When she emerged along with her deadpan, sure-shot stream on 2022’s “Munch (Feelin’ U),” Ice Spice planted her flag as drill music’s subsequent torchbearer. A subgenre predicated on hard-nosed beats, sugary samples and slippery flows, drill was largely front-lined by male rappers (the late Pop Smoke, Fivio International) till Spice crashed in, injecting it straight into pop music’s aorta due to co-signs from and hits with Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj.

Success got here rapidly for the then-22-year-old, who infused colloquialisms from her native Bronx and Gen Z meme tradition into nimble anthems produced by her musical co-pilot RiotUSA. Songs like “Deli” and “In Ha Temper” struck the correct equilibrium between road and pop sensibility — simply onerous sufficient for rap purists, softened across the edges for broader enchantment — and set the desk for what was leaning towards a mainstream breakthrough along with her debut album.

Spice doesn’t absolutely stick the touchdown on “Y2K!,” as a substitute opting to crawl deeper into the most secure, darkest corners of drill. There’s no shock Swift collaboration or candy-striped beats on the 10-track set, solely pummeling, opaque instrumentation and braggadocious rhymes. Spice has confronted criticism for her willingness to embrace pop stardom so readily in a style the place authenticity is tied to how intently you adhere to its core tenets. Accusations of promoting out are sometimes lobbed at those that play on the conventions of a style with out respecting its structure, and Spice incomes a Grammy nomination in a pop class this yr didn’t assist her trigger.

“Y2K!” seems to deal with simply that, no less than musically, throughout its 23 minutes and 18 seconds (by some means a minute shorter than the deluxe version of final yr’s “Like..?” EP), with sniping tracks that middle Spice’s abilities as each a critical rapper and a character. The laid-back, assured tone that granted levity to pick tracks on “Like..?” peeks out on “Y2K!,” whose title references her birthday (she was born on Jan. 1, 2000). The one “Assume U the Shit (Fart)” is as deliberately crass as it’s perplexingly catchy — “Assume you the shit, bitch? You not even the fart,” she chants on the refrain — whereas “Gimme a Gentle” leans on the basic hip-hop trope of sampling decades-old hits (on this case, a Sean Paul single) to evoke an air of familiarity.

Spice shouldn’t must attempt so onerous to show why she rose above the fray so quick, and among the finest moments on “Y2K!” happen when she approximates the method that bought her thus far. “TTYL” touts a galloping vitality — she feels like she’s rapping in italics — whereas “BB Belt” is the religious cousin to “Deli” with its pressing, windswept instrumental and play on meter: “Lightskin however I’m Black you’ll be able to inform by my hair / I get cash, bitch I’m a millionaire / Stroll within the occasion, everyone gon’ stare / If I ain’t the one, why the fuck am I right here?” she raps, pausing after every line to let the bar sink in.

However these are fleeting moments on an album that already doesn’t give sufficient. “Y2K!” is front-loaded with clean and conventional drill songs (“Oh Shhh …,” that includes Travis Scott; “Bitch I’m Packin’” with Gunna). But Spice’s versatility — she’s equally at dwelling on a twinkling PinkPantheress single and on an X-rated Money Cobain lower — takes a again seat to telling, not displaying, that her roots are nonetheless intact. It’s simple to stroll away from “Y2K!” wowed by her Bronx-bred abilities, however it’s simply as confounding that by some means, she’s proper again the place she began.