Ice Spice Is Wrapping Up Her First World Tour (2024)

2000-present

Ice Spice is a Grammy-nominated rapper known for the songs “Princess Diana” with Nicki Minaj and “Karma” with Taylor Swift. After graduating high school in 2018, the native New Yorker, whose real name is Isis Gaston, started making music while attending Purchase College. Viral moments on TikTok, including for her 2022 hit “Munch (Feelin’ U),” led to a record deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records. She scored collaborations with Minaj, Swift, and PinkPantheress the following year. Her momentum continued with four 2024 Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. Her debut album, Y2K!, released in July 2024.

FULL NAME: Isis Naija Gaston
BORN: January 1, 2000
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Ice Spice, whose real name is Isis Naija Gaston, was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx on January 1, 2000. Her rap name, Ice Spice, came from a fake Instagram account she created at age 14.

Her parents, Joseph Gaston and Charina Almanzar, met while working at McDonald’s. In 2022, Ice Spice opened up about her relationship with her mom to Interview Magazine. “She had me at 17, so we kind of grew up together,” the rapper said. “She gives me sister vibes, and she’s a little crazy, but I’m thankful because that’s why I am who I am. It’s chaotic, but we love each other down.” She also discussed her relationship with her dad, an underground rapper, with the publication. “My father, he’s more leveled, which is also why I feel like I am the way that I am. So I’m grateful for both, they’re a perfect combination.”

Her parents separated when Ice Spice was two years old. Following the separation, Gaston and Almanzar each had more children with other partners. Ice Spice has five younger siblings. “Growing up, I would get jealous that my other siblings had siblings that came from the same mom and dad, but now that I’m older, I just feel special,” she told Interview Magazine.

The future musician spent her early years with her grandparents and extended family. “My parents would be at work a lot, so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I have so many cousins, and after school, we’d all link up at my grandparents’ house,” she later explained. “We’d chill, eat, laugh, watch TV. I went to after-school a lot, too.”

Ice Spice attended Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers. After graduating in 2018, she attended Purchase College, part of the SUNY system, where she studied communications and played volleyball.

Ice Spice grew up seeing her dad work hard to launch his underground rap career. She told Rolling Stone: “He was always distributing CDs. I’d take road trips with him to Rhode Island or wherever for a couple of hours. It was just us, and it was fun.”

She began making her own music while in college, collaborating with her friend and producer, RIOTUSA. “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 the Today show. Her biggest musical inspirations include Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj, Foxy Brown, and Remy Ma.

Her musical genre is described as drill music. “Drill is defined by the beats and the high-hat pattern and the 808 slides and stuff like that. But drill is expanding like crazy,” she told Interview Magazine. “It started in Chicago, and it was Chief Keef and that whole movement. And then it went to the U.K. for a while, and now that it’s back in New York, it’s in its final form. I just love the beats. For me, that’s the most important aspect.”

Ice Spice takes ownership of her creative process. “I write all my music. My producer helps me when we’re in the studio together, and we’re bouncing ideas back and forth. But I don’t like to accept references. If I’m going to work with a writer, I like for us to build it from scratch,” she told Interview Magazine.

Songs: “Munch,” “Princess Diana,” and “Karma”

Ice Spice first gained attention on social media at the beginning of 2021 when she participated in TikTok’s “Buss It” challenge, dancing along to Texas rapper Erica Banks’ song with hundreds of thousands of others. At the time, she was already working on recording her first song, “Bully Freestyle.” The track was released in March 2021.

But it wasn’t until November 2021, when she released her song “No Clarity,” that she hit her stride. “Once I brought it back to the real me and my roots, and I put my Jordans back on, and I just wore my natural hair, and I was just really being authentic to myself, that’s when my views started going up again,” she told The Cut. “I was like, ‘Let me just be me.’”

Her next release, “Name of Love,” dropped in April 2022. That August, her song “Munch (Feelin’ U)” went viral on TikTok and spurred a career takeoff. Then, in the fall of 2022, Ice Spice signed a record label deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records. Her contract stipulates that the rapper owns all her publishing rights and masters. Her first EP, titled Like…?, arrived in January 2023.

Her fame and popularity have grown through collaborations with fellow musicians. She was featured on PinkPantheress’ viral song in February 2023, “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2.” An April 2023 remix of her song “Princess Diana” with Nicki Minaj became the first No. 1 song by two co-billed women on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart. That May, Ice Spice was featured on a version of Taylor Swift’s song “Karma” that hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. She collaborated with Minaj again in June 2023 for “Barbie World,” from the Barbie movie soundtrack.

These hit songs led to Ice Spice’s four nominations at the 2024 Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Best Rap Song, Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Barbie World,” and Best Pop Duo Performance for “Karma.”

Y2K! Album

Three months after an energetic performance at the Coachella music festival, Ice Spice released Y2K!, her first full-length album, in July 2024. The new album features 10 tracks, including her single “Think U The sh*t (Fart)” that made it into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Y2K! also features collaborations with rappers Travis Scott and Central Cee.

The album debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 chart but was met with critical reviews. Ice Spice kicked off her Y2K! World Tour just weeks ahead of the album’s release, performing her first headlining concert in Denmark on July 4. The tour is set to conclude in Florida on August 31.

Ice Spice told Rolling Stone she is currently single for a profile published in July 2024. She denied that she and fellow rapper Central Cee, who she’s collaborated with in the past, were a couple. “We’ve been friends since ‘Munch’ came out, honestly,” Ice Spice said. “We’re just twins.”

Back in fall 2023, she was in a relationship with an anonymous partner. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times that October, Ice Spice shared she was dating someone but didn’t share who, explaining that she wanted her fans “to keep their focus on what I’m here for, which is music.”

There was speculation that her boyfriend was YouTube star King Cid, whose real name is Jason Cid. The two were spotted getting affectionate in January 2024, but the rumors eventually fizzled out.

• I consider myself an artist. I know a lot of people try to categorize me, but I just like to create things.
• I’m a Capricorn, but I give Leo energy a lot.

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