Did Ice Spice finish school? Rapper's educational qualifications explored

Ice Spice is currently one of the fastest-growing artists in the industry, with chart-busters like Munch (Feeling' U), Bikini Bottom, and collaborations with juggernauts like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and others. However, before exploding to fame, she had to struggle incessantly before getting her first break straight out of college.

Ice Spice (born Isis Naija Gaston) finished school at Sacred Heart and enrolled in the State University of New York. However, the rapper never finished college and left in her sophomore year.

After dropping out of college, she had to shoulder the responsibility of her siblings as their financial condition wasn't the best. Therefore, the rapper had to pick up odd jobs at The Gap and The Wendy's to sustain her livelihood.

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How was Ice Spice's childhood? Rapper's early life explored

Born on the first day of the 21st century, Ice Spice's parents got divorced when she was a little girl of two. The rapper was the eldest of five siblings and was of African-American ethnicity.

Her mother worked in a car dealership and was just 17 when she gave birth to the rapper. Meanwhile, her father was an underground rapper and was the first person to introduce his eldest daughter to the tunes of hip-hop stars like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan.

After her parents' divorce, she spent most of her childhood with her grandparents and enrolled in Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers. It was at this time that the Bikini Bottom singer developed an interest in hip-hop music and rap.

In a November 2023 interview with Billboard, Ice Spice explained how she would try to memorize the lyrics of raps by Nicki Minaj and Lil' Kim by writing the lyrics down in the Notes app of her phone and reciting them incessantly.

It was at this time that she had started writing her own poetries and raps.

"When I saw Nicki [Minaj], I was so mesmerized. She's the first female rapper that I seen. And ever since then, I was kinda set on what I wanted to be," commented the rapper in a 2022 interview with XXL Magazine.

After high school came college and the rapper got into the State University of New York at Purchase to study communications. She was also a volleyball specialist in her college team and scored nine digs and two kills in her first season.

However, college wasn't the thing she wanted to do and the rapper dropped out of the State University of New York in the first year itself.

“I left because I felt like I was in the wrong place,” explained the rapper in the XXL Magazine interview in 2022.

Additionally, she blamed the stressful commute from home to college as one of the major reasons for dropping out.

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Ice Spice's rise in the industry, explained

Ice Spice got her first break when she met RiotUSA in 2021, who also produced her first song called Bully Freestyle. It was also at this time that the rapper's Buss It challenge went viral on X and she became a social media celebrity.

Her biggest break came when Drake played her 2022 song Munch (Feelin' U) on Sound 42. The song went on to become the rapper's first musical number to enter Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts.

The meteoric rise continued for the 24-year-old as she collaborated with Lil Tjay, PinkPantheress, Nicki Minaj, and even Taylor Swift. However, her most successful collaboration was with Taylor Swift for a remix version of Karma which was released on May 26, 2023.

The musical number clinched the second spot on Billboard's Hot 100 list at its peak, making Ice Spice the artist with the most top-five singles in the Billboard Hot 100 list in 2023.

At present, Ice Spice is all set to release her upcoming album Y2K on July 26, 2024.