At this point of Gucci Mane's career and the hundreds (probably thousands) of songs he's released in the past decade, there's probably enough material from his slang and colorful punch lines to create a dialect and subculture. His first single, "So Icey", has grown into an adjective for all things fresh, at least in Baltimore. Got some exclusives shoes? "Them bitches icey." Heard a new beat that's fire? "Damn, that beat icey." If you're icey, you're doing something right.
A rapper that I just found out about from a friend took that into consideration when naming himself; Baltimore's Icey Mike is an offspring of Gucci Mane's playful and boastful vocal aesthetic, and at times, a refreshing rewind back to the LimeWire days of the internet where finding random lo-fi offerings from rappers who tagged their music with phrases associated with popular artists was a regular occurrence. That's not a diss, though; it's more of a thank you. The bulk of Icey Mike's In The Snow tape is like a hybrid of Chicken Talk-era Gucci Mane and the early 90's horror core that Three 6 Mafia was releasing. His random metaphors about how high he gets is the Guwop side while the choppy flow over dirty, muffled production can be attributed to early Lord Infamous and Koopsta Knicca -- all of whom were huge influences on Baltimore culture in the late 90's to the mid 2000's.
In The Snow doesn't escape too many rap conventions, as most of the tracks detail his preferred ways of getting high, women and steering clear of flutes (lames) but it's the playfulness in his delivery that makes things interesting. He tries his hand at singing on "Bent Behind Tent" where him being off-key is actually a plus. On "6 AM," he wakes up, gets fucked up and heads to the studio. And although getting into lyrical pockets doesn't come consistently, he occasionally finds zones. On "Icey Avalanche", he flows: "You know I' bent behind tint, smelling like a pound of kush and Reggie Bush is your scent/ I'm 'bout to be major, Bitch I'm balling just like I'm Peja/ Stojakovic, I gotta get rich so I can ball on my haters."
With a Twitter account that hasn't been updated since the tape dropped on October 21st and a private Instagram profile, it's unclear on what Icey Mike has to come but his contribution to what feels like a sub genre of Gucci-esque raps is proper music to vibe to. Stream In The Snow below: