracks and lyrics that tread familiar ground regarding her plaques and her man “munching first,” “Plenty Sun” veers far too close to redundancy for an album that isn’t that long to begin with.

The Y2K! run of “Did It First” through “Fart” is the album’s most dance-leaning pocket, and “BB Belt” fits nicely in between those two singles. More in the house-inflected lane of 2023’s “Deli,” “BB Belt” narrowly escapes the pitfalls of tired lyrical tropes by focusing on an enrapturing, hip-rocking beat and a subtly animated flow. “And I’m thick but I don’t got a waist/ Think she pretty by changing her face,” she taunts. She also finds some time to address those who have questioned her Blackness, rapping, “Lightskin, but I’m Black/ You can tell by my hair.”

Ice tapped Travis Scott for the album’s first collaboration, and the shared production is pristine: the two rappers trade bars over a brooding drill beat that smartly starts to incorporate an intergalactic trap feel by the time Travis starts spitting. While the beat is top-notch, Ice and Travis spend the song’s duration saying a bunch of nothing. Between a relatively lazy hook that’s essentially a smorgasbord of trademark Ice Spice-isms (she’s once again doing her dance and toting her knock and showing her thong) and a guest verse from Travis that actively avoids being memorable, “Oh Shhh…” feels like it doesn’t quite fulfill its potential.

Upon its May 10 release, “Gimmie A Light” earned a surprisingly tepid response. Even with a Coachella premiere, people weren’t connecting with the Sean Paul-indebted song. Built around a sample of Paul’s 2001 dancehall crossover smash “Gimme the Light,” Ice takes it back to New York drill’s earliest iterations, bellowing her most braggadocious bars over skittering snares and distorted 808s. “And, no, I don’t got any opps/ Like, why would I beef with a flop?/ Like let’s talk drill/ Who bigger than she?” she contends.

Ice is loud on “Gimmie A Light,” and she hasn’t been this amplified since her pre-“Munch” days on tracks like 2022’s “Euphoric.” But that’s New York drill for you; loudness is the name of the game. In the context of Y2K! — it’s slotted as the penultimate track, ultimately giving way to the album’s most drill-forward offering — “Gimmie A Light” plays much better than it did as standalone single a few months ago. While it may not have been the best commercial bet for a lead single, it smartly re-positions Ice as a drill rapper first, pop star second.

From Doja Cat to Flo Milli, Gunna is arguably the most reliable male rapper when it comes to collaborating with the ladies. With “B—h I’m Packin,” the second of three collaborations on the LP, Gunna delivers one of the record’s best verses over an electric, Yeat-evoking beat. The industrial glitches in the background play well against Ice’s voice, which she contours with a tone that’s somewhere between hoarse and seductive. Gunna’s presence overwhelms this track: he skates over the beat with a level of comfort that outpaces Ice’s, but there’s enough juxtaposition between their tones to make for an interesting listening dynamic. Nonetheless, nothing tops Gunna’s alphabet bars with lines like “Get an AP for my apology” and “…My top off/ Got my shirt off, she can see the V.”

It’s not easy to turn a playground-level insult into a danceable diss-adjacent banger, but Ice somehow pulled it off with “Think U The Shit (Fart).” Still her highest-peaking unaccompanied Hot 100 hit, “Fart” encompasses all the things we love about Ice Spice — hilariously childish jabs (“She all on the floor, told her get up!”), flirtations with some of the more inventive wings of contemporary hip-hop (check out that hypnotic synth line), and instantly quotable one-liners.

In retrospect, it’s funny that this months-long Ice-Latto spat — no, they won’t be trading full-length diss tracks anytime soon — got its official musical start with a song that prides itself on being patently un-serious. Then again, that’s one of the key ingredients of the Ice Spice formula — she doesn’t take herself too seriously, but even when she does, it’s not at the expense of the levity she brings to a track.

For the latest Y2K! single, Ice tapped one of her peers from across the pond: Central Cee. Likely the album’s last shot at a genuine smash hit, “Did It First” casts Ice and Cench in the roles of toxic lovers who try their best to one-up each other’s cheating escapades. “If he’s cheatin’, I’m doin’ him worse/ No Uno, I hit the reverse/ I ain’t trippin’, the grip in my purse,” she spits in the chorus before Cench raps, “If I went court for all of the times I got caught, I’d have about sixteen felons/ I keep comin’ with stupid excuses like, ‘I was juiced and tripped and fell in.’”

Clearly this is no love song, but the two rappers make their infidelity anthem quite enjoyable, thanks to both the production’s Jersey club backbone and their chemistry. Both of them employ a somewhat laid-back demeanor that plays well with the apathetic “IDGAF” attitude they embody — and sometimes feign — throughout the track.

Last year, Nicki Minaj coronated Ice Spice as rap’s newest princess with two collaborations — “Princess Diana” (No. 4) and “Barbie World” (No. 7, with AQUA) — both of which reached the top five of the Hot 100. With “Phat Butt,” Ice unequivocally nails her album opener by paying tribute to Minaj with a “Beez In the Trap”-nodding intro that transforms into rattling drill beat over which she tries on different Nicki-inspired flows. “Talk a lot, but ain’t sayin’ s–t, I ain’t hear your song, they ain’t playin’ it/ Sloppy hoes gon’ chat the most, if you make your bed, better lay in it,” she spits. Across both verses, Ice sounds more venomous than she ever has — and it helps her play with her volume and intonation in ways that display a marked improvement in her rap skill from her “Munch” days.

With a trademark New York ending (“Suck my d–k!”), “Phat Butt” is the perfect entry point into Ice’s Y2K! world.

With “TTYL,” Ice closes her debut album on a high note. Easily the hardest and most raucous drill track on the record, “TTYL” finds Ice taking a victory lap that also allows her to reflect on how her level of flexing has elevated since she first took over the scene with her ginger fro. “5 stars when I’m lunchin’/ Bad b—h, so he munchin’/ Shoot a movie, I’m dunkin’/ I’m a brand, it’s nothin’,” she spits, taking just four lines to reference her breakout “Munch” single, her upcoming movie with Denzel Washington and Spike Lee, her Ben Affleck-assisted Dunkin’ commercial and her collaborative limited edition Dunkin’ drink. She’s really pushing her pen on this track in a way that people may not expect of her, but that’s what makes “TTYL” such a thrilling ride. There’s also Ice’s voice; yes, she’s loud here, but “TTYL” doesn’t sound as jarring as “Gimme A Light,” which is purely a testament to how well Y2K! is sequenced.

From the hard-hitting drill beat to her project-bridging outro (“Like… Imma talk to you later!), “TTYL” is the one. If Kay Flock beats his case, he needs to hop on a remix of this.

Led by triumphant horns and anchored by a surprisingly raspy voice in the hook, “Popa” is easily the best track on Y2K! The track sounds expensive, from the crescendo of background synths to the crashing hi-hats that punctuate each of her lines in the verses. Switching up her flow by taking a page out of Young M.A‘s book, the real victory of “Popa” is how much Ice is playing with her intonation. She isn’t doing full-on characters like her rap mother — who she references yet again with the quip “bad b—hes, I’m your leader” — but she’s adding in different levels of airiness and hoarseness to diversify the vocal textures of her delivery.

There’s also the way she raps the hook: her words form in the back of her mouth, giving way to an ever-so-slightly nasal quality that plays beautifully against her rags-to-riches bars and that gorgeous beat. Songs like “Popa” truly showcase how much Ice has honed her craft and fine-tuned her sound since her debut EP hit the charts over a year ago.