Isis Naija Gaston (born January1, 2000), known professionally as Ice Spice, is an American rapper.
Born and raised in the Bronx in New York City, she embarked on her musical career while studying at college in 2021 after meeting producer RiotUSA.
Ice Spice first gained major recognition in late 2022 with her song "Munch (Feelin' U)", which achieved viral popularity on TikTok.
After signing with 10K Projects in a joint venture with Capitol Records, she released the follow-up singles "Bikini Bottom" and "In Ha Mood" in promotion for her debut extended play (EP), Like..? (2023).
The EP contained the Billboard Hot 100-charting song "Gangsta Boo" (featuring Lil Tjay), spawned the single "Princess Diana" (with Nicki Minaj), and contained the single "Deli" on its deluxe edition.
She saw further mainstream success with her collaborative singles that same year; "Boy's a Liar Pt. 2" (with PinkPantheress), "Karma" (with Taylor Swift), and "Barbie World" (with Nicki Minaj and Aqua) each peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, making Ice Spice the first rapper to release four songs which did so that year.
Her 2024 single, "Think U the Shit (Fart)" is preceding the release of her forthcoming debut studio album, Y2K!.
Music journalists have noted Ice Spice's relaxed rapping style.
In 2023, Time described her as a "breakout star".
Billboard has dubbed her "rap's new princess".
She has been honored with the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, the People’s Choice Award for "New Artist of the Year" and the Impact Award from the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, as well as nominations for four Grammy Awards including Best New Artist.
Isis Naija 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.
She is of mixed ethnicity: her father, Joseph Gaston, is African-American, and was once an underground rapper.
Her mother, Charina Almanzar, is Dominican.
Almanzar worked at a car dealership, and was 17 when she gave birth to Gaston.
Her parents first met at a McDonald's and divorced when Gaston was two years old.
Gaston spent much of her childhood with her grandparents and cousins.
2018
She went to school in the Bronx, and to a Catholic Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers, where she graduated in 2018.
At age seven, she took a liking to hip hop after listening to rappers like Lil' Kim, Nicki Minaj, and others.
She wrote poetry and freestyle raps from elementary school to high school.
In an interview with Billboard, Gaston explained that she grew up listening to the likes of Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Wu-Tang Clan because of her father's rap background.
She would type out lyrics in the Notes app of her iPhone, listening to hip-hop instrumentals and rapping out loud to them.
Gaston explained: "When I saw Nicki [Minaj], I was so mesmerized. 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 stage name while she was a freshman in high school.
Gaston attended State University of New York at Purchase, where she was a defensive specialist on the school's volleyball team and studied communications.
In seven matches, she had two kills and nine digs in the 2018 season.
Around her sophomore year, Gaston dropped out of SUNY Purchase, later explaining that she did not believe the school was the right fit for her, and attributing her leaving college to the "strenuous commute".
She worked as a cashier at Wendy's and The Gap.
Ice Spice started rapping in 2021 after meeting with a record producer, RiotUSA.
He produced her debut song, "Bully Freestyle", released in March 2021 after a video of Ice Spice doing the "Buss It" challenge went viral on Twitter.
Her song "Name of Love" gained traction on SoundCloud, which led to her becoming popular on Instagram.
On August 10, 2022, Ice Spice released her song "Munch (Feelin' U)", accompanied with a video distributed by WorldStarHipHop, as the lead single from her then-untitled debut EP, Like..?.
The song gained popularity after getting support from Drake, who played the song on his Sirius XM radio station, Sound 42.
It subsequently went viral on Twitter and TikTok, and charted on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts.
In September 2022, Ice Spice appeared as a featured artist on the song "One Time" by B-Lovee.
Later that month, she signed a record deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records.
On October 28, she released the single "Bikini Bottom".
Ice Spice's debut EP, Like..?, was released on January 20, 2023, and included the singles "Munch (Feelin' U)", "Bikini Bottom", and "In Ha Mood".
In February 2023, Ice Spice collaborated with Lil Tjay on the tribute single "Gangsta Boo" to the late rapper of the same name, which became her first song on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 82.
