Ice Spice has shared her love for Kendrick Lamar’sTo Pimp a Butterfly, a revelation that has caught many fans by surprise.
In an interview with Elle as part of their “Ask Me Anything” series, the Bronx rap star revealed she had K. Dot’s third album in heavy rotation when she was growing up and would listen to it “every day” on her way to school.
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“I was listening to To Pimp A Butterfly religiously on the way to school. It was like a phase,” Spice said when asked about which album she has on repeat, also naming Azealia Banks’Fantasea and Nicki Minaj’sThe Pinkprint.
Considering the contrast between Kendrick’s heady, jazz and funk-influenced album and Spice’s short but sassy drill hits, many fans were taken aback by her answer and flocked to social media to share their reactions.
“Never in life would I believe Ice Spice was a fan of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar if she never admitted it,” one person tweeted, while another wrote: “she doesn’t make music like someone who has listened to TPAB.”
Her comments also spawned plenty of tweets sarcastically comparing the two rappers.
“I was saying this to my friend when Munch first dropped. I said, I said if her pen don’t remind you of Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst then you don’t know music! Glad to be proven right in the end,” one fan joked.
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To Pimp a Butterfly was released in March 2015 when Ice Spice (who was born in January 2000) was just 15 years old. The album was both a critical and commercial smash, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after moving 324,000 units in its first week.
Featuring collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Rapsody, Bilal, Ronald Isley, Thundercat and more, the project won Best Rap Album at the 2016 Grammys and was crowned Album of the Year by HipHopDX.
Ice Spice, meanwhile, released her debut project Like..? earlier this month. The six-track EP contains her breakout hit “Munch (Feelin’ U)” along with the SpongeBob SquarePants-inspired “Bikini Bottom” and Diddy-sampling “Gangsta Boo” featuring fellow Bronx hitmaker Lil Tjay.
According to HITS Daily Double, Like..? is on pace to open with around 14,500 first-week units, likely falling short of cracking the top 20 on the Billboard 200. Ice Spice has already seen success on the singles charts, though, with “Munch (Feelin’ U)” peaking at No. 5 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 and No. 34 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
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Further illustrating the difference her and Kendrick Lamar’s creative processes, Ice Spice revealed in a recent interview with The New York Times that her lyrics are inspired by social media captions.
“I like to hear catchy stuff and I always be thinking like, ‘Damn, what should I caption this?’ So I just started coming up with mad captions,” she said of her approach to songwriting.
