Y2K

There’s a wickedly infectious energy, wit and filth to her confrontational braggadocio.

RiotUSA is behind the boards on every track, and Y2K! is a testament to the strength of their long-running creative partnership. Its weakest moments are those featuring outsiders—Gunna and Travis Scott just get absolutely rinsed here. What makes Y2K! so instantly memorable is Ice Spice’s refusal to be pigeonholed.

While an absurdly short album length plays on Ice Spice’s reputation as inarticulate and spoofs the way TikTok incentivizes creators to write short songs, the album teeters on the edge of falling victim to this trend rather than remaining aloof enough to parody it. However, Ice Spice makes her newfound fame sound intriguing on Like…? and Y2K!.

Does “Y2K!” ultimately feel a bit slight for how long it’s taken to materialize? Sure. Yet the album’s throwaway quality is actually pretty refreshing in a year long on elaborately conceived pop extravaganzas such as Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Even with its compact 10 tracks, however, not everything here connects. ‘Think U The Shit (Fart)’ is juvenile in a manner she feels beneath her; the way ‘Gimmie A Light’ crunches that Sean Paul sample feels a little naff – at least until the production cranks it up a notch. There’s enough here, however, to display why so much attention is place on her name.

In a tight 10-song run that uses her limited range and our shrinking attention spans to its advantage, Ice is more animated and wordy than ever. .... Y2K is Ice Spice putting the work in to build something bigger without losing herself, and in important ways, it pays off; it matters.