Ice Spice's Zane Lowe Takeaways: Drake, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj & More

Undeniably, Ice Spice is one of the hottest, newest acts in Hip Hop. New York has long dominated the culture, so it comes as no surprise that its latest Rap Princess emerged from The Bronx. Recently, Ice Spice released the deluxe version of her Like...? EP, and as soon as it hit DSPs, the chatter about the updated project began. Her signature flow and usually-bright red hair have become her signatures, setting her apart in an arguably overly saturated industry.

Further, it isn't just Hip Hop fans that have kept Ice Spice conversations at the forefront. She burst onto the scene with a "Munch" co-sign from Drake, and the attention from industry hitmakers didn't cease. More recently, she linked with the Head of the Barbz herself, Nicki Minaj, for two back-to-back tracks that stunned the internet: "Princess Diana" and the Barbie soundtrack single, "Barbie World," which samples the classic 1997 Aqua jam. Additionally, Spice connected with none other than Taylor Swift for their Pop crossover collaboration, "Karma."

To help hype her latest string of successes, Ice Spice sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. While there, she opened up about her meteoric climb throughout 2023 and dropped a few soundbites about Swift, Nicki, Drake, North West, and opening for Doja Cat on the Hot Pink star's tour. Check out a few takeaways from the in-depth conversation with below, along with the video of the compelling interview.

I was home and my manager called me, and was like, "Oh, Taylor wants you on a record." And I'm like, "Taylor?" He texted me, "Oh, call me. I have to tell you something," whatever. And he usually would just text me anything. Right? So, I'm like, "Okay." And I was having a really bad day also, I would like to say that. I was having a terrible day. I was crying all morning because I was just so mad at something. And then he called me with that news. Then I cried more because it was good news. 

My life is a rollercoaster. How I started the day crying, and I'm ending it crying, but for different reasons... It was amazing. We went to the studio, and she's so humble and so nice. I kid you not. I pulled up to the studio, and she outside waiting for me. I'm like, "Why is Taylor Swift outside?” Like, "Taylor, what are you doing here?” So she's great. She's so funny. We text all the time. She is f*cking hilarious. I'm not going to lie. She's the funniest person ever.

After the show, because shout out to her, she brought me out to her stadium shows. Can you believe that? I did a stadium show before an arena. That was nuts. I'm not going to lie... [The audience felt like] Little lights twinkling. And no, but it's crazy, because you hear all this, the roar that you hear in a Taylor Swift show is unmatched. I don't think I've ever heard that. And there's so many... So I tried to watch the show. Sorry, I'm jumping everywhere. I'm just so excited about this experience. But I tried to watch the show and I was like, "No one's going to notice me. They're paying attention to whatever."

So I'm standing there trying to be low-key. And then this one little seven-year-old girl screams my name. And she was like, "Ice Spice." She was like, "'Boy's a Liar', ‘In Ha Mood'." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, she's so f*cking cute." Then a bunch of other little girls just appeared, and they just was trying to take pictures. And I was like, "All right, child. Let me go back to the dressing room and wait until it's my turn to come out." But her show was amazing, and I'm just so grateful. Like 200,000 people, I think we performed for.

I feel like I am absorbing advice from [Nicki] and learning from her and stuff. And she'll tell me, “Learn from my mistake, do this or don't do that," or whatever. And I just really pay attention to what she’s saying. Because if there's anyone I'm going to listen to, it's the queen.

[With Drake] We talk all the time, and we're always just laughing about some things that go on. And I'll ask him, "What should I do with this? Or, "How'd you go about this?" Or, "Did you ever experience that?" And he'll... I'm not going to give real examples, but... He'll tell me, "I did this, and you should do that too because you can." And I'll be like, “You're right. Period. I'm going to do that." It's like coach vibes.

Yes. I'm so excited. Yes. The way she announced that and who was rolling out, I was like, "Okay, that might be the tour of the year." For you to be going out there and playing on a stage like that with someone who I feel had, in her own way, a similar experience. She came out, and she was really counted out. People didn't really understand the level of talent, the level of commitment, of hard work, of discipline. She's proven that time and time again. Now no one doubts it anymore.

She's real, real, real sweet. She's real nice. And we just need to chill some more. You know what I'm saying? To really vibe a little more. But I love her down. I'm really a fan of her. My little sister put me onto her in 2018. Wow. And I remember watching her right before she actually blew up crazy. I was watching her tour, and she did a mini tour in Europe or something. I was so inspired by her and just watching her, I was like, "Wow, I just know she's going to be big." And then later that year, she was the biggest thing on the planet. Yeah. I think she's better than me at that.

I have so many fans in high school and in middle school, and even babies. I love seeing little babies dance to my music and stuff like that. And just for my siblings and just myself, my music inspires myself. I'm not going to lie... When I met North West, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I was like, "Girl, you're more famous than me." She's great, though... She's so cute. But those are the fans and that age group and stuff like that, that I really want to inspire. Because they're so innocent and they're so cute and they just want to have fun.

A childhood in the Bronx, I'm not going to lie, is fun for me. That's how my childhood was. I know a lot of people in the Bronx have different experiences, especially depending on what part of the Bronx you from. But I had a fun childhood. I mean, I only know it from my perspective. I don't know... You know what I'm saying? It's hard to compare it to other people. Huge music place, yeah. When you're walking on Fordham, stores just playing music to try to get you to come in. The stores will have the music playing and on a speaker outside.