Ice Spice Defies All Odds and Google Dabbles with AI Music

Welcome to my latest newsletter What ladidai Has to Say, where I discuss tunes, tech, and trends that interest me. I’m ladi and I’m happy to have you! Today’s fifth edition is about all we can learn from the rapid rise of Gen Z rap princess Ice Spice and why Google’s foray into AI music seems promising.

Let’s get into it.

Ice Spice: From Social Media Sensation to the People's Princess of Rap

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone 30 and under who hasn’t heard of Ice Spice.

The young rapper, who started out as somewhat of a meme due to the virality of her breakout song “Munch (Feelin’ U)”, was recently reconfirmed to be The People’s Princess of Rap by Billboard.

For those who are unfamiliar with her, here’s the TLDR timeline on Ice Spice’s rise to fame:

• Ice Spice was born Isis Naija Gaston in the Bronx, New York, on January 1, 2000.

• She began rapping in high school and quickly developed a following on social media following her entry in the “Bussit” challenge.

• In 2021, Ice Spice released her debut single, "Bully Freestyle," which went viral on TikTok.

• Her follow-up single, "Munch (Feelin' U)," was released in 2022 and made even bigger waves. The song was featured on Drake's SiriusXM radio show, Sound 42, and quickly went viral on TikTok and Twitter.

• Ice Spice was invited by fellow drill rapper Fivio Foreign to perform for the first time at Rolling Loud in New York.

• Ice Spice's success led to her signing a record deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records. She has since released her debut EP, Like..?, which has been met with critical acclaim and moderate commercial success.

• Ice Spice has continued to maintain her popularity, and has since attended New York Fashion Week, worked with Nicki Minaj, partnered with SKIMS and Ivy Park, attended the Met Gala, been on the cover of The Cut, PAPER, and Dazed, and has charted within the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 twice.

Not bad for barely 2 years in the game. So how’d she do it?

Manifestation

A wise woman once said, “How can I lose when I’m already chose? Like—” and she’s won ever since.

Ice Spice told Heran Mamo, Hip-hop/ R&B Reporter at Billboard, that she has been manifesting since she was in elementary school, thanks to her mom introducing her to The Secret at 10 years old.

Ice is 23 now, so her success may appear as if it happened overnight, but in reality, it’s over a decade in the making.

Manifestation might sound woo-woo, but it’s not simply the mindset, but the persistence in actions that align with one’s goals.

Brand Identity

Ice Spice’s look in the “Munch” music video was so memorable, that it became a popular Halloween costume the same year.

Her signature orange fro has helped set her apart from every young female rapper in the game. It’s one thing for a sound or song to go viral on TikTok. It’s another thing for the artist to go viral too. When “Munch” reached millions of ears, Ice reached millions of eyes, allowing her to perpetually be tied to the song and its success. More often than not, we hear of artists who struggle to follow up their big break because the records become bigger than they are. But Ice’s distinct look has significantly helped her to remain bigger than all of her songs.

@icespicee

new music otw 🦋

Beyond this, Ice Spice is incredibly likable, from her laid back demeanor, to her sense of humor, to her almost surprising level of self awareness. She knows her strengths and her limitations, who she is, and what she wants to represent—and that’s felt in every aspect of her existence.

New Yorkers are known to be as real as they come, and with Ice, there are no gimmicks or try-hard antics (just a few classic emotes), from her natural beauty to her athleisure meets haute couture style to her chill stage presence. She exudes a kind of quiet charisma that would appear almost underwhelming if exhibited by anyone else.

It’s also worth noting that Ice Spice is remarkably unproblematic. In a world where social media sensations fall as quickly as they rise due to the resurfacing of incriminating content, Ice Spice fans were pleasantly surprised and relieved that they could continue to stan.

Social Media

No artist ever wants to hear this, but it goes without saying, it’s nearly impossible to make it as an artist today without regular social media use.

Gone are the days where you can hand JAY-Z a mixtape and get signed, or where he’d find you on an island.

Ice Spice is Gen Z and Gen Z knows better than anybody how to build whole careers off a few apps on their phone.

Ice Spice leverages TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter regularly, as well as YouTube, to keep the attention of current fans and garner the attention of new ones. Six figure like counts are light work.

It’s safe to say that without strategic and consistent social media use, we wouldn’t know who she is today. And that’s no tea, no shade. It’s just a sign of the times. The same could be said for most well known artists under 30.

Between the “Bussit” challenge, “No Clarity”, “Bully Freestyle”, and finally “Munch”, Ice was able to break as an artist and stamp herself as a Gen Z Internet icon.

Creative

Nothing moves without the music, followed very closely by the visuals and other supporting assets.

In this context, I’m using “creative" as a collective noun to encompass a range of artistic works (e.g. music, videos, photo shoots, etc.)

Say what you want, but there’s no denying the effect of Ice’s bars.

There’s a high level of intentionality and execution when it comes to every aspect of her music and all that’s related to it. And those with keen ears and eyes catch on—and are hooked.

One of the main criticisms surrounding Ice Spice is that she is minimally talented and has advanced this far in her career so rapidly predominantly due to her outward appearance.

Now, though it is true that her looks contribute heavily to her overall appeal, fans of Ice Spice genuinely resonate with her music and her videos. You can barely log online without her music being posted or quoted.

Her songs have received generally positive reviews from music critics and within the past two short years, there has been noticeable growth in her delivery and songwriting. Ice Spice is often measured against the likes of Doja Cat and Latto, where detractors state her pen and stage presence don’t measure up.

But, the numbers don’t lie. The millions of views on YouTube, the charts on Billboard, the streams on Spotify, the trending topics on Twitter—and the steady upwards trajectory of all these metrics—all indicate that the creative resonates. Just look at how her 20 second verse significantly affected the chart success of PinkPantheress’ “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2”

Her feature is easily the most memorable and quotable part of the song and helped it skyrocket to no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even the likes of BTS and Lil Kim were rocking with it.

All the attractiveness in the world doesn’t make a song a hit. Ice Spice is in her own lane and her sticky lyrics, chill tone, smooth delivery, New York swag, and catchy cadences have captured the ears of the world.

Consistency

Ice Spice is everywhere. So much that there’s literally a whole article by TIME dedicated to her ubiquity.

There’s not a week that goes by that a song isn’t released, a video doesn’t premiere, an event isn’t attended, a photo shoot isn’t posted, a performance isn’t live-streamed or something of note isn’t announced.

She consistently stays top of mind. Sometimes all it takes is a light clapback, but that’s more than enough reason for her to trend or be posted in the blogs.

Now more than ever it’s easy to be seen, but it’s even easier to be forgotten. In the attention economy, consistency is necessary to survive—or you risk being overshadowed by any other hot artist vying for the top spot.

Cosigns

In rap, cosigns are a major cheat code. They introduce new artists to a wider audience, opening doors for collaborations and opportunities.

And there are few cosigns that are more coveted than Drake’s.

Drake came across “Munch” on Instagram.

Next thing you know, she’s allegedly flown out to OVO Fest and the rest is history.

Ice Spice has also been embraced on several occasions by Cardi B, Lil Nas X, collaborator Lil Tjay, and of course, The Queen of Rap, Nicki Minaj, who blessed her with a verse on fan favorite “Princess Diana”.

Celebrities outside of rap have shown love to Ice as well, including Beyoncé via the partnership with Ivy Park and Kim Kardashian via the partnership with SKIMS. Kim even took it one step further by inviting Ice Spice to her home to meet her daughter North West and North’s friends.

You may recall that North was such a big fan of Ice Spice that she drew a portrait of her and upload it to TikTok, amassing over 4 million likes.

There’s more where that came from.

Fandom

Practically every superstar in the making has a name for their legion of loyal supporters. Beyoncé fans are called the Beyhive. Rihanna fans are called the Navy. Nicki Minaj fans are called the Barbz. In that same vein, Ice Spice fans are called the Munchkins or the Spice Cabinet (sometimes both).

Before she even had a charting song, Ice Spice’s virality spawned multiple fan pages. And though some supportive posts may have been made in jest, they ultimately contributed to her overall success.

The thing with social media algorithms is that they don’t know when you’re joking. Nor do they care. All they know is when a topic is trending upwards or downwards. And when mentioned by both stans (super fans), casual users, and haters (closet super fans) alike, the perfect storm was created. Ice Spice becoming a meme may have made her credibility questionable, but it also took her relevance to incredible heights.

Fan support is one thing but there’s also artist-fan communication.

Some artists ignore fans.

Other artists acknowledge fans.

And then there’s a special third thing: artists who incorporate fans. Or their feedback, anyway.

All the clues are in the comments, and like most Gen Zers, Ice sees them and pays attention.

Fans are not shy. They’ll tell artists their honest thoughts, at times, ruthlessly. And it’s then up to the artist to decide how to best respond.

When Ice Spice saw her fans jokingly address her as Princess Diana, she saw an opportunity.

And she executed in the best way possible. Ice initially released the song solo on her debut EP and then later released the remix with Nicki Minaj, thus activating another fanbase—the Barbz. This allowed the song to skyrocket up the Billboard charts.

Initiative

Nobody had to tell Ice Spice to share PinkPantheress’ song to her story.

Nobody had to tell her to continue to send her demos around school until she found her producer, RIOTUSA.

Nobody had to tell her to search for jobs that pay a lot on Google.

Maybe it’s her Nigerian blood or her New York state of mind, but time and time again, from childhood, Ice Spice has taken it upon herself to be proactive when it comes to her life and career.

And every time, it has paid off.

Teamwork

Ice Spice’s team is seemingly small, but mighty.

The key players who we know of on Ice Spice’s Team are as follows:

• Manager: James Rosemond Jr.

• Attorney: Leon Morabia

• Booking Agent: Cara Lewis

• Producer: RIOTUSA

• Hair stylists: Dija Slay / Davontaé Washington

• Makeup artists: Karina Milan / Marla Vazquez

• Wardrobe stylist: Marissa Pelly

Everyone on Ice Spice’s team plays their position to the greatest of their abilities, making every aspect of her success appear almost effortless. That’s by design. Chess, not checkers.

With the help of her team, Ice Spice was able to ultimately build enough leverage to secure a multi-million dollar partnership with 10K Projects and Capitol Records. This deal offered access to the necessary infrastructure and resources yet allowed her full creative control as well as complete ownership of her music.

Complex summed it up perfectly:

There hasn’t been a 360 joke tweeted about Ice since that news broke.

In 2023, artists have more opportunities than ever to leverage their platform in order to negotiate the best deal terms possible.

But it’s not possible to achieve this alone. When artists align with other professionals who believe in them wholeheartedly, understand their vision, play their position, and work unrelentingly to execute, that is where the magic happens.

Fashion

There are three female rappers who can say they were invited to the Met Gala with no album out: Azealia Banks, Cardi B, and yup, you guessed it, Ice Spice.

Fans were stunned that Ice not only had the opportunity to grace the red carpet in custom Balmain, but was also reportedly personally invited by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

And not just that: She also launched a capsule collection, released in partnership with Vogue and eBay.

This comes not too long after her multiple appearances at New York Fashion Week, most notably sitting front row for the Coach show alongside Lil Nas X and RAYE.

There is a disproportionate amount of pressure on female creatives to excel beyond their primary field in order to sustain their careers. Tapping into other creative modes of expression is generally the most effective way to do that. Over the past few years, we’ve seen it do wonders for the likes of her peers, Doja Cat and Zendaya. So it’s only right for a creative professional like Ice Spice, whose looks have captivated the public, to push the boundaries of her own personal style and make a name for herself in fashion too.

It’s also worth noting that besides becoming a brand ambassador for athleisure brands like Ivy Park and SKIMS, Ice Spice has also become the face of household names like legacy brands Nike, Marc Jacobs, and Converse.

Sync

Though this has yet to be officially announced by the franchise, but word in the street is that Ice Spice will be featured on the new Spiderman soundtrack alongside fellow Naija artist, Rema.

There doesn’t exist a superstar in the making who hasn’t had their music in a feature film, so Ice Spice will check off yet another box on the road to longevity.

What’s Next?

The sky’s the limit.

The deluxe to her debut EP is set to be released this summer and I’m assuming the album will follow sometime later this year.

Jimmy Fallon. BET Awards. VMAs. New York Fashion Week. Rolling Loud, again. You name it, she’ll likely be there.

I’m also betting on one major partnership, if they know what’s good for them.

What’s for certain is that all eyes will be on Ice throughout her run, cleverly coined as The Ice Age.

You Can Do It Too, Believe It

What’s most intriguing about Ice Spice is virtually nothing she has done to get to where she is today is particularly novel. However, her execution and timing couldn’t be more perfect. And her ability to capitalize on the results of said execution and timing? Even more perfect. Having all the moving pieces fall into place exactly how and when they’re supposed to is a crucial skill all in itself. And being able to follow those up without a single miss? Beyond impressive.

It’s also important to note that there are forces at work that make it so that women like her with more desirable physical characteristics can get ahead more easily. The playing field isn’t the same for everyone. Some of us are afforded certain privileges that others don’t have. These privileges vary in magnitude and aren’t to be disregarded. I’d be remiss not to mention that.

Acknowledging this, it also has to be said that there are numerous female artists with a similar look, sound, and demeanor. But there are few with similar levels of success. And that can be attributed to a number of factors that are actually within her control.

There’s something to be said about being so delusional about your ability to create your dream life that you actually do it—despite all odds. And if there’s anything to take away from Ice Spice, it’s that.

Google Introduces AI Music Tool MusicLM

ChatGPT competitor AI chatbot Bard has barely gained traction, but that hasn’t stopped Google from introducing their latest AI tool: MusicLM.

As relatively quietly announced on their blog, MusicLM is a language model that can generate music from text descriptions. It was trained on a massive dataset of music, and it can also learn to create new music in a range of styles. MusicLM is still under development, but it’s currently available to use in beta.

Here are some of the things you can do with MusicLM:

• Generate new music from text descriptions

• Recreate existing songs

• Learn about music theory and composition

• Experiment with different styles of music

• Collaborate with other musicians

The possibilities are truly endless. To use MusicLM, provide a text description of the music you want to create. For example, your prompt could be "craft a serene and meditative instrumental composition using traditional instruments like the flute and sitar" or "create a hip-hop beat with a vintage vinyl feel and sample some classic funk or soul records." MusicLM will then generate a piece of music that matches your description. The more specific the prompt the better.

Remember, MusicLM can be used to create original compositions, or it can be used to recreate existing songs. Imagine telling it to recreate the production of “Rich Spirit” by Kendrick Lamar or “Champion” by Kanye West. JK, it actually won’t do that. That’s probably why I haven’t heard any backlash from Universal Music Group’s CEO Lucian Grainge or any other major label heavyweights, but maybe when a song eclipses the popularity of AI Drake’s that will change.

To try MusicLM, sign up for the AI Test Kitchen. The AI Test Kitchen is a program that allows you to try out new Google AI products. Join the waitlist and feel free to share your creations in the comments. I’m still waiting to be approved, but I’ll update you as soon as I test it out.

Check out examples from folks who are already off the waitlist. They’re honestly better than I expected:

Also, apparently, you can only make so many beats per month while in beta.

I foresee this being a game changer for musicians who either are novices at music production or who are looking to expand their current palette in terms of the kinds of beats they create. Artists, songwriters, and producers alike can benefit from this. Scouring YouTube for type beats is cool, but sending an AI-generated idea to your producer homie to build on might be better. If you’ve spent any time with artists, a lot of them can describe to you what they want their production to sound like. But having what’s in your head translate to what’s in your DAW is two entirely different things. I’m confident that MusicLM will help close that gap.

In the meantime, Grimes AI-1 continues to lead the charge in AI music and is available to play around with right now.

ladidai is a web2.5 music tech professional with a passion for music, emerging technology, pop culture, social media, and the creator economy. Learn more here. If you enjoyed, please share! Send all inquiries to [email protected]. And feel free to join in on the conversation by commenting below.