Ice Spice has been excitedly teasing her new single “Gimmie a Light” for weeks now, but the Bronx rap star was battling a case of the nerves while making of the song.
During an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe ahead of the track’s release on Friday (May 10), Ice Spice admitted that she was “nervous” about sampling Sean Paul’s 2002 hit “Gimme the Light.”
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“I was really nervous because we really wanted to have a very authentic Y2K sample in there, and Sean Paul, he’s legendary,” she said.
“And that song alone, his ‘Gimme the Light,’ is so iconic that I was so nervous to sample it, because I’m like, ‘This isn’t going to get cleared, so what’s the point?'”
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Spice remembered feeling a sense of relief when her sample clearance request was approved and praised the dancehall legend for being receptive to her homage.
“Thankfully we got it cleared. Shouts to Sean Paul. He’s so real,” she added.
“Gimmie a Light” is the latest offering from Ice Spice’s eagerly awaited debut album Y2K, which will serve as her second full-length release following last year’s Like..? EP.
The previous single “Think U the Shit (Fart)” has only further cemented the 24-year-old as a hitmaker, cracking the top 20 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart while amassing over 25 million plays on YouTube alone.
Named after both her birth year and the turn-of-the-millennium computer programming scare, Y2K is expected to be released later this year.
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Shedding further light on the inspiration behind the title, Ice Spice told Zane Lowe: “Thankfully, I had my mom, so growing up I’d see her really embody the Y2K aesthetic in its truest form.
“[To me, the aesthetic is] duck nails. It’s a tramp stamp. It’s brown lip liner no matter where you go. So thankfully I had her [my mom] as my inspo growing up. And of course just like the internet, you feel me? Just like anyone else.”
