Digital art senior JaCouree’ Bunn, better known to his fans as “Ice,” released his second project, “Wicked 6,” on Monday.
Ice, 21, writes his own music. Though he started making music six years ago, he did not begin performing live until three years ago. Last semester, he performed in front of his largest crowd of about 50 people in the LSU Student Union.
“When I was in tenth grade, [that’s when I knew] I just had it. I had what you need. I started free-styling first,” Ice said. “I got with my group Almighty, and ever since then, I knew what I wanted to do.”
Since “Wicked 6” was released on Halloween, he has been excited for people to hear it.
“It stands for the wicked world that we live in, and what I was trying to do for the project was give people the sounds of the world… so I did a lot of trap beats for the project, but I still stuck to my hard-core lyricism,” Ice said.
Ice said he recorded the beats using the form of a traditional mix tape, incorporating such artists as J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Young Thug and Future, while also throwing in some jazz beats to spice it up.
Citing his two main influences as Eminem and Lil Wayne, Ice also credited Childish Gambino, Ab Soul and Yelawolf as contributing to his style.
Regarding his music taste, Ice said, for the most part, all music inspires him, but he first fell in love with “the old-school, Motown hits.” He calls himself a “technical rapper.”
“I care about flow, metaphors and cadence. I care about what goes into my lyrics. It’s not like what you hear now… People don’t really care about lyrics anymore. I would say my music is lyric-driven,” he said. “My music has soul. It has a message.”
Ice said he wanted his “next 16 bars to be better than [his] last 16 bars.” His next project, entitled “Summer Solstice,” is scheduled to release on the first day of the summer solstice.
“My next plans would be to find as many show opportunities as I can, hit the streets as much as I can, interact with people, show them that I am the best that Baton Rouge has to offer right now lyrically and musically, and just show them what Almighty has for the South,” Ice said.