Ice Spice brought the Bronx to Los Angeles for her first headlining show at the Hollywood Palladium last night, running through the considerable spate of hits she’s amassed since she reached full viral throttle with her breakthrough hit “Munch (Feelin’ U)” in late 2022.
The Y2K! World Tour, which kicked off in Denmark on July 4, has slowly been making its way across the globe, with two nights already checked off at New York City’s Terminal 5 plus shows in Chicago and Philadelphia. Her night at the Palladium followed similar suit to the performance clips circulating on social media, from the graffiti-sprayed subway car set piece to the massive inflatable caricature of her on the side of the stage.
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But to witness the magic of Ice Spice is to be privy to it in real-time. Over the past few years, Spice has faced every criticism imaginable: Songs too short, monotone flow, an excess of scat references. What she brought to her live show at the Palladium was palpability, a tangible star power that, while admittedly in development, is present and powerful.
Spice’s regression to the safest corners of drill music on her recently released debut album “Y2K!” felt like a defense mechanism to all the critiques. Since she started gaining traction on social media, she proved her propensity for adapting drill to shiny radio-ready singles with Taylor Swift and PinkPantheress. The promise of pop stardom hung in the balance of “Y2K!” Would she go pop, or not?
She altogether didn’t, but that didn’t matter during her Palladium set. “Rap bitch on a pop chart,” she sneered on “Phat Butt” near the beginning of her show. That was the motto for the evening, in which Spice was in full command of her craft and crowd, an aspiring pop star with the raw tools to achieve it. During the 50-minute performance, she exuded pop savvy, from the choreography of “Barbie World” to the freneticism of “Deli.” The banter was almost altogether kept to a minimum — a smile peeked out here and there — but the focus was on doing the most, and with intent.
The hits were aplenty, spanning “In Ha Mood” and “Princess Diana” to “Gimme a Light” and, yes, “Think U the Shit (Fart).” There was certainly whiplash, as most songs lasted a minute or two at a time, but she somehow kept the momentum going, bringing out a handful of guests to fill in the gaps. Gunna emerged to duet on “Bitch I’m Packin'” and give a quick taste of his hit “Fukumean,” while Bktherula held court for a few solo songs. Cash Cobain, who’s opening on the tour, came out near the end to duet on the remix to “Fisherrr,” a sorely missed opportunity for Song of Summer.
But Spice held the spotlight, as those magnetic early viral moments promised. It’s difficult for an artist to define their identity in lockstep with their sudden rise to fame, but Spice seems to have handled it with a knowingness, as if it’s all part of a master plan. At the Palladium, Spice was a pop star in practice, able to meet the task at hand but with a clear ambition to supersize it.
