Ice Spice Artistfacts

January 1, 2000
Isis Naija Gaston, professionally known as Ice Spice, was born in the Bronx, New York City. Her African American father and Dominican American mother divorced when she was two years old. She grew up listening to a mix of soca, Latin pop, and hip-hop.
Ice was educated at the Sacred Heart High School, a Catholic high school in Yonkers. She graduated in 2018 and began a course in communications at Purchase College in New York with the hope of getting into broadcast journalism or podcasting. Around her sophomore year, she dropped out of Purchase College, as she felt she was in the wrong place and the commute was stressful.
Growing up, Ice loved rappers like Lil' Kim and Nicki Minaj. When she was a teenager, she began writing raps in private, inspired by Pop Smoke and other New York artists. Ice wrote lyrics in the notes section of her phone, sifting through instrumentals and rapping out loud to them.
After meeting the Bronx-bred producer RiotUSA at college through a mutual friend, Ice recorded her first song, "Bully Freestyle." She released it March 2021 after a video of her doing the Buss It challenge went viral on TikTok. RIOTUSA continued to produce all her early songs, including her breakthrough singles "Munch (Feelin' U)" and "Princess Diana."
Ice Spice scored three big hits in the first half of 2023 with high-profile collaborations: she appeared on PinkPantheress's Boy's A Liar Pt. 2," with Nicki Minaj on "Barbie World," and Taylor Swift tapped her up for a remix of "Karma."
Ice considers herself a "popular loner." She told The Guardian, "I just attract a lot of people. But I always had my two best friends that I would stick to."

Ice added she thinks she attracts people because she has "a wide smile."

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