Ice Spice is proving to be part of music’s upper echelon at the halfway point of 2023. As reported by ChartData, the Bronx rapper currently holds the distinction of having the most top 5 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. The highest of that is “Karma,” her collaboration with Taylor Swift that sits at No. 2 on the aforementioned chart. Two other drops — “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” with PinkPantheress and “Princess Diana” with Nicki Minaj — have peaked at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
Following a series of loose drops, Ice Spice broke through the mold with 2022’s “Munch (Feelin’ U),” a drill-influenced number that was produced by go-to beatsmith RIOTUSA and has since earned a gold certification. Back in January, she liberated her debut EP, Like..?, a six-song offering with a single assist from Lil Tjay on “Gangsta Boo.”
As previously reported by REVOLT, the “Bikini Bottom” rapper and her team made it clear to Billboard that she owns all of her masters and is in full creative control of her musical output.
“I was privy to a lot of [my father’s] deal-making, and me being a sponge allowed me to soak up what contracts looked like and how to approach labels,” said James Rosemond Jr., Ice Spice’s manager and son of incarcerated former music executive Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond. “Deals came to her — production deals, 360 deals — but they were deals that I knew could be better, and in order to get a better deal, you have to go out and do it yourself.”
10K Projects Co-President Zach Friedman added, “No one on the label side touches the music. There is no traditional A&R with her. No one’s picking beats, no one’s saying, ‘Do this, do that,'” Friedman says. “It’s all her. We’re on her schedule.”