There’s a great moment in Ice Spice’s Up Next film where you can see her hanging out a car window in the Bronx and waving to a park full of screaming fans. It shows not only how effortlessly she can work a crowd, but how well the untouchable cool of her online persona translates into real life. “When I’m outside and I hear my music playing—like, just random people walking by—I still get excited like the first time,” she told Apple Music. “Like, I expect to see it online and streaming, and seeing people enjoy it at home…but when you see people outside doing it? It’s different.” Like the song says: In the hood, she’s like Princess Diana—genuflect accordingly. Born Isis Naija Gaston in the Bronx on 1 January, 2000, Ice Spice fell in love with MCs like Nicki Minaj and Lil’ Kim as a kid and picked up her dad’s faves like JAY-Z and Wu-Tang along the way. Though initially associated with the Brooklyn drill scene, her style is both mellower and more melodic, splitting the difference between the attitude of classic hip-hop and the sparkly playfulness of viral pop (“Munch [Feelin’ U]” and “Princess Diana”, from her 2023 debut EP <i>Like..?</i>). She’s funny and talented and she knows it. “Munch”? “I was really trying to rhyme a word with ‘lunch’”, she said. <i>Suuuure</i>. “It’s for the baddies that get it, for the confident people, for the people that get money,” she added. “It’s just music to feel good to.”