Ice Spice

**Isis Naija Gaston** (born January 1, 2000), better known professionally as **Ice Spice**, is an American rapper. She grew up in The Bronx, New York City, and began her career in 2021 after meeting record producer RiotUSA while attending State University of New York at Purchase. She rose to prominence in late 2022 with her song "Munch (Feelin' U)".

The release of her singles "Bikini Bottom" and "In Ha Mood", preceded her debut extended play *Like..?* (2023). In 2023, she achieved her first US Billboard Hot 100 chart entry with the Lil Tjay collaboration "Gangsta Boo", and her remix single "Boys a Liar Pt. 2" with PinkPantheress reached the top three.

Ice Spice was hailed by Jon Caramanica of *The New York Times* as "rap's new princess", and was named a "breakout star" by *Time* magazine.

## Early/personal life

Isis Gaston was born on January 1, 2000, in the Bronx, New York City where she was raised in the Fordham Road neighborhood. She is the oldest of five siblings. Her father, a former underground rapper, is African-American, while her mother, who gave birth to Gaston at age 17, is Dominican. Because her parents were frequently busy working, she spent much of her time with her grandparents and cousins growing up. She went to school in the Bronx until she was sent to Sacred Heart High School, At age seven, she took a liking to Hip Hop after listening to rappers like Lil' Kim, Nicki Minaj, and others and wrote poetry and freestyle raps from elementary school to high school. She would type out lyrics in the notes section of her iPhone, listening to hip-hop instrumentals and rapping out loud to them. "When I saw Nicki, I was so mesmerized," Ice Spice explained. "She's the first female rapper that I seen. And ever since then, I was kinda set on what I wanted to be." She chose Ice Spice as her sobriquet while she was a freshman in high school.

Ice Spice attended State University of New York at Purchase, where she played back row on the school's volleyball team and studied communications. Ice Spice dropped out of SUNY Purchase around her sophomore year. "I left because I felt like I was in the wrong place." Ice Spice also attributed her "strenuous commute" for leaving college.

Ice Spice is the eldest sister to five siblings, and told The Cut she was their self-appointed protector. She supported herself as a cashier at Wendy's and The Gap.

## Starting of music career [No Clarity, Munch] (2021-mid 2022)

Gaston had started her main career in 2021 after posting a video of her doing the "Buss It" challenge to Twitter, which went on to go viral upon posting. She released her first 2 singles Bully Freestyle and No Clarity in March and November respectively of the same year. In mid-2022, she released her first commercially successful single titled Munch (Feelin' U), the song had gone viral on TikTok, even landing a remix with famous rapper Cardi B. As of March 2023 , the song has sold over 500,000 units. The song's catchphrase "munch" had even landed a name for the rapper's fans by the name of "Munchkins". 2 months after the release of Munch, she had released another song titled Bikini Bottom.

## Gaining success [Like..?, In Ha Mood, Boy's a Liar Pt. 2] (post mid 2022)

On December 21, 2022, Gaston had posted a video of her rapping to a snippet of a unknown song on her TikTok; the video had went viral, catching the attention of reports from businesses such as World Star. 4 days later, Gaston released the full song exclusively to her YouTube page as a Christmas gift for her fans. The song was later released to streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify on January 6, 2023.

On January 20, 2023, Gaston released a surprise extended play by the name of Like..?. The EP had sold 14,500 copies in it's first week aswell as landing a spot to #37 on the Billboard 200. One of the songs by the name of Gangsta Boo, which featured artist Lil Tjay, had even landed her first Hot 100 entry at #82.

On January 28, 2023, Gaston released the music video for "In Ma Hood", which she had previously shot after having to cancel the music video shoot for "Gangsta Boo" due to Lil Tjay, the featured artist, getting arrested the planned day of the shoot.

On February 3, 2023, Gaston had appeared on a remix of a song by PinkPantheress by the name of Boys a Liar, the song itself had been dated to be Gaston's most commercially successful single. The song had landed Gaston her first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and since then; the song has peaked at #3, making it both Gaston and PinkPantheress's first top 3 singles. The song also topped the charts in New Zealand and peaked at #2 in Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, aswell as reaching the top 10 in other countries such as Lithuania, Luxembourg, Philippines, Singapore and Norway. Due to these specific positions, the song landed a spot at #3 on the Global 200 chart, making it PinkPantheress's first entry and Gaston's second entry after "In Ha Mood", which had peaked at #192.