Who is Joseph Gaston? Ice Spice's father denies Cleotrapa's Hispanic claims, reveals taking Nigerian ancestry test

Rapper and influencer Cleotrapa claimed during one of her six-part TikTok series that Ice Spice’s father Joseph Gaston does not have Nigerian ancestry but rather is Hispanic. In her September 3 rant, she also claimed that the Deli hitmaker has been lying about her father’s ethnicity all this time.

Joseph Gaston soon caught the wind of the matter and responded directly to Cleotrapa, while setting the record straight.

“@iamcleotrapa we met twice in the green room. We barely spoke, who said I’m Hispanic?” he wrote on X.

In a follow-up post, he went on to add:

“Ken I’m gonna dead this right here. I’m a Black man. Born and raised in the BX [Bronx]. Keep me out this bullsh*t.”

In response to other netizens who were asking for proof of his ancestry, Ice Spice’s father further claimed that he had taken an “ancestry test” in the past. Gaston mentioned that he was “30 %” Nigerian and had other African heritage, including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, and Taino. While he stood by his Black ancestry, he acknowledged having Latino family members as well.

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All you need to know about Ice Spice’s father

Rapper Ice Spice, born Isis Naija Gaston in January 2000, grew up in the Bronx, New York City. She is the oldest of five siblings. Her father was an underground rapper, and her mother, of Dominican descent, was a car dealer. Her parents divorced when she was two years old.

Ice Spice has attributed her music career to her father and said that her now-realtor father helped her discover artists like Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Wu-Tang Clan, and Jadakiss among others. During a 2023 interview with Paper Magazine, Ice Spice noted:

“He definitely inspired me to want to record. I remember being in the studio with him. I was a toddler, probably. And I remember little flashes. Of course, not every detail, but small things like that being shown to you at such a young age make an impression on you.”

The Grammy nominee continued by saying:

"Subconsciously, I ended up becoming an artist because I saw my father be one first. He's a music lover himself. He's a true hip-hop head, beyond me, honestly. He knows everything. He's always educating me on hip-hop and sh*t like that.”

In another conversation with Interview Magazine in December 2022, Spice mentioned how she was the “way” she was because of her parents. She called her father “leveled,” while calling her mother “a little crazy” who gave her “sister vibes.” Elsewhere in the interview, the Did It First rapper noted how she was close to both of them, was “grateful,” and called them a “perfect combination.”

During the same session, the Nicki Minaj collaborator shared how her father encouraged her to embrace her “natural hair” and “get past” her insecurities surrounding them, by calling her curls “beautiful.”

Ice Spice also told Variety during a September 2023 chat that her father was a “private person,” and refused to give away his former stage name. Around the same time, the New Jersey resident also told Cosmopolitan that her early memories of her father were “freestyling all the time in the house,” claiming that it eventually “inspired” her to follow in his footsteps.

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Ice Spice has been feuding with former friend and fellow rapper Cleotrapa recently while also headlining her 2024 Y2K! World Tour, with the latter accusing the former of treating her poorly during the ongoing tour. However, Ice Spice and her team have since refuted the allegations.