Ice Spice

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. Her parents were frequently busy working, so she spent much of her childhood with her grandparents and cousins. She went to school in the Bronx until she was sent to Sacred Heart High School, a Catholic high school in Yonkers. 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 has had Ice Spice as her stage name since she was a freshman in high school. In an interview with Billboard, Ice 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. "When I saw Nicki [Minaj], 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." 

Ice Spice began her career in 2021 after meeting record producer RiotUSA. Publications such as The New York Times and Billboard have dubbed her "rap's new princess". While Time described her as a "breakout star". Ice Spice rose to prominence in late 2022 with her song "Munch (Feelin' U)", which achieved viral popularity on TikTok. She followed it up with singles "Bikini Bottom" and "In Ha Mood", leading up to her debut extended play, Like..? (2023). She achieved her first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with the Lil Tjay collaboration "Gangsta Boo". Her collaborations "Boy's a Liar Pt. 2" (with PinkPantheress), "Princess Diana" (with Nicki Minaj), "Karma" (with Taylor Swift), and "Barbie World" (with Nicki Minaj and Aqua) peaked at numbers three, four, two and seven on the Hot 100, respectively; she is the artist with the most Hot 100 top-five singles in 2023.