The Pop Corporation

Oh how times change. Early on, on these pages we wrote that we were really in the mood for a silly, party rapper who didn’t take themselves too seriously. We said we ‘needed’ Ice Spice, not because she was a generational talent, but rather, a cocky, young, irreverent thing who looked kinda cool and made some club friendly bops, and wasn’t suffering from all the drowsy, ultra-mean shit that hip hop was falling too easily into.

Ice Spice, for a moment, sounded like a breath of fresh, cartoon air.

However, she seems to have blown it. A flop album and some sub-standard singles have hit us since then and 2024 really didn’t feel like the year she could have had. She had been given an opportunity that very few MCs get, and weirdly, instead of showing hunger or having fun with it, she almost seems entirely inconvenienced by it.

Is it just a case of nothing having the talent or good advice to carry it off? Or is it more troubling and she just doesn’t want it, never wanted it in the first place, or is just lazy? See, detractors may point to her seemingly constant fart and poop jokes in her music, but there’s an alternative timeline where that’s really fun and off-the-wall. In this one, it sucks.

Recently, she was due to play a set in Australia at the Wildlands festival – a prestigious NYE slot no less. Scheduled to play between 10.30pm and 11pm, she started her show late at 10:55pm. With a super strict programme of events (its a festival so when one artist is late to finish, every artist after them is also late or impacted – and when there’s a New Year’s Eve countdown in the mix, it’s even tighter), they couldn’t mess around with Ice Spice’s tardiness.

She played for just five minutes before exiting the stage after her mic was cut off.

Fans have been reported as saying that she walked off, laughing. The festival responded to criticisms before the artist themselves did, saying “we understand that Ice Spice’s delayed arrival caused some disappointment – managing a stacked festival means that we have to be extremely firm with set times. We had a strict curfew of 12:30 and need to ensure that the final act went on stage on time, so everyone could enjoy the New Year’s Eve countdown.”

It took a few days before she apologised, and to say it addressed the concerns and irritation of her fans is a stretch. At a show in Perth, she basically put it down to taking a long time to get ready: “I’m sorry guys, surely y’all can forgive me – it was my birthday and it takes a long time to look like a Barbie.”

Of course, the grumpy dad in us all immediately think ‘maybe start getting ready earlier then?’ Maybe adopt the maxim ‘the show must go on’, and forget the lewk for actually doing something like a set? Some humility would have gone a long way, and indeed, garnered goodwill for future shows, releases and so forth. Given that the early records of Ice Spice were denim shorts and a boob toob, it’s not like 5 minutes of glam is preferable to 30 minutes of tunes in sneakers, right?

For those who didn’t get the hype, this’ll be a lovely “I told you so!” moment, but really, the hype wasn’t that hot – she just seemed like fun, is all. It wasn’t that deep – however, you should let people have their snark, because snark is important in 2025. Either way, Ice Spice got a Barbie gig, which will have paid her handsomely, and she’s had some hits, but boy howdy, moving forward, it seems the kind of pop-rap fanbase, the theys ‘n’ thems etc, are rapidly running out of patience.

Even as meme-rappers go, she’s lacking the chutzpah and canniness that others certainly have. The novelty has worn off and it feels like this could be a case study in fucking a perfectly serviceable career up. What’s she gonna do in 2025? Maybe at the beginning of last year, people would have cared enough to answer – now? That ship might have sailed. And the thing is, it doesn’t look like she’s too bothered.

Poopie, indeed.