Bronx-born rapper Ice Spice has become one of the rising music acts to watch in 2023. The 10K Projects/Capitol recording artist dropped her debut extended play Like..? on January 20.
Where is the 6-track Like..? expected to launch on next week’s Billboard 200 album chart? According to HitsDailyDouble, Ice Spice will likely fall short of cracking the Top 20 region.
Ice Spice’s Like..? is on pace to open with around 14,500 first-week units. That total probably will not be enough to surpass releases like SZA’s 2017 LP Ctrl (17,600 projected units) or Lil Baby’s 2020 LP My Turn (17,800 projected units).
Like..? hosts the “Munch (Feelin’ U),” “Bikini Bottom,” and “In Ha Mood” singles. Fellow New Yorker Lil Tjay is the only guest feature on the EP. Lil Tjay appears on the record titled “Gangsta Boo.”
“I made the song, and then I was just thinking who I would hear on it really. But I wanted it to be a real genuine collab,” said Ice Spice about “Gangsta Boo” featuring Lil Tjay. “We’ve been friends since last year, so I was just like, ‘Yeah, who better than him?’”
Ice Spice scored her first Billboard charts entry with “Munch (Feelin’ U).” The song earned spots on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 (#5), Rhythmic Airplay (#28), nd Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (#34) rankings in 2022.
“Munch (Feelin’ U)” has amassed 40 million streams on Spotify. The song’s music video collected 26 million views on YouTube. “Bikini Bottom” and “In Ha Mood” collected an additional 23 million Spotify plays.
SZA’s SOS (133,000 projected units) is expected to remain at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a monumental seventh consecutive week. Ice Spice’s 10K Projects labelmate, Trippie Redd, should secure his seventh Top 10 project with the Mansion Musik album (55,000 projected units).